For many years, the Latino community held their name with pride, looking at the name as a representation of who they were, their culture, and the many histories connected to their culture. However, it has become trendy for many people in the United States to refer to the Latino community as Latinx. They claim that it brings more inclusion. Over time, there has been a growing resentment toward the name Latinx, yet people continue to use it to represent the Latino community. 

The usage of Latinx does not represent the majority of the Latino community because we don’t even use the term. The Pew Research Center found in their research on the topic that only 3% of Latinos use the term Latinx. In fact, the research stated that 76% don’t even know what “Latinx” even is. Regardless, that still leaves 20% percent of the Latino population who know the word and choose not to use it.   

When we look at the origin of the word Latino, it’s only from American political culture today. But the truth is that Latino is already a gender-neutral term. Latinx is a name given by people who aren’t Latinos, changing everything about Latino culture that is deemed “disrespecting” to their American culture just to fit their political agenda while also claiming that they care about Latinos.  This is a lie. It’s actually changing Latino culture in the country.  

Many claim that Latinx is more inclusive. For a word that supports inclusion, it has caused a huge division in the community, even some claiming that the Latinx community is different from the Latino community. How can this word be a word of unity if the majority of Latinos are excluded? 

This topic is very important to talk about because we can see in the past few years that many Latinos don’t like this term.  Yet those who remain in silence have been forced to be called a name that they don’t agree with.  Some have submitted to this anti-Latino name, afraid to voice their feelings.

Latinx represents the white washing of our Latino brothers and sisters, which many U.S politicians have tried to do. Language matters and when you try to change a cultural group’s language, you’re disrespecting that group’s culture.  We must take up a call to action against this oppressive word, We must share our voice to the many who need to hear it and deny to be silent by our oppressor.

Juan Carlos is a proud Latino sophomore at Greeley West.