Have Democrats learned nothing? First Lady Jill Biden will be making in San Antonio today to participate in something called the “Latinx IncluXion Luncheon.”
The First Lady will visit San Antonio on Monday to speak at the Latinx IncluXion Luncheon…
The UnidosUS Annual Conference is a yearly event held for people to collaborate on issues that include housing, health, racial equity, education, diversity, and inclusion.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of UnidosUS before. Who are they? It turns out they’re just the National Council of La Raza with a name change. The change happened back in 2017 but I missed it. The lunch is just a small portion of the three days of meetings which started Saturday and will conclude today. Here are some of the other keynote speakers at the event.
Keynote speakers include Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS, Congressman Joaquin Castro and activist and author Julissa Arce.
Sunday’s Latina Luncheon panel will include Julie Chávez-Rodríguez, granddaughter of civil rights leader César Chávez, a senior advisor and assistant to President Joe Biden and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Yvett Merino, producer of the Disney hit movie Encanto; and Erika Prosper, senior director of customer insights for H-E-B.
Julissa Arce is the activist author of “You Sound Like a White Girl” which is apparently an autobiographical polemic opposing Latinx assimilation into American culture.
“You sound like a white girl.” These were the words spoken to Julissa by a high school crush as she struggled to find her place in America. As a brown immigrant from Mexico, assimilation had been demanded of her since the moment she set foot in San Antonio, Texas, in 1994. She’d spent so much time getting rid of her accent so no one could tell English was her second language that in that moment she felt those words―you sound like a white girl?―were a compliment. As a child, she didn’t yet understand that assimilating to “American” culture really meant imitating “white” America―that sounding like a white girl was a racist idea meant to tame her, change her, and make her small. She ran the race, completing each stage, but never quite fit in, until she stopped running altogether.
In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals. She talks about the Lie of Success, the Lie of Legality, the Lie of Whiteness, and the Lie of English―each promising that if you obtain these things, you will reach acceptance and won’t be an outsider anymore. Julissa deftly argues that these demands leave her and those like her in a purgatory―neither able to secure the power and belonging within whiteness nor find it in the community and cultures whiteness demands immigrants and people of color leave behind.
Does Jill Biden believe assimilation into American culture is racist? I’m willing to bet no one will ask her. In any case, I thought we’d pretty well established as far back as 2019 that Hispanics don’t like the word “Latinx” which is a top-down attempt to de-gender Spanish. Polling showed that only 2% of Hispanics liked the term back then.
To examine the acceptance of “Latinx” our firm conducted a nationwide poll of Latinos using a 508-person sample that is demographically representative of Census figures, yielding a ± 5% margin of error with a 95% confidence interval.
We presented our respondents with seven of the most common terms used to describe Latinos and asked them to select the one that best describes them. When it came to “Latinx,” there was near unanimity. Despite its usage by academics and cultural influencers, 98% of Latinos prefer other terms to describe their ethnicity. Only 2% of our respondents said the label accurately describes them, making it the least popular ethnic label among Latinos.
Well, that was 2019. Maybe people have become more accepting of the term over time. That does often happen but not in this case. According to another poll released last December there has been no change in the acceptance of “Latinx” in two years.
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Only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves “Hispanic” and 21 percent favored “Latino” or “Latina” to describe their ethnic background, according to the survey from Bendixen & Amandi International, a top Democratic firm specializing in Latino outreach.
More problematic for Democrats: 40 percent said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term…
“The numbers suggest that using Latinx is a violation of the political Hippocratic Oath, which is to first do no electoral harm,” said Amandi, whose firm advised Barack Obama’s successful Hispanic outreach nationwide in his two presidential campaigns. “Why are we using a word that is preferred by only 2 percent, but offends as many as 40 percent of those voters we want to win?”
Anyway, if you ever wondered who the 2% of Hispanics are who like the term “Latinx” the answer is the people who attend National Council of La Raza/Uniodos annual meetings.
But as I look closely, maybe even NCLR/Unidos has finally caught on. Last year the entire conference was called the “Latinx IncluXion Summit.” (The extra X shows how serious they are.) This year the conference itself is just called the “2022 UnidosUS Annual Conference!”
Also, the President of NCLR/Unidos was diagnosed with COVID recently and had to deliver her remarks by video this year. According to the transcript, she never used the word “Latinx” once. She did use the words Hispanic and Latino in her speech. So maybe they’ve caught on. The only mention of Latinx left in the event are the ones connected to today’s luncheon and one other group session which, ironically, is about how to talk to people.
Beyond Clichés: What Small Talk Can Do for You
The idea of striking up a conversation with someone you don’t know can be intimidating. When you add that many younger Latinx prefer to socialize and communicate through use of mobile technology, the “art of small talk” is becoming increasingly elusive. The goal of this interactive session will be to introduce how participants can begin to feel comfortable and effective in professional networking. We will examine the assets and strengths within ourselves, our community, and culture that can empower us as Latinx (of all ages and backgrounds) to professionally engage with the world around us.
Lesson one in this session should be this: “Don’t use the word Latinx when trying to talk to other Hispanic people.”
Jill Biden’s speech is going to be livestreamed on Facebook. I’ll add a clip below if it becomes available.
Update: I’m shocked that this didn’t go well. She also compares Hispanics to unique breakfast tacos.
Spanish is a difficult language. But if you’re going to take a swing at Hispandering, you’ve got to do better than this. https://t.co/35D1eXskuV
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) July 11, 2022
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