Torres: Latinx? If this is 'woke' then let me keep sleeping
I am an American.
I am also Latino. I am not Latina and I am not Latinx, a fairly new term created by and proffered by high-brow academics and progressives to somehow be more inclusive of the non-binary or gender-neutral community.
Inclusion of an often disenfranchised and alienated segment of society is always a good thing but since I have a gender and since I am Latin, I am a Latino, or Latino-American.
I don't want the 'x.' And I am not alone.
The results of a national poll released in late December found that only 2% of 800 Latin American voters described themselves as Latinx. In fact, many found the term offensive. Maybe because it's not a thing?
As my colleague Bill Cotterell pointed out in a column last year, the words "Latino" and "Latina" are gendered terms for Latin men and women. They are not offensive terms by any stretch of the imagination.
Not to mention that "Latinx" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue for Spanish-speakers.
If the gender-neutral or non-binary community wants to to refer to themselves by the genderless Latinx moniker then so be it. I applaud it. But for everyone else it's silly and stupid.
Sadly it's nothing new. This country has never quite figured out people who originally came from Spanish-speaking countries. It was the Nixon administration that officially adopted the term "Hispanic" to refer to anyone originating from a Spanish-speaking country and it made its first U.S. Census appearance in 1980.
That makes as much sense as grouping citizens of Gambia and the United States together under one heading because they both come from English-speaking countries. Other than language there's not much culturally in common is there? The same can be said for referring to Puerto Ricans and Mexicans under the same heading. Spanish language aside, the cultures couldn't be more different.
"Latinx" is more of the same nonsensical grouping of many different countries and cultures.
An editorial published in the Miami Herald stated:
“That’s the irony of ‘Latinx’ — it’s supposed to be inclusive but erases a crucial part of Latin American identity and language, and replaces it with an English word.’’
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It's pretentious and there has been significant pushback from the Latino community. Maybe this moment will be looked at one day as the turning point, the final straw that finally created cracks in the woke and cancel culture movements.
Why take such an absurdly broad brush and make it broader by attempting to change the language by adding an x to it?
A recent article in FLORIDA TODAY about the issue included this quote from Rolando Chang Barrero, a Cuban LGBTQ+ community organizer, art gallery owner and member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Caucus.
"Classifying us as Latinx or even as Hispanic is a misnomer that does not represent the 33 foreign countries represented in my community. Each country is as nuanced as the United States."
Interested in being "woke?" Then how about showing more respect for the cultures and countries of origin? Instead of Latinx how about we say Cuban-American, Mexican-American, Colombian-American etc.?
Or...we could always just add an x to the end of every country in the world to make everyone feel included?
Contact Torres at 321-242-3684 or at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Latinx? If this is 'woke' then let me keep sleeping
