Earlier this year, Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a ban on the term Latinx in official state documents, claiming that "ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place" under her administration. This woke term is facing another ban, this time on the other side of the U.S. political spectrum.
Five Democratic state representatives in Connecticut, all of Hispanic origin, introduced a bill to prevent the word Latinx from being included in any official public documents. To do so, they must receive majority support from the state's General Assembly. The Democratic Party has a comfortable majority in both the Connecticut House and Senate.
Geraldo Reyes Jr. considers the term "offensive"
The legislation states the following:
The general statutes shall be amended to prohibit any state agency, or state employee on behalf of a state agency, from using the term 'Latinx' on any official communications or forms of the state agency.
On the 2020 census, 17.7% of Connecticut's citizens reported having Hispanic origin, amounting to about 640,000 people. State Representative Geraldo Reyes Jr., one of the bill's sponsors, considers the term Latinx to be "offensive." He said he saw the opportunity to ban the word after seeing Gov. Sanders' order in Arkansas:
This has been offensive and derogatory to all Puerto Ricans, and it’s something that hasn’t sat well with a lot of people here for a while. When I found out that Arkansas Gov. [Sanders] banned it on her first day in the office, I saw that as an opportunity for me to do the same thing.
The term serves to "appease rich white progressives"
In Arizona, Democratic State Rep. Ruben Gallego, whose mother is Colombian, banned the use of the word in his office's official communications:
To be clear my office is not allowed to use 'Latinx' in official communications. When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias.
To be clear my office is not allowed to use “Latinx” in official communications.
When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias. https://t.co/kMty6q7UQn— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) December 6, 2021
According to a Bienvenido poll, only 1% of likely Hispanic voters want to be referred to as Latinx. On the other hand, a survey by The New York Times showed that only 22% of respondents actually use the term.
