3 ms·

Tell them you identify as Latino?

tristor 4y ago
I don't, though. And I see no point in any such gamesmanship. I'm a white man with Turkish and Scottish heritages, born in middle US, and am not Latino or Hispanic by birth, only by association in later life. While I participate in the culture, I am not of the culture, and would never claim to be. I have my own culture, which I also participate in and claim. This, in fact, is one of the major difficulties with DEI. My identity has no bearing on the truth or falsity of my words, my observations, or my statements. It is simply the truth that "LatinX" does not work in the Spanish language, it's effectively unpronounceable, and it is directly targeting a language feature from the perspective of English speakers as applied to a another language, which means that in so many ways it is insulting, offensive, and colonialistic. It should not require one to identify as Hispanic or Latino to say this (or to be aware of it). It feels intentionally racist, because anyone who purports to be representing the ideal of helping this community should surely be aware of such basic things about Hispanic culture and the Spanish language.
- dorchadas 4y ago
  It's worse in minority languages, where the whole movement has been co-opted by well-meaning learners, who happen to share the nationality of the group who speaks the language natively and has kept it alive, calling native speakers bigots for stating their language doesn't work like English and to quit trying to translate English into it directly. Not to mention all the other classism issues that said natives face at the hands of non-native learners/speakers, including accent discrimination when the others literally only use English phonemes. And I'm not part of that language's native speaker group, I just recognise they should probably be included in stuff said about it, and try to respect what native speakers say, even if it's not how English works.

I don't, though. And I see no point in any such gamesmanship. I'm a white man with Turkish and Scottish heritages, born in middle US, and am not Latino or Hispanic by birth, only by association in later life. While I participate in the culture, I am not of the culture, and would never claim to be. I have my own culture, which I also participate in and claim. This, in fact, is one of the major difficulties with DEI. My identity has no bearing on the truth or falsity of my words, my observations, or my statements. It is simply the truth that "LatinX" does not work in the Spanish language, it's effectively unpronounceable, and it is directly targeting a language feature from the perspective of English speakers as applied to a another language, which means that in so many ways it is insulting, offensive, and colonialistic. It should not require one to identify as Hispanic or Latino to say this (or to be aware of it). It feels intentionally racist, because anyone who purports to be representing the ideal of helping this community should surely be aware of such basic things about Hispanic culture and the Spanish language.

dorchadas 4y ago
It's worse in minority languages, where the whole movement has been co-opted by well-meaning learners, who happen to share the nationality of the group who speaks the language natively and has kept it alive, calling native speakers bigots for stating their language doesn't work like English and to quit trying to translate English into it directly. Not to mention all the other classism issues that said natives face at the hands of non-native learners/speakers, including accent discrimination when the others literally only use English phonemes. And I'm not part of that language's native speaker group, I just recognise they should probably be included in stuff said about it, and try to respect what native speakers say, even if it's not how English works.