December 20, 2020

"Where and by whom 'Latinx' is used has helped spur the complaints that it may alienate working-class Latino communities (especially those that speak Spanish)..."

"... or at least fail to reflect their preferences. 'I keep thinking, people who are watching this, do they identify with that term?' asks Richard T. Rodríguez, an associate professor at the University of California at Riverside, of political messaging during the pandemic that has used 'Latinx.' 'The x is jarring, kind of like biting in glass.' (Rodríguez also pointed out that even though 'Latinx' is often used in solidarity with the trans community, a transgender person who has fought for his or her gender identity to be publicly recognized can also be marginalized by the term.) "

From "'Latinx’ hasn’t even caught on among Latinos. It never will. The term is an English-language contrivance, not a real gesture at gender inclusivity" (WaPo). Did the headline writer understand the article? The word "even" doesn't belong. It's the opposite of the point. 

The term is used — as it says in the first paragraph — by "[o]pponents of transphobia and sexism" in  "social media posts, academic papers and workplace Slack chats," "[l]iberal politicians," "[c]ivil rights litigators," "[s]ocial scientists," and [p]ublic health experts." 

The top-rated comment over there — by someone who identifies himself as "a Latino" — is "'Latinx' was created in America by people apparently not happy that Spanish is a gender-specific language. It’s a fake-Spanish word that wasn’t created by and isn’t used by Latinos to describe themselves. It’s a shortcut used to identify a huge and very diverse group of people. That term is offensive and people need to stop using it."

"Latinx" is doomed. The people who are using it seem especially vulnerable to the charge that it's offensive

121 comments:

Wilbur said...

Those with self-described good intentions arrogate to themselves an inordinate amount of power. Their audacity is unlimited.

Marcus Bressler said...

"whom": the word is offensive, it sounds crappy in speech and who cares about grammar? Dictionaries are now routinely changing the definitions of words in favor of Woke interpretation.

THEOLDMAN

The whole idea that the Woke Generation is re-labeling entire groups of people is offensive, arrogant and to be expected today.

Jeff Weimer said...

It depends on who they don't want to offend. Transgenders and their allies are particularly aggressive in enforcing their version of inclusivity.

rhhardin said...

I'm in favor of blondx and brunetx.

What's the plural by the way. Latinices.

rhhardin said...

Whom is my pronoun. Dignity and austerity. There's no reason your pronoun can't be relative.

lgv said...

Well, if it isn't popular in southern California, especially by Lx Angelinx communities, I don't see it remaining in common use.

Greg Hlatky said...

Whatever became of "Chicano"? Perhaps it was that Chicanx didn't sound right.

Greg Hlatky said...

Out: preferred pronouns

In: assigned pronouns

richlb said...

Gretchen, stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

Howard said...

I like Blockx paint. Very high quality.

tim maguire said...

Latinx is the perfect term if your goal is to highlight how artificial, how driven by elite white privilege, wokism is.

Howard said...

Malcolmx couldn't be reached for comment

Bob Boyd said...

Mierdx

Howard said...

My favorite latinx word:Xochimilco

Rob said...

In 21st century America there's no higher honor than to be a victim. Finding something to be offended by is easy once you put your mind to it. But how delightful when the most woke among us are cast as the victimizers. As Joseph Heller wrote in Good as Gold, no good deed goes unpunished.

Bob Boyd said...

Xochimoco

RNB said...

La-teenks?

MayBee said...

The whole pronoun thing is so weird. Language is supposed to make it easier for people to communicate. Why should someone be able to insist someone call him "they"?
I'm happy to call you whatever you present yourself to be. But I shouldn't have to know your life story just to refer to you. I'm under the impression there are barriers put up to feel even more special.

How do you even pronounce "Latinx". I say to myself, "Lateen-X"

MayBee said...

All the word creations are a barrier more than a coming together. Like the dead-naming thing with Elliot Page. We all knew Ellen Page! How can it be that now we have to pretend this person never existed? Why do there have to be rules imagining that she was *always* Elliot?

It doesn't seem like seeking acceptance, it seems like seeking control. Ditto the "Latinx" thing. But then when did white upper middle class activists every *ask* hispanic people what they want? It seems to me they've always just told them what they should want (for example, they should want to come illegally to the US to act as low wage maids and dishwashers, to have their language changed to gender neutral, to blend in with any other group that speaks Spanish because they are other than English speakers, and to vote Democrat)

Retail Lawyer said...

Still, lets hope it remains in use. It identifies the speaker as a fool.

Big Mike said...

But then when did white upper middle class activists every *ask* hispanic people what they want?

They aren’t used to asking. They’re used to telling. But the Hispanic community is composed of prouder people than, e.g., black people and the LGBTQ crowd.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

The same people that denounce white people for making tacos as cultural appropriation came up with the term latinx.

Big Mike said...

@Howard, how can “Xochimilco” count as Latinx when it is obviously of Aztec origin?

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

"Latinx" is doomed. The people who are using it seem especially vulnerable to the charge that it's offensive.

It's simple power politics. Fake outrage in an attempt to silence opponents and project power. Originally the proper term for Black people was Negro. There is still an organization today called the United Negro College Fund, although they simply go by UNCF today. Then that term was deemed offensive, and colored became the preferred term. That's when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed, which of course today is only referred to as the NAACP. The term "colored people" is now deemed racist. (although people of color is acceptable) Then Black became the accepted term, followed by African American.

Hispanics have the whole Chicano, Latino, Hispanic thing to bitch and whine about. The term retarded is a scientific term replacing terms such as imbecile and moron, but now of course, retarded is seen as an insult. Handicapped replaced cripple, which has been replaced with disabled. The whole pronoun debacle.

It's all about me being able to force you to speak and behave the way I want you to. To wear masks the way I demand you to. To stay home, the way I demand you do. To use the power of government to dominate you. In Canada and Great Britain, you can go to jail for something you write on Facebook.

I hate being called a Deplorable, and a racist, fascist etc. I would never desire the government to punish someone for doing so.


Ron Winkleheimer said...

People who are not native Spanish speakers decide that they should make changes to the Spanish language! Of course that is offensive.

Lewis Wetzel said...

There is nothing like a universally agreed opinion on what makes a person hispanic. What the heck is a Latinx? Is there any qualification to being a latinx other than being swarthy, homosexual, and a post-high school edcation?

Gahrie said...

to have their language changed to gender neutral,

Why shouldn't Spanish have to conform to the same rules as English? Do you know what you call a group of mothers waiting for their children after school? Padres. (fathers)

Why does Mexico get away with having Aztec symbiology on their flag? The Aztecs were the NAZIs of Meso-America. The cactus, eagle and snake are worse than the Confederate flag. Everyone else hated them, and helped the Spanish wipe them out. They enslaved the surrounding tribes and slaughtered people by cutting their still beating hearts from their chest on a massive, industrial scale.

Fernandinande said...

"Latino" — is "a shortcut used to identify a huge and very diverse group of people."

So the "Latino" is pretending to be offended by the fact that [Latinx is] a fake-Spanish word

It's a fake English word since we're not speaking Spanish.

Balfegor said...

The people who are using it seem especially vulnerable to the charge that it's offensive.

In theory, yes, but the retort I've seen online has been "Huh, how is 'Latinx' not more inclusive?" And then a refusal to grapple with how the use of an ungrammatical made-up shibboleth could somehow be exclusive. Activists will move away from the term if they are persuaded it's politically unhelpful, but I think that in their heart of hearts they will gnash their teeth at how "transphobic" Americans are.

Bruce Hayden said...

One of the reasons that the Dems are losing the Latinx.

They are trying to build a voting block of very different people. Or peoples. Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Rican, Brazilians, etc. If the Cubans would just get with the program and accept creeping socialism. It is for their benefit, as Latinx. They can, somewhat sell their vision of quasi socialism to the Mexicans, but it is much harder with the Cubans, Nicaraguans, and now Venezuelans. And don’t expect the Mexicans to welcome the illiterate Indians from Central America taking their jobs here.

I think that maybe part of why Latinx is so offensive is that, as pointed out above, Spanish (Portuguese, etc) is a gendered language. Part of what that means is that built into the language is the solution to gender indefiniteness, to situations of mixed, or possibly mixed, genders, and that is to use the masculine. We used to do the same thing, and now stand on our heads not too. Latinx is an Englishized solution to the gendered language “problem” that ends up insulting those whose ancestors spoke that gendered language.

Besides, Latinx is very misdescriptive. Latinx (as well as Latino, Latina, etc) suggests recent ancestors who spoke a language descended from Latin. My partners paternal grandparents were French, and she grew up with French spoken in the household. Would she be a Latina (or Latinx)? Of course not. So, it isn’t just people whose grandparents or so spoke a Romance language. But it isn’t just people whose ancestors spoke Spanish, because the Spanish themselves aren’t considered Latinos.

In short, Latino, Latina, etc is a completely made up category, with little concrete to identify those in it, or to tie those in it together, except hoped for solidarity with Dem party goals, and then the gendered terms identifying the group degendered by being Englishized, when the thing that is supposed to tie the group together is their gendered language.

But the whole thing of tying Dem interest groups together artificially is still ridiculous. The term “Asian” is little better. It tries to throw huge groups of two different races together, and pretend that they are the same, despite many of those different peoples having been at war for centuries, if not millennia. Soldiers from the two largest Asian demographics were actually killing each other a month or two ago, along their common border. At least with Latinx, they are almost all at least tokenly Christian. Asians as a category contain essentially three different religions: Islam, Hindu/Buddhism, and Confucianism/Maoism, with Christianity around the periphery. The Han Chinese are apparently organ harvesting, for the world market, from their restive Muslim population, to pacify them, and make a bit of extra cash on the side. That’s what the Chinese have always done with lesser peoples. And all of a sudden, these ethnic groups are all supposed to make common cause here in the US?

Birkel said...

The pronoun bull shit will never catch on either.
But that doesn't mean it cannot be enforced by TPTB.
And they will try with white collar workers.

But that will work to break away even more of the blue collar and working class from their traditional Democratical party affiliation.
Good.

Fernandinande said...

"Seattle Public Schools recently held a training session for teachers in which American schools were deemed guilty of “spirit murder” against black students. The United States is a “race-based white-supremist society,” the training instructed, and white teachers must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.”"

+

"In the most disturbing portion of the training[sic], the teachers held a discussion about “spirit murder,” which, according to Dr. Bettina Love, is the concept that Americans schools “murder the souls of Black children every day through systemic, institutionalized, anti-Black, state-sanctioned violence.”"

Fernandinande said...

"With the CDC arguing that white men don’t deserve to get vaccinated against Covid because they live so long, it’s worth checking out the CDC’s own statistics, which show that Hispanics [~"Latinos"] live an average of three years longer than whites:"

Temujin said...

Can we now say that 'Zir' is also doomed? I mean, after this current generation gets tired of this bullshit they created, do you think there's actually another generation- ever- that will machinate and follow such gobbledygook?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

There is nothing like a universally agreed opinion on what makes a person hispanic.

If you have a Spanish accent and vote for the Democrat, you are Hispanic. Otherwise you are a Cuban or "white" Hispanic.

Gahrie said...

the teachers held a discussion about “spirit murder,” which, according to Dr. Bettina Love, is the concept that Americans schools “murder the souls of Black children every day through systemic, institutionalized, anti-Black, state-sanctioned violence.”"

The vast majority of Black kids go to schools filled with Black teachers and students, run by Black administrators and Black schoolboards, in cities run by Black politicians. Almost all of whom are Democrats.

boatbuilder said...

First hundred or so times I saw “Latinx” I just assumed it was some pop music group I had never heard of.

Spell check corrects to “Latino”.
Who says I’m old and out of it?

boatbuilder said...

Also Xochimilco would be a good band name.
Not as good as Crazy Horse, but what is?

Unknown said...

globohomo - they need to live UP to our woke standards.

Biden will handle Barry's unfinished business.

If he doesn't misread the teleprompter.

Unknown said...

Rhymes with Stinx ?

William said...

I have read that up to the late 19th century upper middle Catholics in Ireland, including the nationalists like O'Connell, were all in favor of speaking English. Educated people in Ireland spoke English. Gaelic was the language of the poor and the backward. Then the poor learned how to speak English, and the use of English was no longer a mark of refinement and status. I think it was about this time that the educated and refined discovered that the loss of Gaelic was a great crime inflicted on the Irish and started taking up Gaelic again....I'm of Irish descent on my father's side. I've no wish or need to learn Gaelic. So far as I know, all the great classics of Irish literature were written in English. I think they make kids in Ireland study Gaelic, but not many of them use it. Gaelic isn't exactly a dead language but neither is it a healthy and growing one.....There's a lesson here somewhere. I haven't quite figured it out. Try this one: We're taught language and grammar by our betters until such time as our betters determine that the language and grammer they've been teaching us is a great crime.

tcrosse said...

We're taught language and grammar by our betters until such time as our betters determine that the language and grammer they've been teaching us is a great crime.

Cue Ebonics.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The racist white left made it up.

Rory said...

Like French, Spanish is a regulated language. Every Spanish-speaking country has a regulator. They've even been good enough to set up one for Spanish speakers in the United States:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Academies_of_the_Spanish_Language

If a scholar doesn't comply with what they instruct, then the scholars won't get published and won't get teaching positions. Indoctrination of students will proceed in the usual way. Government documents will be made to comply, and the news media and entertainment fields will join in. All Democrats, of course, will comply over the course of a weekend and on Monday morning start targeting any dissenters.

You don't have to convince anyone that Latinx is a good idea. You just have to capture the institution.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Gahrie Originally the proper term for Black people was Negro. There is still an organization today called the United Negro College Fund,

Language is what it is and trying to change it by fiat is futile. (sorry pedantic lecture below...linguistic antrophology is one of my hobby horses)

The word Negro is the Spanish and Portuguese name for the color Black....for centuries.

Negro denotes "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, derived from the Latin word niger, meaning black, which itself is probably from a Proto-Indo-European root *nek w-, "to be dark", akin to *nok w-, "night". "Negro" was also used of the peoples of West Africa in old maps labelled Negroland, an area stretching along the Niger River.

All they were saying is: these people who we aren't familiar with are like the color black. There were no country names for places in deep 'darkest' Africa in the Roman times. So black or niger or negro it is.

When introduced to people who didn't speak Spanish or Portugese,...like in the Southern part of the Colonies.....the word naturally morphed into a different pronunciations Negra, Niggra etc etc etc. It wasn't necessarily a bad word...at first. Just a fact. Negro=dark or black

All of these just being terms describing the color of one's skin and comparing it to other things of like color The preferred term of today's BLACKS is the same thing. Black, Negro, Niger, etc etc etc.

How soon before Black becomes pejorative and we can't use it to describe the color of your car.

Hubby's Grandma was from Arkansas...they all called her by her preferred honorific... Mammy.

She called Negro people Darkies, as a group, because she was taught that was more respectful. Or Ms or Mr. plus first name or Last name. Miz Susie. Miz Smith Mr. or Msa Jones.

ALL adults were referred to by the Miz or Mr honorific. This is still the case in most of the South.

Has anyone ask YOU what you want to be called?

Lurker21 said...


And yet, it worked out so well for the Manx.

I never heard a cat complain.

Gunner said...

Is the Left going to admit that all their ideas are bullshit now that Trump is going?

Mr Wibble said...

Is the Left going to admit that all their ideas are bullshit now that Trump is going?

Nope. They are going to double down, because the internal fighting is going to get worse.

DEEBEE said...

The ongoing hegemony of the PallorX on gender specific languages. Does it never end. Perhaps rooting out English is the only way to inclusivity

Duke Dan said...

It’s just as good as womyn.

F said...

tcrosse:

Actually, I don't hear anything about Ebonics any longer. Is it still a real thing?

Paco Wové said...

Dr. Bettina Love's Wikipedia page is about what you'd expect.

Fernandinande said...

"This study documents how 34 Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx. Participants perceive higher education as a privileged space where they use the term Latinx. Once they return to their communities, they do not use the term.

Due to the variations in understandings of the term, the author contends that one should consider using the term Latin*."

John henry said...

 Greg Hlatky said...

Whatever became of "Chicano"?

Non-inclusive.

Chicano specifically means of Mexican descent

John Henry

Anonymous said...

Spanish is kind of insane in that it calls everything male or female. A table is feminine and a fork is masculine.

You can drive yourself into conniptions trying to figure out why something is masculine or feminine. I would have thought a table is masculine. It's standing on four phallic symbols. I guess it's feminine because that's where women put the food.

But then why is a fork masculine? Because it's a weapon, a tiny little fork weapon!

Anyway, leftism is now officially insane, because we're not allowed to divide people into men and women. Leftists not only hate babies and baby-making, they officially hate sex education. Want to know how babies are made? Leftists refuse to say. "A person has sex with a person and a little non-person is made."

So it's hilarious that these insane leftists are now officially white racists because they object to Spanish and all the gender classifications that happens in Spanish. So, yes, Spanish is crazy with dividing the world into male and female. And it's hilarious that liberals can't say this, because to criticize Spanish for anything is to be a white racist.

How the hell is white liberalism supposed to translate into Spanish? "You can call a fork a boy, and a table a girl, but no more of this gender stuff on human beings, it's offensive."

John henry said...

What article do I use with latinx?

Is it un (masculine) latinx?

Or una (feminine) latinx.

I suspect that the people who use latinx don't speak Spanish.

John Henry

Sebastian said...

"The term is used — as it says in the first paragraph — by "[o]pponents of transphobia and sexism" in "social media posts, academic papers and workplace Slack chats," "[l]iberal politicians," "[c]ivil rights litigators," "[s]ocial scientists," and [p]ublic health experts.""

IOW, progs, signaling virtue and solidarity by trying to coerce others into describing themselves in alien terms.

SGT Ted said...

'Latinx' was created in America by people apparently not happy that Spanish is a gender-specific language. It’s a fake-Spanish word that wasn’t created by and isn’t used by Latinos to describe themselves. It’s a shortcut used to identify a huge and very diverse group of people. That term is offensive and people need to stop using it."

It's primary use is to claim a solidarity that doesn't exist amongst a group of people in order to wield power for a specific radical leftwing political ideology. It's a big fat lie.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Was XuXa considered Latinx?

loudogblog said...

The problem with trying to pigeonhole Latinos is that we're not just one ethnicity or culture. Most of us are genetic and cultural hybrids of native Americans and Europeans. Mexico and Central America were melting pots the same way that the United States was. Also, Latinx is s dumb sounding word created by intellectuals. Personally, when I see it, I think that the way that you diminish or cancel something is to apply an "X" to it. El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, had a song and one of the lines was, "Well, I've never been to Spain. So don't call me a Hispanic."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM5XkBV4Bfw

John henry said...

Was Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marques of Osorno and spain's viceroy of peru, Chile, Ecuador and other points south, unx latinx?

How about his son Bernardo O'Higgins? Celebrated as the liberator of South America?

Ambrosio was born in Ballinary Ireland.

Unx and Xi are two words I just made up as gender neutral articles to go with latinx.

Anyone want to argue why they can make up silly words and I can't?

John Henry

John henry said...

I find latino/a/x an even stupider word than "hispanic"

Unless you want to count Nicolae Ceaușescu, napoleon, mussolini as latino.

John Henry

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

the referenced "Top Rated" commenter made excellent point. Spanish is a gendered language. Abjuration of gender is an insult to native Spanish speakers, and an impediment to Spanish learners.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Root of the offensive word is "Latin." To be gender neutral, use the neuter gender. Singular Latinum; plural Latina.

John henry said...

DBQ,

Thanks for that. Sometimes a bit of pedantry is a good thing.

In Puerto Rico negro/a is an affectionate term similar to honey in English.

But there exists a serious musical question about what the black man wants.

As asked by Wilfrido Vargas "mami que sera Lo que quiere el negro"

https://youtu.be/l963sNQhLCg

Bonus:includes a performance by a black Dominican in blackface.

John Henry

John henry said...

Was julius ceasar unx latinx?

John Henry

narciso said...

that would seem redundant, no, proving orwell's point about intellectuals,

chuck said...

I thought is was invented by the Belgians, aka Eddie Merckx :)

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Proper pronunciation "Latinks" as in "Sphinx."

Time for a snack. Going to the fridge for a tamale. Will warm it on the comale.

DavidUW said...

My puerto rican girlfriend can't comprehend Latinx. "That's what 'Latino' means"

exactly.

Stupid Anglos.

tcrosse said...

Actually, I don't hear anything about Ebonics any longer. Is it still a real thing?

It has been superseded by Woke talk.

Birkel said...

Where are all the Lefty comments?

mockturtle said...

Out here in the West we just say Hispanic, so no problem.

Steven said...

Pew polled the community in question. 61% prefer "Hispanic", 29% prefer "Latino", 4% prefer "Latinx".

So if you use "Latinx", you're an Anglo imperialist and elitist (or a fawning suck-up to elitist imperialist Anglos).

If you use "Latino", you're an anti-democratic jerk pointlessly substituting a gendered term for a more popular gender-neutral one.

Either way, you're clearly in the wrong, and should be cancelled for your bigotry.

Skeptical Voter said...

Those who use the word "Latinx" are showing their "white privilege". Very bad.

Drago said...

Birkel: "Where are all the Lefty comments?"

They are busy constructing new narratives that it was conservatives that came up with Latinx which will be followed up by claiming the entire conversation around Latinx is a myth.

Krumhorn said...

So I take it that beanerx would not be thought inclusive?

- Krumhorn

Francisco D said...

Steven said...
Pew polled the community in question. 61% prefer "Hispanic", 29% prefer "Latino", 4% prefer "Latinx".

In my experience in Chicago, Mexican-Americans described themselves as either Mexican, American or Hispanic. Puerto Ricans were far more likely to use the term "Latino".

There is a huge difference in values between the Chicago Hispanic and Latino communities. The former was much more entrepreneurial and the latter was much more political.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ John Henry

When we lived in Mexico and often visited relatives who lived there (1940's to 1696) my aunt taught me, (about 1958) a Mexican folk song La Llorna. She taught me the chords on the guitar and explained the folk meaning. A beautiful haunting song.

I used to sing it and played the guitar spanish/flamingo style at school shows in my California Junior High days. No one gave a fig about the negro lyrics

La Llorna She says Negra but the original word are Negro.

Todos me dicen el negro llorona
Negro, pero cariñoso
Todos me dicen el negro llorona
Negro, pero cariñoso

Yo soy como el chile verde llorona
Picante, pero sabroso
Yo soy como el chile verde llorona
Picante, pero sabroso

Hay! de mi llorona
Llorona de ayer y hoy
Hay! de mi llorona
Llorona de ayer y hoy


I love this music from my youth. And often listen to the older nostalgic Mexican groups and songs. Reminds of my family and those years in Mexico. . Los Panchos are pretty good too.

Oldies music for expats.

Iman said...

Biology: The Ignored Science

Iman said...

Argy Bargy

Iman said...

muh-muh-muh mi llorona

David53 said...

I grew up in South Texas, "Pinche joto cabrón" was a common descriptor. I think it's still in use.

I dislike it when a salesman who's a third my age calls me "Buddy," that's what I call my dog. "Boss" is another name young people often call me. I can tolerate that but don't like it. My Hispanic friends all hate Latinx but they are all old racists too.

Joe Smith said...

But Coastal Elites know what's best for brown people.

Just like they've always known what's best for black people.

People of color just need to get behind the program and do what they're told.

You know, like in the Democrat South pre-1865.

Those black people knew their place, and even sang songs because they were so happy.

This is not difficult.

Joe Smith said...

"Whom is my pronoun."

My pronouns are 'Lord of All Time, Space, and Dimension,' and 'Your Majesty.'

If you do not address me as either, you will be reported to the Democrat Thought Police (DTP®) or Mark Zuckerberg.

Fuck with me at your peril.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"Whom is my pronoun."

Queen or Your Highness.

Either will do nicely.

Joe Smith said...

Gahrie at 6:54am absolutely nails it.

A Third Reich functionary in charge of racial purity would stand in awe of the classification of U.S. citizens by liberals in general and Democrats in particular.

It is astonishing that more citizens don't recognize the damage that it has done to the country.

But it benefits Democrats because divide and conquer works.

Caligula said...

Then again, you could just say "Latin" instead of "Latinx" and thereby avoid the entire messiness of dealing with a gendered language.

Well, yes, it sounds absurd and seems linguistically ugly. But if chairmen and -women can be (and often are) called "chairs" (as if one could sit on them), well, then clearly linguistic ugliness need not be a barrier to adoption.

After all, it's not as if the replacement of the universal, inclusive "he/his" with multiple gendered pronouns (or a plural) isn't linguistically ugly as well. Nonetheless, this linguistically ugly usage has become essentially mandatory.

John henry said...

DBQ,

I like Los Panchos too.

But I always thought they were Puerto Rican.

I had to look them up. Founded in NYC in 1944 by 2 mexicans and a Puerto Rican. As members moved in and out it looks like many if not most were Puerto Rican.

The things we learn here.

They now go professionally as Trix Lox panchxs

(just kidding about that last)

n.n said...

The Rainbow (i.e. transgender spectrum) exclusion and pride.

n.n said...

"Whom is my pronoun."

Queen or Your Highness.


We are amused.

n.n said...

Once you go Pro-Choice, you can't go back. Progress! #PrinciplesMatter

Ken B said...

Yglesias makes the good point that the English word is Latin, and it is ungendered. Latino and Latina are Spanish words, used by those trying to be hip, and so the complaint is against other people's native language— Spanish. So, offensive AND colonialist! Love it.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

"Latino" — is "a shortcut used to identify a huge and very diverse group of people."

Over half a billion people... persons, male and female sexes, masculine and feminine genders, respectively, and the transgender spectrum (Rainbow, a symbol of inclusion, exclusive of black, brown, and a gay pride in the shredded remains of white). Fetal-Latino and Latina lives are a "burden" and don't matter until they do.

Iman said...

Kiko and the Lavender Moon is exquisite.

Joe Smith said...

"The pronoun bull shit will never catch on either."

I have predicted here before that if Biden gets in, his cabinet will list their pronouns on their official media (web pages, Twitter, etc.).

"I like Los Panchos too."

In my neck of the woods, Los Panchos makes fantastic Mexican food; especially their burritos : )

YoungHegelian said...

@tcross,

We're taught language and grammar by our betters until such time as our betters determine that the language and grammer they've been teaching us is a great crime.

Cue Ebonics.


You know why there are only 49 contestants in the Miss Ebonics pageant?

'Cause they couldn't get anyone to wear the "Idaho" banner.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Rid-X for the Democratx.

Njall said...

All Indo-European languages had three genders at one time. Yes, including Old English. Most of the modern languages have retained at least two. The grammatical genders have no logical connection to human gender, except for obviously gendered words like man, woman, aunt, uncle. For example, “River” is feminine in Russian and masculine in German. My Croatian professor earnestly explained to me that “life” (zhivot) was feminine because life comes from women. I had to ponder why, to those souless Germans, “life” is a neuter noun.

It is thought that the gender distinction originated as a marker to distinguish living from inanimate things.

Earnest Prole said...

Latinx is a word enlightened English-speaking white academics invented and imposed on Latinos in order to save them from the sexism of their own language -- in other words, a perfect modern example of colonialism.

John henry said...

My uncle Bob used to have an unlimited hydroplane built, but never delivered, by Ventnor boat works in NJ for the Chinese to be used as a kamikaze boat against the Japanese.

Still on the water.

https://youtu.be/Kx62bkjSCXI

The reason this is on topic is because instead of the pussfied Packard it raced with, he had this ginormous Hispano-Suiza aircraft engine in it.

The red hood in the video was kept in the garage.

My mother used to get REALLY pissed when he would take me for a ride. I was forbidden! To go. But you don't think that's gonna stop a 10 year old boy do you? Booming down lake George at 100mph in a death trap, as my father called it, was worth any amount of castigation. I even got to drive it once but not at any speed to speak of.

John Henry


Unknown said...

My Cubana wife hates it and thinks it's stupid.

As do I.

Besides... "Cubanx" makes no sense.

Lurker21 said...


I noticed this on a subway poster.

Something about how the state wanted us to be "sanx" or "segurx"

Somebody who just arrived from Xochimilco would probably think we are all crazy.

Darkisland said...

Pancho Barnes, of the famed Happy Bottom Riding Club Near Edwards AFB was a woman.

Pancho is a common nickname for Francisco in Spanish.

Like Jack for John or Chuck for Charles.

John Henry

Tom said...

Let’s cancel everyone who’s used the term.

Joe Smith said...

"Pancho Barnes, of the famed Happy Bottom Riding Club..."

Don't even get me started...too easy : )

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
john burger said...

The term is doomed? Good. It should be jettisoned to the ash heap of cyber-history, with a knife stuck in its heart. That appendage ignores the development of many Romance languages and forces capitulation of Hispanics, Latin Americans, and Europeans who weren't consulted.

jvb

Bruce Hayden said...

“My mother used to get REALLY pissed when he would take me for a ride. I was forbidden! To go. But you don't think that's gonna stop a 10 year old boy do you? Booming down lake George at 100mph in a death trap, as my father called it, was worth any amount of castigation. I even got to drive it once but not at any speed to speak of.”

You can die. My partner accompanied a good friend up to Lake Tahoe in the 1980 to watch this girl’s father (Lee Taylor) race. Except he pushed it a bit too much, and the boat exploded, killing him. Years later, she was talking to the father of her second husband, and it turned out he had built the boat. His story was that Lee was “a wild man”, but wasn’t supposed to take it much above 300 mph that day. He may have exceeded 400 mph. But that was always his problem, pushing things a bit too much. He was, at the time, trying to recapture the water speed record he had held for a decade, and instead of a jet engine, he went with a rocket engine. The record he was trying to break was 317.6 mph, had already done 333, unofficially, and was hoping for 350 that day.

Here’s the crash (I watched It twice to see if I could see my partner there, but couldn’t).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UIk-tQDIZqg

The Vault Dweller said...

One of my friends is of Mexican descent, and I remember bringing up the term LatinX to him probably 2-3 years ago, to see what he thought of it. He had never even heard it. He thought it was stupid. We pronounced it La-teen-ix, kinda like Kleenex. We both thought it sounded like some sort of sanitary or cleaning product that you might ask someone to pick up at the store for you. "Honey we're out of Latinx could you grab some at the store." My friend has now taken to calling it Latin Ten. And still thinks it is stupid. For what it is worth my friend grew up speaking English in the home.

Mark said...

Surprise, surprise -- the privileged white progressive thugs who have imposed their tyranny of language on others, while telling Black folks how offended they must be at the progressives' latest targets, are racist.

Marcus Bressler said...

Why is Chuckx still here?

Mark said...

Of course, "Latin" (and Latino, Latina, La-tincks, Latin-Ex, etc.) are all themselves a rather imperialistic imposition. Latin refers to Rome. And, with the exception of modern-day Argentina, none of these countries or people are of Italian descent.

Hispanic at least has the accurate descriptive element of referring to the language of their ancestry, derived from Spain. But even then it is offensive in treating a whole slew of different peoples and cultures as a single entity. In fact, many of these groups despise each other and don't like white people's lumping of them together. But to the progressive, a Puerto Rican and Cuban and Mexican are all essentially the same.

John henry said...

Bruce,

Absolutely I could have died. If my brother in law had taken my 10 year old son for a ride like that, in a boat that was built around too much motor and then had that motor replaced with a much bigger one I would have been really pissed too. Not to mention it had been designed for one time suicide use 20 years previous.

At my son for going in it after being forbidden and at mybil for taking him after told not to.

My mother was absolutely right.

I remember howling down the lake at 80-100mph, in the early morning calm but still with other boats around. Neither of us having much forward vision because of the engine. The boat flexing, twisting and bending like it was held together with rubber bands.

I was scared shitless the whole time. But it was the kind of scared you get as you go over the top on a rolly coaster.

I was 10 years old. I was immortal.

Or thought I was at the time.

I wake up some nights wondering why I am alive.

I need to go look at the video but wasn't there a history channel program on your friend's boat? I remember seeing a program on it somewhere.

John Henry

Nancy Reyes said...

linguistically, x is not part of the way IndoEuropeans end words. Indeed, "X" has a connotation of illicit sex.
As a whole, Latin American communities are family oriented. Trans and gay folks are part of the family, no big deal: But the agenda of pushing the sexual agenda of the radicals is seen as a way to destroy the traditional family.

The inability of the elites to see this shows they are indeed in a cultural bubble and need a lesson in basic anthropology to understand that family, not government, is the first place people go to for support, both emotional and economic, in times of trouble.

Freeman Hunt said...

I stop listening when someone uses that word. If you refer to the "Latinx community," it's pretty clear that you have no idea what you're talking about.

RichardJohnson said...

There are certain Spanish words in the Spanish language that aptly describe those who promote use of the word "Latinx." Such as pendejo, boludo, pelotudo, gillipollas, tonto,lelo.

Hanoi Paris Hilton said...

Not quite OT is that in the saga of Jeffrey Toobin's recent untergang (somebody should do something with this in the faux subtitling), the pièce de résistance is the NY Times's straight-faced multiple references to Masha as "Mx Gessen"!

PM said...

May as well incorporate Asianx into the language. The Chinese, Japanese, Cambodians, Indians, Indonesians, Koreans, Thais and Vietnamese are all the same, too.