Survey Finds 40% of Latinos Are "Bothered or Offended" By The Term Latinx
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Latino voters have spoken, and they want folks to stop calling them "Latinx."
According to a national survey of 800 registered voters of Hispanic or Latin American descent living in the United States, only 2% of Hispanic voters chose the term "Latinx" to describe their ethnic background. The study was conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International.
Bendixen & Amandi's poll results showed that 40% of participants were bothered by the term, and 68% preferred the use of terms such as "Hispanic," "Latina/Latino" or to be referred to by their country of origin such as Colombian, Venezuelan, Cuban, Argentinian or Dominican.
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A 2019 national bilingual survey by the Pew Research Center supports these results, stating only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term Latinx, with 3% saying they use it to describe themselves.
The term rose to popularity as a gender-neutral pan-ethnic label in the early 2010s and was used predominantly by left-wing politicians, corporations, universities and the entertainment industry to address or describe the Latin community in the United States. It was later added to Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2018 as it gained popularity.
Since Spanish language is binary, it has become a prominent term to represent members of the LGBTQ+ community who may be gender non-conforming.
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"The emergence of Latinx coincides with a global movement to introduce gender-neutral nouns and pronouns into many languages whose grammar has traditionally used male or female constructions," the Pew Research Center report states.
The report continues, "Yet the use of Latinx is not common practice, and the term's emergence has generated debate about its appropriateness in a gendered language like Spanish. Some critics point to its origins among U.S. English speakers, saying it ignores the Spanish language and its gendered form."
For politicians using the term, statistics show that it's backfiring, with 30% of voters stating they are less likely to support politicians or political organizations that used the term LatinX when discussing the Hispanic or Latina/Latino community.
Although it may sound like the more popular option, it's time to cut the "X."