Democrats fall flat with 'Latinx' language

[Hekate]

143. Gustavo Arrellano, one of the LA Times excellent columnists, commented on the use of "woke" ...

… and I think “Latinx” as well, a couple of months ago. He said the general term among older adults for the youngsters who use this very up to the minute terminology was “wokoso,” a portmanteau word combining “woke” and the ending of a Spanish word loosely meaning “snot nosed brat.”

And that’s a problem right there. It’s not a word ordinary people ever used. As the OP quotes, “ As Democrats seek to reach out to Latino voters in a more gender-neutral way, they’ve increasingly begun using the word Latinx, a term that first began to get traction among academics and activists on the left. ”

Latino and Latina were combined years ago as Latino/a, which is already awkward, but at least uses two words common to everyone. And last I heard (bearing in mind I am now an old out-of-date person who has to check the ethnicity box as “white, non-Hispanic”) people’s personal preference for “Latino” or “Hispanic” depended on original ancestry and US geographical location. Cubans are not Mexicans and Central Americans are not South Americans, and their dispersal in the US is not even. I thought Californians were more for Latino/a than for Hispanic, but now I think I’ll wait for Mr Arrellanos’ next linguistic installment.

Ruben Gallego is trying to tell us something. We should probably listen.