Can't believe I had to have this conversation again today, with someone who should know better. You can't just un-racist a word because it makes you feel bad man.
Edit to add more context:
Rice burner is a pejorative term originally applied to Japanese motorcycles and which later expanded to include Japanese cars or any East Asian-made vehicles. Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.
Riced out is an adjective denigrating a badly customized sports car, "usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments". Rice boy is a US derogatory term for the driver or builder of an import-car hot rod. The terms may disparage cars or car enthusiasts as imposters or wanna-bes, using cheap modifications to imitate the appearance of high performance.
The term is often defined as offensive or racist stereotyping. In some cases, users of the term assert that it is not offensive or racist, or else treat the term as a humorous, mild insult rather than a racial slur.
I'd like you to read this from a guy who's father is from the Philippines. His mother is American. Then have a good think about it. Actually think about it for a day or so.
Palting: (reenlist forums)
*When you call a car a "ricer", you are saying that it is not a nice car, possibly even an atrocious car. I don't believe you will ever hear a statement like "Look at that gorgeous ricer!!" So, in response to the question, is it derogatory, the answer is that the term ricer is most definitely derogatory.
The question then becomes, is it racist? The term "ricer" was coined to denote the cars that were made in Japan or Korea that were subsequently modded and are obnoxious to the observer. You can ask 100 people what car brand comes to mind when you say "ricer" and 100 of them will come up with an Asian brand. Ask those same 100 people what country or race comes to mind, and 100 will say some Asian country. We can safely say that "ricer" would indicate the Asian culture where rice is the staple food. We can define a term racist if the term pertaining to a race or a race's cultural character is considered derogatory. Therefore, the term ricer is most definitely racist.
If, lets say, one of the African nations built a car, would you call it a "******"? The term "ricer" most definitely belongs in the same category as ******, slant-eyes, gook and what have you. Shame on anyone who uses the term and who does not realise it is very definitely racist.
My mother is from the USA, my father is from the Philippines. I was born and raised in the Philippines. I am a Filipino. I am not a "halfer", nor "mestizo", nor anything other than a Filipino national who chose to reside in the US as an American citizen.*
It started out as a pejorative (like a cheap car with cheap mods) but has become a positive term associated with customization and a respect for effort involved regardless of financial resources (sometimes cheaper being more impressive).
So uh... Nah I'm gonna keep saying that. You do you.
*Taps the sign.*
*Taps the sign.*
I think you should look into reclaiming slurs. The once derogatory term now has a positive meaning and that's imo a good thing. Look at the word 'Queer', most people (especially young people) don't know it used to be derogatory, and I don't think people should stop using it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reappropriation
With an obvious albeit obligatory note that if you use a word in a derogatory way that's obviously not ok, if you use it with the compliment definition it's a bit different.
Some reappropriation can be at varying levels in different countries which is why (I assume) it's seen as worse in other countries.
If you are to respond I would request to hear your rebuttal without copy and pasting the same article please.
The claim that "queer" is being reclaimed is easily supported. Not so with OP's term. If you have evidence to the contrary I'll look at it.
Sorry, let me clarify. You can't just un-racist a word, unless you're the targeted group, because it makes you feel bad man. I figured that I didn't need to add that caveat? I've talked about the word Queer in other places in the thread.
ah that kinda makes sense. Can you explain why who's reclaiming a slur makes a difference? I don't really understand why you wouldn't like a positive meaning to a once negative word. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.
I'd reference how "cunty" (used as a compliment) isn't exactly only said by women, but people who are generally seen as 'in the loop'. How come the word referenced in the post isn't treated the same way? I genuinely am asking and find this really interesting.
Also idk if it did but sorry if my message came off as rude before, I was kinda stressed about an advising meeting when I wrote it
I don't really have the spoons to explain it to you. If you aren't the aggrieved party, it's just not reclamation.
I'll start calling it a sleeper now.
A sleeper is something else though, sort of the opposite of a ricer. A sleeper Honda Civic would look largely unmodded but be a monster under the hood. A ricer Honda Civic is gonna have a wing and loud, giant exhaust and other very obvious modifications.
Personally I love a heavily modified Japanese car, and in my experience of car culture, “ricer” has largely been reclaimed by the people who drive them.
I call them chavved out, which is merely classist and not racist.
It's not their term to reclaim unfortunately.
That’s not really how language and culture work. Some words are going to evolve and change whether you think they’re allowed to or not.
Okay, why don't you start using the n-word to mean the colour black and see how many friends that gets you sweetie! 😊💜
Because that’s not really how language and culture work. I don’t get to decide how a word is used any more than you do.
You don't get to have it both ways. Either slurs can shift and be used despite it causing harm, or they can't. Someone's gonna have to be brave and start that semantic shift, it doesn't just spontaneously happen.
If one dumbass decides they think a word should have a different meaning and starts using it, nothing changes.
If an entire subculture shifts their use of a slang term over time, the meaning of that slang term changes. Over time.
Language is not fixed. It evolves. But it also isn’t prescribed (except in cases including but not limited to jargon or technical definitions).
This isn’t a difficult concept.
Wow sweetheart, you're so clever, you get a gold star! 🌟
The word is still used as a pejorative when referencing a car. That hasn't shifted, it's still used specifically to denigrate cars from Japan, Korea and other asian countries.
Sorry -- I think this concept requires thinking about two things at once, and that's going to stump a lot of entry level civilians.
It's not a binary, friend. This is not a strong argument. A better one is that there is no evidence of people reclaiming the slur in this case.
The shift to non-racist usage of "ricing" happened without people intending it to happen or consciously noticing that it happened at all (in the IT context, at least; it seems that the racist connotation persists in the car community at least in part).
A bunch of, mostly white, computer users don't get to decide that a word is no longer racist. That just isn't how slurs work. FWIW, I think that usage also traces to the Hpyrland community, which certainly has its share of issues when it comes to bigotry.
Words' meanings aren't "decided" (particularly not on the basis of someone's race) but established through usage, gradual and largely unconscious change.
I had to google what that is. The first release is from 2022, but I've seen "ricing" in IT context like a decade ago.
Except many slurs have had their usage ended by conscious effort to stop using a term that causes people harm and offence. It's not really that complicated in my opinion.
Ah okay, I hadn't heard it in that context until recently. In any case, the usage came from car modification, which is racist. It's not possible to sever that history.
Honestly, that's a 10/10 idea 🙏