All Posts Tagged as 'Language'

The dark-haired students were deemed privileged, and told they were superior, with youngsters who had blond or red hair deemed less intelligent and inferior.

Both sets of students were given a puzzle to complete, but the light-haired students had a piece missing.

We need to talk about “trans kids.” In all likelihood, we are currently witnessing one of the biggest medical scandals in modern history, and a tidal wave of regrets and lawsuits will soon follow in its wake.

Ever since I emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador, I’ve used the term Hispanic to describe my heritage. But lately, I’ve been corrected on multiple occasions about the term I use to describe myself — told that I should use the more accepted term, Latinx.

Okay, so I understand where Latinx comes from — the desire for a gender-inclusive term for people of Latin American heritage, avoiding the gendered ending of Latino or Latina. But it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. And besides, why Latinx and not Latin American?

At the heart of this debate lies the issue of labeling, where an outside group (or a small percentage from an inside group) decides on a term, or label, and then dictates which people fit under the larger umbrella of this label. This happens all the time, and the shadow this umbrella casts is hardly constant: its edges waver, growing and shrinking as categories shift.

I have friends who have lived in this country for decades but still refer to themselves as Mexican. I have other friends who call themselves Hispanic, or Chicana/o or just American. Should I correct all of these friends and tell them their descriptors are dated, that they are now Latinx and need to start referring to themselves as Latinx?

In New York City, people love the convenience stores known as bodegas that are often run by Dominican or Puerto Rican merchants. Biden mispronounced the word as "bogedas."

The findings from Gallup are consistent with another survey by the Pew Research Center from 2020, where researchers found that only one in four Hispanic or Latino adults had even heard of the term "Latinx." Only 3% of them used it to describe themselves.

Another new study from Monash University again demonstrates that athletes using gay slurs don’t mean to convey messages of homophobia to their teammates, and in fact believe their teams would be welcoming places for gay athletes.

The study focused on 146 semi-professional ice hockey players in Australia. The sample group included a good mix of players from North America, Europe and Australia.

One of the most illuminating parts of the study looked at why athletes use gay slurs. Some of the results:

55% because they want to make people laugh
46% think the language is normal, so no one thinks about it
6% want to insult or bully others who are gay
1% say they are homophobic