Activists in the mid-2000s coined the term “Latinx” as a gender-inclusive, non-binary way to describe anyone with Hispanic heritage. But According to one study, only 2% of Hispanic voters actually use the term, and almost 40% say it offends them. That might only be surprising to the academics, Hollywood stars, and policymakers who, for some reason, keep using it. Like other Romance languages, gendered language is woven into the fabric of Spanish. That’s why the Royal Spanish Academy so fiercely resisted attempts to incorporate the term into its lexicon. Citing the swing of Hispanic voters away from the Democratic party in 2020, columnist Jamelle Bouie puts it this way, “No message, no matter how strong on the surface, will land if it isn’t attentive to those forces and the other forces that structure the lives of ordinary people.” Terms like Latinx assume a view of the world people don’t actually live in: where “race” is all-consuming, and the daily reality of gender is ignored.
BreakPoint