# Rice-burner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 2, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381 "2011-10-02T22:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/21 "2011-10-03T21:01:11Z")
To be fair, Crazy Horse was an actual person. One doesn’t have to be Jewish to want a username like “Maimonides”, or Muslim to desire “Avveroes”. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/22 "2011-10-03T21:33:03Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > So, when somebody else uses a term that some people may find offensive, they have to answer for it? However when you use something that some people may find offensive it is okay? Not at all. I said it was a stupid analogy to compare the reason someone might be offended at my choosing a Native American folk hero as my username and the reason someone might be offended by a slur like rice-burner. > [@gamerunknown](#): > > To be fair, Crazy Horse was an actual person. One doesn’t have to be Jewish to want a username like “Maimonides”, or Muslim to desire “Avveroes”. Exactly. If a Native American were offended by my choice of username I would certainly listen and try to understand why, but I have no reason to think that anyone logically should anymore so than any other name of any other folk hero/legend type person. But if I called a car built on a reservation a “maize-burner” I would understand exactly where they were coming from if someone took offense by it. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/23 "2011-10-03T22:18:38Z")
I love my 82 Suzuki and my 85 Honda! I embrace Rice burner, at least me bike runs reliably, doesn’t leak oil everywhere, or shake you arms out of their sockets when you try to ride it:) The Tea Partiers can keep their Hardly Ablesons 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/24 "2011-10-03T23:40:13Z")
I’d love it if someone could explain to me how the bumper sticker “Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki: from the people who brought you Pearl Harbor” is racist. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/25 "2011-10-04T01:39:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki: from the people who brought you Pearl Harbor" is racist. Because it de-individuates the inhabitants of the country, meaning there are no longer people capable of creativity or cruelty, but one big amorphous blob personified by the “rice-burner”. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/26 "2011-10-04T05:04:40Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > I love my 82 Suzuki and my 85 Honda! I embrace Rice burner, at least me bike runs reliably, doesn’t leak oil everywhere, or shake you arms out of their sockets when you try to ride it:) > > The Tea Partiers can keep their Hardly Ablesons 😉 Hold up there, just a dang minute. :mad: I’ll concede that ‘rice burners’ are, for the most part, fairly trouble free and reliable. (I had a '76 Honda CB125 myself, when I was a teenager. Ran like a ‘Singer sewing machine’ till I burned a hole thru the top of the piston (literally!) after about 30k miles.) But I think your accusations about Harley Davidsons are unfounded and unfair, to say the least. I have a '94 Road King with over 45k miles, that cranks up **every** time I hit the starter button, doesn’t leak a drop of oil, and doesn’t “shake you arms out of their sockets”. Besides the fact that it’s a great “p#$$y magnet”! 😉 (How often do _ **you** _ have women you’ve never met before, begging for a ride on _ **your** _ motorcycle? Hmmmm?) And another thing, where do you get the idea that ‘Tea Partier’ = Harley rider?!:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/27 "2011-10-04T06:27:26Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > Because it de-individuates the inhabitants of the country, meaning there are no longer people capable of creativity or cruelty, but one big amorphous blob personified by the “rice-burner”. Huh? Is that a whoosh? They are bikes made in Japan, the country that attacked Pearl Harbor. How is that racist in and of itself? If we said “BMW, from the country that brought you Aushwitz” would that be racist? ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/28 "2011-10-04T07:00:53Z")
> [@](#): > > “BMW, from the country that brought you Aushwitz” would that be racist? You’ve shifted the goalposts. The statement would count as xenophobic because it is rejecting foreign imports based on something that occurred 60 years in the past. The difference with saying that “Honda’s **people** brought you Pearl Harbour” is that they obviously don’t think that the bikes were designed by World War 2 pilots, but they believe in some kind of defining character for the whole race that motivated both events. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/29 "2011-10-04T07:07:56Z")
There are German motorbikes as well that don’t attract criticism according to Crazyhorse, so presumably the rationale of attaching national defects to bikes is selective (so no “Harley Davidson from the people that managed to kill more civilians in one attack than 49 9/11s in a row”, or “Triumph: from the people that brought you the Amritsar massacre”). ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/30 "2011-10-05T19:48:20Z")
“Rice burner” for a motorcycle doesn’t make sense, anyway. It’s not like they’re running on grain alcohol - they use gasoline, just like American bikes and autos. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/31 "2011-10-06T06:15:14Z")
The term ‘rice’ is also used as an insulting description of a style of car customization. The Fast and the Furious movie series is built around the culture of cars that are ‘riced out.’ For an example of usage, a guy might tell a friend “your ride is getting a little ricey with that new sticker.” The term rice burner may have emerged as a racist insult but it is now an insult of style, attacking imported cars that are too heavily modified to mimic race cars. There are modifications to this as well. A modified Mustang with a big rear deck spoiler and a few cosmetic changes can be labeled ‘domestic rice’ and a modified VW GTI can be described as ‘German rice’ if either car is overly changed from stock appearance. The driver of a modified Honda Civic may be mocked and referred to as a ricer. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/32 "2011-10-06T18:49:44Z")
Yeah, the term is used here also for a car that is tricked out in some way, sometimes even if it isn’t Japanese. “Ricer” for short. ---
**Author:** ![Beast\_Model](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Beast\_Model](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beast_Model)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/33 "2011-10-13T02:19:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Sometimes right-wing patriotism is expressed through the contempt most Harley riders feel for Japanese motorcycles. The “buy American” creed translates into both concern for American workers and personal fear of unemployment. “Jap crap”, the term used most frequently after “rice rocket” and “rice burner”, to describe Japanese bikes, has both personal and political overtones. At large rallies, Honda-bashing can be pretty common. Everything from bad-mouthing to literal bashing takes place. There have been Honda drops, burials, and smashings. Hauling the bikes by crane high into the sky and letting them drop is one kind of entertainment. At one rally, everyone paid a buck to whack a Honda with a sledgehammer. It was a popular event. Anger over the Japanese-made Harley lookalikes is also intense. Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha all make Harley knockoffs. These bikes have started encroaching upon Milwaukee’s market. The imitations are all big bikes with the characteristic Harley V-Twin engine look. > > To Harley riders, nothing sounds, feels, rides, or performs like a real Harley, and the Japanese knockoffs just add fuel to the already burning fire of Harley chauvinism. The fact that the Japanese bikes have been known to outperform, outlast, and out-ride Harleys, while costing only a fraction of the price, is irrelevant. Harley loyalty transcends these boundaries. In this area, Harley loyalty reinforces ideals of patriotism. The biker is buying American. > > Racism expressed in Japanese bike bashing has made popular the bumper sticker that reads “Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, from the People Who Brought You Pearl Harbor.” It is clear the racism is in operation, because British, Italian and German bikes are never trashed. When was that written, 1977? What a moronic piece of half truths and hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381/34 "2011-10-13T22:01:47Z")
> [@Beast\_Model](#): > > When was that written, 1977? Is Google not within your reach? I cited the name of the book. But it was 2001, about a year newer than the column under discussion. > [@Beast\_Model](#): > > What a moronic piece of half truths and hyperbole. Thanks for the book review, but it was cited here only to illustrate another perspective on the mentality behind the phrase rice-burner. Since then, discussion of the etymology has pretty much proven that. Regardless of one’s intention when using it currently it is a slur. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rice-burner/598381.md?page=1)