Title: Real Talk: Should We Just Stop Using the Word 'Latinx?' | BeLatina
Headings: Real Talk: Should We Just Stop Using the Word ‘Latinx?’
Real Talk: Should We Just Stop Using the Word ‘Latinx?’
What is Latinx?
So, What’s the Debate Around Latinx?
What is the Solution?

Content: Hispanic refers to anyone from Spain or Spanish-speaking parts of Latin America. But that doesn’t include those with Afro-Latina origins, or indigenous people. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they don’t mean the same exact thing, and the term Latinx is by far the most inclusive of all the terms. It does not discriminate, it is inclusive, and it does not give preference to either the masculine or feminine form of an identifier. Macarena Gómez-Barris, head of social sciences and cultural studies at Pratt Institute in New York, calls the “x” of Latinx “a “queering” of the gendering of nouns and adjectives natural to the Spanish language, which also turns Latinas into Latinos the moment one man enters the group. The x marks a kind of political resistance and provocation,” she said in a NY Times article. So, What’s the Debate Around Latinx? For years Latino was seen as the more progressive choice over Hispanic, and now Latinx is the more progressive choice over Latino or Latina. But not everyone is on board with this new terminology. For starters, many people, especially those of older generations don’t know what it means, they don’t know how to pronounce it (it’s pronounced Lah-teen-ex by the way, like Kleenex), and they don’t know the appropriate usage or purpose.