this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Unixporn

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Unixporn

Submit screenshots of all your *NIX desktops, themes, and nifty configurations, or submit anything else that will make themers happy. Maybe a server running on an Amiga, or a Thinkpad signed by Bjarne Stroustrup? Show the world how pretty your computer can be!

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Hey, we should all really stop using racist slang to refer to customozation (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by blashork@hexbear.net to c/unixporn@lemmy.ml
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Meta post I've decided to make. I enjoyed the unixporn subreddit a lot when I used reddit more. I enjoy customizing my linux de as much as the next nerd.

But you definitely shouldn't use racist slang to refer to the process.

To be clear, I didn't know the origin of the term 'ricing' until fairly recently. I was chattimg with my friend and used it to describe my de setup. They informed me that apparently it's from car customization, and is a pejorative against generally asian men who customize their car to look like a racecar.

After learning this I was sad to realize just how engrained it is in linux de customization culture. I personally have stopped using the term, and I would ask everyone here stop as well.

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[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Actually it's from the 1970s. And yes you are right, it's pejorative, and implies a particular ethnicity. Which is why it's racist. You could say it's a clunker for example, no ethnicity implied.

Imagine that you are blue. And we start associating blueberries, they happen to be the national dish of the blue ethnic group, with shit. And people start calling things they think are shit or not good "blueberries", do you not think you would feel targeted? No one said "blue is shit", but the coding is obvious to anyone with more than a half neuron.

[–] Crozekiel@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Clunker really doesn't come close to the cars it referenced though. Not trying to defend it's use, I understand what everyone is talking about here. There really is no good replacement word though, which is frustrating. Like, that entire era of car culture came and went before many of us involved knew the word was racist (or at least before we were mature enough to care).

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I know clunker isn't sepcific enough, I was oversimplying for the sake of explaination. The crazy thing about language is that you can use multiple words together to describe complex concepts. Who'd have thunk!

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

That's true, but we are lazy Americans - if we can't describe something with two syllables or a 4 letter acronym, we give up (or apparently come up with something racist to refer to it instead...)

For the record, I'm not arguing against your points or trying to defend the words use.