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.*
I agree, but you're meme implies that using the term at all makes you racist
The equivalent of this meme would be someone calling you a racist the very first time you ever used the term "gyped". You yourself stated you didn't know that term had racist history, so how could you have been racist?
It's a different situation when someone has knowledge of history and then goes on to use the term. That's textbook bigotry and I would agree that's also racsim, but you're casting a much wider net with this meme encompassing everyone who uses the term knowledgable or not
You can be part of systemic racism and not know it. It still affects the other person even if you didn't intend it to.
We live in a society. It's not a personal failing if you were racist and didn't know it. But I think it is a responsibility to try and change for the better, just like in all aspects of life.
My friend, it is a meme. The format doesn't lend well to longform explanation. Why are you choosing to come after me for that, when there are people in this very thread saying that they'll use it regardless?
I tried to answer this with my first comment
I hope I'm not coming off agressive or nothing. I'm not saying what you're doing is entirely wrong or anything because it benefits everyone to spread knowledge especially for something like this. I really dislike that it's made normal in Linux circles. But this meme is calling everyone that uses a fairly common term racist while you drop good history lessons on individual comments of people that don't know better. Maybe there's a more effective way to get your point across?
That's fair, I'm sorry if I came across standoffish. This is a meme community though, and a simplified meme wasn't going to be able to convey that full meaning, which is why I brought it up in the comments. Maybe I shoulda dropped it in the text section but I was just frustrated with my friend and wanted to vent a bit of steam. I can go add some stuff to the post.