<br>nt

I think that most rational people would agree that having a sense of humour and being able to laugh at yourself is a healthy thing.<p>However, there is a case to be made for trying to avoid instilling socially accepted stereotypes. In and of themselves, terms like "rice-rocket", "rice-boy" may not be terribly offensive, but in a way they de-sensitize us (society at large) from recognizing more mean spirited or malicious racial insults for what they really are - Zenophobia.<p>Once you are able to categorize a nation or race or any other group of people under a single label, then it's really easy to have pre-supposed concepts of them as a whole - regardless of whether these concepts happen to be true or not.<p>So it's for this reason that I think it is usually best to avoid unnecessary ratial slurs or connotations. <p>On the other hand, all hardcore humourless militants (no matter the race, cause or persuation) should be lined up against the wall and shot!!!<p>But that's just my opinion... I may be wrong.

Some very good points made, especially about having a sense of humor. However, if I may retort......<p>Firstly, I think you ment "X"enophobia which is a mean spirited or hatred towards those that are not of our kind (ie. strangers). Zenophobia was on "Star Trek, the Next Generation" if I remember right!!! <p>I think to imply that "rice-what-ever" instills a numbness towards our recongnition of true nasty racial insults may be taking it, once again, a little far. This is what I meant originally by everything and anything now becomes tied to racism. The "Rice" tag is now tied to stronger racism style insults, which is completely ridiculous. The whole rice thing is about making your car look fast instead of making it really go fast. There's nothing more to it. So the style has been tagged with a funny name!!! There's no hatred to it. The hatred has been spawned by those who want to make something out of nothing....... those looking for a cause since their life to date has been a waste of precious time. It's about people that want to make a case out of the word rice and a link to their heritage. That's as stupid as what I said about a machine that services people and because the color of the machine matches a skin color, those people are slaves to the masses just as much as the machine is!?!??! <p>Furthermore, it is completely ridiculous to expect everyone to become "politically correct" with what they say. We are talking about a "tag" that applies to anyone and everyone who takes part. It is not a race related "tag".<p>In most other cases, I agree with what you state.<p>Once again, my appologies for venting this topic in this area. I was just a little annoyed.........<p>T-MaN<br>

I was not shooting for political correctness. That's boring. Seems we are arguing from the same side of the issue.... mostly. <p>I think we've worn out this topic. How about we talk about A4's?<p>I still do not have a good idea of which seats are a better choice: the stock or sport? <p>And how about those S4's.... Does anyone have any concrete idea about when they will be in North America? I want, dates, times, colours (sp: colors in US).<br>

And calling someone "colored" is just being descriptive, right? Come on. It's offensive because of a negative connotation in it's use.<p>Yes, there are way too many people with very thin skin, but "Riceboy" is an offensive term. It associates asians with a derogatory term even though the people who use it often say it's meant to describe a condition independent of race.<p>Can't we all just all get along.<p>I propose we use the term "Poser" to describe those that are only into making their cars look fast.<br>