How the Term 'Latinx' Disrespects Hispanic Culture

According to a report published this year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, conservatives generally address whites and minorities similarly, but liberals were more likely to modify their speech and "patronize minorities stereotyped as lower status and less competent," hence the rise of the term "Latinx."

The report further claims that instead of exhibiting themselves as allies, most politicians who use the term to gain support from the Latino community could be unknowingly contributing to racial division by dumbing down their language.

The growing call for gender equality gave birth to the term "Latinx" in the 2000s as a way to identify both male and female Latinos. Today, it has gained currency among marketers, media personalities and progressives.

In his editorial article published in USA Today, Giancarlo Sopo, a public relations strategist and a 2019 National Review Institute regional fellow in Dallas, argued that no matter what the intentions for using "Latinx", there are many Latinos who consider it an absurd anglicization of a language that generations struggled to preserve.

Since English is not grammatically gendered, "Latinos" is inclusive in both languages, and substitutes like "Latin" and "Hispanic" may also describe the population. For Sopo, a son of immigrants, a push for gender-neutral Spanish nouns requires dismantling a language spoken by 572 million people across the world.

"Rather than making Latinos feel included, progressives are implying the way our families speak is fundamentally inadequate for the United States and progressive American culture," Sopo said, inciting how the term 'Latinx' is negative affecting the Latino community.

In addition to that, he also stressed that trying to change the language is offensive to the 85 percent of Hispanics who, like his parents, speak Spanish to their children and whose most treasured heirlooms are often Spanish family traditions and memories.

Sopo also questioned the usage as progressives' way of revoking foreign grammar standards. He added, Latinx is "laughably incomprehensible to any Spanish speaker without some fluency in English,"; its use has been formally rejected by the Real Academia Española, the official body of linguists preserving the language's integrity.

According to Sopo, Hispanic Americans who take pride in their heritage see "Latinx" as an attempt to solve a nonexistent problem at the expense of a beautiful language that Chicanos and other Latinos so long defended, even died for. By changing the language that Hispanic people cultivated for many years, progressives disregard linguistic practices, and disavow their right to determine their identity.

Sopo also cited several journalists such as Hector Luis Alamo, deputy editor of Latino Rebels, describing Latinx as "the bulldozing of Spanish" as well as a Los Angeles Times' Hispanic writer noting that millennial media outlets who used it found their pages "flooded with negative reactions, with some calling the term 'ridiculous,' 'stupid' and 'offensive.'.

"If someone wants to be called Latinx, that is fine, but the label should not be forced upon all Latinos," said Sopo, further emphasizing the need for gender-nonconforming Americans to be treated with compassion and respect.