A borderline racial slur about making things look good without substance behind the appearance: e.g.: "riced-up Honda civic"
I'm sure op didn't mean it as a racial slur. The word might have a history but it means something entirely different today, at least in this context.
I agree, but it should still be retired regardless of intended usage - history matters; we don't have to mistakenly other people to show off cool screenshots
It's "rice" because it's asian; it's a derogatory term used towards people and their cars. When I was younger, this term was used against asian drivers and their asian cars - and it was not a compliment.
Looking at Urban Dictionary I see no mention of this anti-asian side of it, but it was there when I was growing up. Maybe others can chime in with their experience, I imagine it wasn't the same everywhere.
Not implying the people using it here are being racist, I don't think they are aware of what I'm recalling here.
The Wikipedia article says it’s derived from the term “rice burner” and talks about the history of the term.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner
I can say I first heard the term about 20 years ago about cars with unnecessary decals and accessories, and it definitely had a racist connotation then.
I certainly wouldn’t use the term myself and I cringe when people use it here.
Think of the movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. It's used to describe unnecessary modifications to a street racer (led lights, decals, etc...) that was mockingly called "ricing" because it was prevalent in the asian street racing communities. (rice eaters...har har har...)
I thought I was the only one who cringed whenever I heard that word. But this thread is making me realize I'm not crazy.
to "rice" a system you are often changing a lot of "dot files", hidden configuration files on your system which begin with a period in the name. having a bunch of dots (like rice) is descriptive but also can be a reference to a racist term used about tuning asian vehicles.
when linux users use it they're usually just referring to a bunch of altered configuration files which are generally dot files. thus, a rice. but im not sure the term would exist if the racist term hadn't already.
im not sure the term would exist if the racist term hadn’t already.
It definitely wouldn't. That's not really a term that occurs "organically" in computer language. "Rice" has nothing to do with computers, so it would have had to come from somewhere else.
