I can’t find any source to indicate Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement was ever a term that existed as anything other than the Japanese version of an N-word-pass.
That is to say: the acronym only exists as a means to explain why I should be allowed to continue calling your car a RICEr.
The problem here is that someone fabricated an explanation for why they should be allowed to continue to say RICE, in response to a fallacious argument for why they shouldn’t be allowed to.
The term is so far removed from any malicious origin, that some people wouldn’t even know they should feel offended, unless someone told them they should be.
“It would be weird to get offended because someone told you to”
Right, but it happens. The post which triggered this reply chain is essentially a litmas test for what I’m describing.
The acronym of RICE was made after the racist connotations were already established. It’s an attempt to rewrite history so people could continue saying it.
It is documented to have come from racial origins in the 1960’s. Yet, I can’t find anything about the acronym from more than twenty years ago.