Title: Latino vs. Hispanic vs. Latinx: What the Terms Mean and How to Use Them | Reader's Digest
Headings: Latino, Hispanic, and Latinx: What the Terms Mean and How to Use Them
Latino, Hispanic, and Latinx: What the Terms Mean and How to Use Them
You may have heard the terms Latino and Hispanic. What about Latinx? Here's what these terms mean and how to use them correctly.
Whom does Hispanic encompass?
Is Latino any better?
What about Latinx?
How should you use each term?
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Content: Latinx is a way of inclusively calling someone a Latino without having to reference the male denotation of the term. To use Latino solely to describe a mixed group of males and females ignores the nonbinary members of the community and elevates the male to a superior status than the female. The preference for male over female is a long-standing practice in the Latin American culture and to deny this as an issue further alienates women from an equal place in society. The term may have originated from protestors in South America who crossed out the letter “o” at the end of Latino on their protest signs. The term may have also arisen in 2004 within the LGBTQ+ Latino community who sought to identify with a more inclusive term. The term is quickly growing in popularity in the United States and is used more frequently in the United States than in Latin America. The idea is that this term offers better representation for women and the non-binary community as its sole purpose is for the sake of inclusivity. While Latinx is popular across social media channels, a recent study by the Pew Research Center finds that only 23 percent of Latinos have heard the term and that only 3 percent of the total population are using it. According to the study, Latinx emerges from a worldwide movement to utilize gender-neutral nouns and pronouns. Young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are amongst the more prominent users of Latinx.