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Comment by subsubzero | Hacker News Reader

Curious how you feel about the term LatinX that all tech companies are embracing? Reason I ask is I have a few really good friends who are Hispanic(Nicaraguan, Dominican, Mexican) and they all despise that term. I don't know why its used and it seems strange as its been forced on us the past few years with no consulting or buy-in from any of the Hispanic employees at these companies. Even outside polls found that a huge majority (96%) of Hispanic people dislike this term but its still being used.

[1] - https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/us/latinx-gallup-poll-prefere...

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While I appreciate the sentiment behind LatinX, my main issue with it is that it's mostly a distraction. I can't speak for women, but I imagine their top worries are things like the amount of violence against women [1] (at least in Mexico where my family is originally from), unequal pay, how much the burden of having children rests on their shoulders and limits their careers, etc. You know, stuff that has a significant impact on their lives. Spanish defaulting to male form of words is an archaic reflection of how male-centered the culture is, but it's not the wheel that needs greasing. Trying to change the language to make it less male-focused is both awkward and also seems like a consolation prize that moves the needle for women exactly zero amount. It creates an illusion of progress, while not solving any of the big problems.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/world/americas/mexico-wom...

The people that tend toward terms like Latinx treat non-white folks like children, constantly getting offended on their behalf and denying them agency. It's ironic that many "anti-racists" act in a racist manner.

Most of the people I've heard self-identify as LatinX are queer Hispanic people who grew up in an English-speaking country (ie. second-generation immigrants).

Their primary language is English, so any difficulty pronouncing LatinX in Spanish doesn't matter as much to them. They're not necessarily looking to solve the gendered nature of Spanish overall, and may not even speak it fluently. Also, similar early English terms for gender-equality/non-binary identities were equally difficult to pronounce (the title Mx., neo-pronouns like xie/zer).

I'm curious how the data would look split by gender/country of origin/LGBTQ+ or not.

I’m Spanish and have friends all over Latin America. we often laugh about the term. Some people in the US decided to put a rich variety of cultures and historical backgrounds in the same bag.

Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico… all have fascinating cultures and histories on their own. All erased and stereotyped by a bland externally imposed term like Latinx that is not even pronounceable in Spanish. It feels like the colonialism that some are supposedly trying to fight against.

It's believers in the cause (either genuinely or performatively) trying to rise above one another in moral status. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it backfires as it did with Twitch: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56251452

I find the whole Latino/Latinx switch attempt especially shortsighted, because it is commonly just used as a catch-all term for "person from Central/South America".

But, there are millions of native people from those places who don't view themselves as Latino, and, if anything, see the Latins as invaders/colonizers/oppressors. For example, if you're a K’iche’ speaker from Guatemala, you may not even speak Spanish, and you probably don't self identify as "Latino".

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