The Wikipedia definition seems to indicate it has origins as a racist term and I’ve never understood why unix users have adopted this terms instead of something benign like “themes” or “theming” which I remember being in use long before I ever heard “rice”. So what gives? Why use “rice” instead of “theme”?
Being a non-american, I never really liked the term “rice” because it’s not an intuitive term to convey modifying or customizing a system. But I have used it because that’s what the subreddit used to call it. I never thought it might be racist as I never saw anyone use the term in a racist manner - I can’t even understand how it could be racist - outside of this community, rice is just a word for something I eat for most of my meals. But again, I’m not american, so I might be lacking some cultural context - the whole culture war thing kind of escapes me and I’m not up to date on the list of forbidden words.
It came from car enthusiasts. Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements
That’s a retcon FWIW.