The message may not have yet reached the likes of Jill Biden or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or woke corporations such as Amazon or woke private schools, but an increasing number of Democratic politicians and liberal and progressive commentators have acknowledged that the effort to impose the gender-neutral term “Latinx” on Americans of Hispanic heritage has been a colossal failure of public persuasion. The term reeks of condescending academia, is hard to pronounce, and runs contrary to the entire gendered structure of the Spanish language. Democratic Hispanic groups have been discussing abandoning the term because it alienates non-transgender Hispanic voters (which is to say, the vast majority of them). That debate has broken into the open.
Even online progressives are broaching the topic. Earlier this month, Michael Sokolove in the New Republic wrote that, “It’s confusing, even (or especially) to Latinos. It is a term hatched in academia and adopted by the left that doesn’t play on the street. Politically, it’s a net minus . . . a symptom of a broader problem — an inability to connect at gut level. When voters say they feel Democrats are talking over their heads, they’re not wrong.” On Sunday, even Salon published an article by Melissa Ochoa entitled “Stop using ‘Latinx’ if you really want to be inclusive.”
In July 2022, Argentina and Spain released public statements banning the use of Latinx, or any gender-neutral variant. Both governments reasoned that these new terms are violations of the rules of the Spanish language. Latinx is used as an individual identity for those who are gender-nonconforming, and it can also describe an entire population without using “Latinos,” which is currently the default in Spanish for a group of men and women. As a Mexican-born, U.S.-raised scholar, I agree with the official Argentine and Spanish stance on banning Latinx from the Spanish language — English, too…
The distinct demographic differences of those who are aware of or use Latinx calls into question whether the term is inclusive or just elitist. Individuals who self-identiy as Latinx or are aware of the term are most likely to be U.S.-born, young adults from 18 to 29 years old. They are predominately English-speakers and have some college education. In other words, the most marginalized communities do not use Latinx. Scholars, in my view, should never impose social identities onto groups that do not self-identify that way. I once had a reviewer for an academic journal article I submitted about women’s experiences with catcalling tell me to replace my use of “Latino” and “Latina” with “Latinx.” However, they had no issue with me using “man” or “woman” when it came to my white participants.
Ochoa argues for “Latine,” which, on the page, still looks uncomfortably close to “latrine,” and it is still a rearguard effort against reality. But the fact that this sort of thing is being published in places such as Salon and the New Republic shows that progressives know they’re not winning this one.