Editor's note: The Daily Tar Heel does use the term Latinx, following our 2015 shift to gender-neutral language.
Every day, I read stories about campus life which confuse me as to how I should interact with leftist students to avoid giving offense. The campus culture is changing so rapidly and so perversely that to address one facet of it would neglect many others. But, I’ll give it a try.
Recently, students have insisted to The Daily Tar Heel that there should be a permanent space on campus for the Latinx Education Research Hub. The students’ comments took a tone that hinted at an administrative conspiracy to undermine principles of “justice and equity.” Most surprisingly, this story actually uses the word “Latinx” like it’s part of our normal vernacular. I wonder if the academics at the Hub know that a majority of Hispanics living in the United States would most prefer to be identified with their families’ country of origin. Of the remaining 49 percent who would prefer “Hispanic” or “Latino,” only 14 percent prefer “Latino.” I can imagine even fewer prefer a stipulative, ungendered designation like “Latinx.”
In a recent move toward mainstream acceptance of intersectional ideology, the Chapel Hill Public Library will hold an event which seeks to discuss “white women’s roles in supporting white supremacy.”
The writers at another leftist institution, the New York Times, have also recently jumped into the conversation on this topic. In her most recent column for the Times, Alexis Grenell points out that 53 percent of white women “put their racial privilege ahead of their second-class gender status in 2016 by voting to uphold a system that values only their whiteness.” Perhaps the left would have white women believe that they are lesser victims now? (Fear not, white women, you can repent by voting for Democrats in November!)