With primary season in full swing and the November midterm elections five months away, the Democratic Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are apparently sparring over usage of the term "Latinx" and how it affects the Hispanic community.
During one of her free-wheeling Instagram discussions recently, Ocasio-Cortez touched on a subject that has reportedly rankled a large swath of Hispanic voters.
"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," said AOC on social media.
"And it's almost like it hasn't struck some of these folks that another person's identity is not about your reelection prospects."
Is "Latinx" an appropriate gender-neutral term for the Hispanic community?
A December poll from a Democratic firm found that 30% of potential voters are less likely to support a politician which freely uses the "Latinx" term.
The polling also found that only 2% of Hispanic respondents use the term.
The Washington Post and NBC News have written similar articles denouncing Democrat politicians and their sometimes-awkward usage of this controversial term.
Bottom line: It's not a universally accepted moniker. So, why use it in public?
Case in point: Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who's also the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has been critical of the "Latinx" usage in the political sphere.
In a December tweet, Gallego said, "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."
At the time, Gallego was responding to a Tweet from MSNBC analyst Fernand R. Amandi, which read:
"The use of Latinx, a term that didn’t exist until recently but has been embraced by @TheDemocrats to describe Hispanics + Latinos, may be doing more harm than good to Dem chances of winning, according to our new poll as @MarcACaputo describes in @politico."
Still, Ocasio-Cortez has been quick to mock her fellow Democrats for creating "drama" over "Latinx" and other "inclusive" variations of the term.
Her argument: "Language is fluid," like gender.
"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. Don't have to make drama over it," says Ocasio-Cortez.
Should Democrats be wary about their short-term reelection prospects?
Two weeks ago, The Hill reported that Congressional Democrats were trailing generic Republicans by 8 percentage points in battleground districts, citing Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) internal polling.
And for that same survey, Republicans owned a 47% to 39% advantage throughout the month of April.
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