How did American “wokeness” jump from elite schools to everyday life?
And how deep will its influence be?
YOU COULD use a single word as a proxy. “Latinx” is a gender-neutral adjective which only 4% of American Hispanics say they prefer. Yet in 2018 the New York Times launched a column dedicated to “LatinX communities”. It has crept into White House press releases and a presidential speech. Google’s diversity reports use the even more inclusive “LatinX+”. A term once championed by esoteric academics has gone mainstream.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Out of the academy”
From the September 4th 2021 edition
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