this post was submitted on 08 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!

Rules

  1. Post On-Topic
  2. No Defaults
  3. Busy Screenshots
  4. Use High-Quality Images
  5. Include a Details Comment
  6. No NSFW
  7. No Racism or use of racist terms

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
  • Distro: arch
  • Wm: sway
  • Terminal: alacritty
  • Bar: waybar
  • Launcher: rofi
  • Prompt: starship
  • Shell: zsh

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[–] Teraflip@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's nothing inherently racist about using the term in the context of customizing a desktop.

[–] triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

this is the kind of thinking that gave us names like "pcmasterrace". words mean things, their origins matter

[–] PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the original ricers were Japanese cars (early 80s), then from there rice came to mean cars with Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements (90s) + from there we get rice'd out desktops (which is new to me but whatever).

I am not as sure a rice desktop png is racist but if you feel like the term is opressing you or holding you back, could you consider opportunities to reclaim what is a good word (who doesn't like rice?) and use it for positive cultural elements (modded desktops)? I don't want to cede a good word to uninformed peoples from 40 yrs ago...history is too short to let them win!

[–] triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

evidence points to "Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements" being a "backronym", an abbreviation that was invented after the word was already in usage – have you ever heard anyone calling an american or european car a "rice"?

anyway, happily the c/unixporn moderator didn't agree that it's possible for people not targeted by a racist term to reclaim it for themselves, and that it's not the responsibility of folks pointing out a word's bigoted history to find an alternative, and racist terminology is now banned 😌

[–] triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

sadly of course "pcmasterrace" went the other direction, polling a bunch of self-selected edgelords about the name went about as expected

[–] PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Yes - today, rice refers to anything heavily customized for cosmetics.