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.*
Calling the term "rice" in connection to focusing on aesthetics over preformance racist just seems insane to me. There are objectly racist uses of the word rice to harm Asians. However when 99% of the community never even correlated this useage of the word to anything derogatory twords asians, and even use it positivly when someone genuinely likes JDM or overbuilt cars, the word stops being racist
You cant claim racist undertones to a word when people don't corelate that word whatsoever to anything derogatory twords Asians. The modern use of the word spoke about a car that looked like a racecar but didn't have the preformance of one, making it "ugly", and then branched to become a positive term when talking about putting lots of efforts into the aesthetic of something
The evolution of the word is not a moral failing but a redirection from a derogatory borderline slur to a word that captures the idea of "looks over preformance"
*Taps the sign.*
Reading through your responses it seems you really dont give a fuck about actually having discussion. Your view is right and everyone else is wrong, because of the simple fact "racism bad"
Theres no reason to ever redirect a racist phrase into something positive and completely seperated from its racist past, dispite the community at large already doing that. Words cannot change or evolve, and any word with even an inkling of negativity should be banned from ever being spoken (/s). I specifically called out that rice can be used in a racist and as a borderline slur, but that the modern useage of the word is painfully obviously removed from that connotation: considering the massive amount of people under this post also claiming they have never used, or even knew, the word could at all relate to degrading asians.
Oh and since you've responded often rejecting opinions just because "its a white person claiming its not racist" let me ask you, how many Japanese people (since the old meaning of the word was specifically targeted at the japanese) do you know take genuine offence to the word? Because funnily enough my Japanese friends in the car scene love calling things riced out
BTW, have you actually asked any of your friends about the term? Because plenty of minorities will just play along with slurs because calling it out is hard and results in *gestures broadly* this sort of response. Just like trans people often won't call out when they're deadnamed or misgendered. Or autistic people not calling out when the r-slur is used. It's kind of pretty common.
There is literally a person in this thread who says they're uncomfortable about the usage?