My first question when I heard the word “Latinx”—right after “How is that pronounced?”—was “Is that what we’re calling ourselves now?”
Everyone from brands to universities to media outlets to city governments have started defining my Hispanic demographic with the Latinx brushstroke. Everyone, it turns out, but ourselves. And that has ramifications for marketers.
I get why people are going there. It’s gender-neutral where Spanish is gendered. It’s inclusive. But lumping everyone into one label in the name of inclusivity, by nature, excludes a lot of people.
Like me. I’m a second-generation Cuban-American who, like many with ties to Spain or the Caribbean, identifies as Hispanic—which is also gender-neutral.
A majority of U.S adults who self-describe as Hispanic or Latino (61%) prefer Hispanic to describe the Hispanic or Latino population in the U.S., and 29% prefer Latino, according to a December 2019 Pew Research bilingual survey of U.S. Hispanic adults.