"... 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.
