The Latin Question

Since everyone is already mad at me I thought I’d go ahead and touch another electrified rail:

You can feel free to dig into the methodology yourself; there’s some question as whether the use of the term “Latinx” directly activates pro-Trump sentiment or whether it reinforces and activates latent anti-LGBTQ attitudes in Latino populations. Either way, when Democrats use the term “Latinx,” the people described by that term become more likely to vote for Donald Trump. While I suppose you could try to square the circle, I think either interpretation runs directly counter to the argument that Jamelle Bouie made about Latinx a couple years back. It really is about the use of language, whether folks are taking offense at the term itself or at the meanings that the term evokes.

The solution? People associated with the Democratic Party should probably stop using the term “Latinx.” FWIW, Ruben Gallego has already arrived at this solution. The authors of the study don’t recommend a wholesale dismissal of the term, instead recognizing its value as an educational tool within the Latino community. That ship doesn’t hold very much water for me, as it’s a very long-term effort which has distinctly negative short-term political effects. For my part, I think it’s probably best that “allies” don’t use a term that upwards of 90% of a minority population intensely dislike, the long-term educational effects notwithstanding.

There’s a lot more here about how to perform the role of “ally” and how activist networks (especially aspirational ones) should be integrated into a political operation, but those questions aren’t really my thing and so I’ll let y’all hash them out in comments.