To Latinx or Not to Latinx?

In 2000, my mother-in-law, a rather traditional gal, insisted that my wife, then fiancée, address our wedding invitation to “Mr. & Mrs. Kauko Aunio”. Although this offended Anna-Liisa’s feminist sensibilities, she bit her lip and addressed the envelope as requested—because you call people what they want to be called, not what you think they ought to want to be called.

All of the survey data I’ve seen suggests that the vast majority of Hispanics do not want to be called “Latinx”. As such, barreling ahead with the term, as so many progressives seem to be doing, strikes me as remarkably insensitive. What’s especially odd about this is that it’s entirely incongruous with prevailing progressive norms surrounding nomenclature.

When it comes to almost every other group, calling people what they want to be called is the go-to progressive move (e.g., trans folks and personal pronouns). Latinos and Latinas are the only exception I’m aware of. In this instance, progressives don’t call people what they want to be called. Instead, they call people what they think they ought to want to be called. This smacks of the worst kind of paternalism. And it seems to have hurt the Democrats in the last election.