> > Riceboys (many think this is derogatory, but it's not)
>
> Good Shadowfax,
> Associating rice with an asian car that, according Brunnen-G, is usually driven by teenage asian boys makes me think of naming an Irish staple the potato ____. I'd wager that you'd say the term riceboys isn't derogatory because the phrase, in your area, doesn't refer to an asian populace. Playing the devil's advocate for the sake of my curiosity: Why is everyone that thinks the phrase riceboys is derogatory wrong?
>
> Euge'should probably make a joke or two to lighten any un-lightened mood of this e-mail'ne
>
> P.S.
> What did the bagel say to the loaf of bread?
> If I had as much dough as you, think I'd be livin' around this hole?

Riceboys originally came from the term rice burner, which was used by the Harley crowd to describe japanese motorcycles because they used so little fuel it was said they'd run on rice. Then Japan came out with ultra-fuel efficient cars (30mpg in 1980 was impressive. 47mpg in 1988 was astonishing) and the term rice burner was expanded to japanese cars as well.

Brian Hong is the person that came up with the term "rice boy" to describe anyone driving a car with fake racing stuff on it. Initially people were doing this to Civics, CRX's, and Preludes because they were relatively cheap and that's what the highschool/college kids could afford, so people started associating "rice boy" with only japanese cars. Now that people are ricing out cavaliers and mustangs as well as civics, it's a term to refer to anyone driving any car with that lame stuff on it.

It should be noted that Brian Hong is asian, so if riceboy is a racist term, then Hong is racially biased against himself.

You can research this further on www.riceboypage.com. Don't go if you don't like stronger language, though, as he posts letters he receives without editing them.


Oh, and BTW, the vast majority of the riceboys around my area are not asian.