Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) went off on her Democratic colleagues who have criticized the term “Latinx.”
“Also in the spirit of pride, I wanted to have a note on gender inclusivity in Spanish language. People sometimes like to make a lot of drama over the term Latinx but even before Latinx, people were trying to… use an @ to have the a and the o together,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a video message posted to Instagram.
She added, “Gender is fluid. Language is fluid and I think people right now are using the e term as gender-neutral in order to be as inclusive as possible.”
Ocasio-Cortez explained, “I also have a mini-rant about this because there are some politicians, including Democratic politicians, that rail against the term ‘Latinx.’ And they’re like, ‘This is so bad, this is so bad for the party,’ like blah, blah, blah.”
She continued, “And like it’s almost like it hasn’t struck some of these folks that another person’s identity is not about your re-election prospects.”
Ocasio-Cortez then argued if “putting a little x on your campaign literature is what you think is the difference between winning or losing an election, you need to talk about health care more. You need to raise people’s wages. You need to talk about more issues that also matter to people.”
Watch the video below:
.@AOC goes on a rant against Democratic politicians who are afraid to use “Latinx.” pic.twitter.com/xBgnkJ0zcf
— John Gage (@johnrobertgage) June 6, 2022
In December 2021, Politico reported a poll found only 2% of respondents refer to themselves as Latinx, compared to 68% who call themselves “Hispanic” and 21% who prefer “Latino” or “Latina” to describe their ethnic background.
According to 40%, Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30% would be less likely to back a politician or organization that uses the term.
President Joe Biden was criticized for using the term while delivering remarks about COVID-19 vaccination “equity” in June 2021.
“It’s awful hard as well to get Latinx vaccinated,” Biden said.
He added, “Why? They’re worried they’ll be vaccinated and deported.”
Reporter Alana Mastrangelo responded, “Why is Joe Biden calling Latinos ‘Latinx’?”
She continued, “And why does he assume every Latino is an illegal immigrant?”
