Twitter users pounce on LA Times opinion columnist for using the term 'Latinxs' to refer to Latinos

Los Angeles Times opinion columnist Jean Guerrero was inundated with criticism as many Twitter users took issue with her use of the word "Latinxs" in a tweet on Sunday.

"Democratic outreach to Latino voters on the California recall election is not working. I've been speaking to young Latinxs and almost none of them have any idea what is going on. This is really, really bad," Guerrero tweeted.

Merriam-Webster.com says "Latinx" is a word "used as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino or Latina."

Many on Twitter pounced on Guerrero's utilization of the term.

"First of all we don't like to be called Latinxs. Be a little more careful of the words you use," one tweet stated.

"Stop calling us Latinx. We don't want to be called that. It just shows how out of touch with the Hispanic community you are. Just stop!" another tweet said.

"First, don't call us Latinx. Second, don't call us Latinx, period. And you wonder why you're turning us off," tweeted Beatrice Cardenas, whose Twitter bio describes her as a "Congressional Candidate for CA-27." According to Ballotpedia, Cardenas is a Republican who lost in a nonpartisan primary last year.

"If a political group uses the term 'Latinx,' it's a telltale sign that they're not in touch with Hispanic Americans," pollster Frank Luntz tweeted.

Pew Research Center said that "only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term Latinx, and just 3% say they use it to describe themselves, according to a nationally representative, bilingual survey of U.S. Hispanic adults conducted in December 2019 by Pew Research Center."

According to a June 1-July 5 Gallup poll, when asked which term they thought should generally be utilized, only a small proportion of Hispanic adults living in the U.S. picked LatinX.

"Most Hispanic adults (57%) say it does not matter to them which term is used, though nearly one in four (23%) prefer 'Hispanic' and 15% prefer 'Latino.' Few expressed a preference for 'Latinx' (4%)," according to Gallup.

"I've never faced such a tidal wave of right-wing hysteria as for using the word "Latinx" this afternoon," Guerrero tweeted.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a Sept. 14 recall election in the Golden State. If a majority of voters decide to remove Newsom from office, he will be ousted more than a year before his term is slated to conclude.

On the ballot, voters will indicate whether or not Newsom should be removed, and they will select from a list of candidates vying to replace him. If a majority cast their votes to oust Newsom from office, the candidate with the most votes will become the state's new governor.

In 2003, California voters successfully recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.