[ExI] a scout is human

Tue Apr 2 23:11:04 UTC 2024

…> On Behalf Of Mike Dougherty via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] a scout is human

On Tue, Apr 2, 2024, 1:15 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

>>…  The Mexican family … had to explain to us that the term LatinO is gender neutral, that LatinA is gender specific, that LatinX is specifically gay.

>>…Who knew?

>...that language matters?  

Mike fun aside on that, a trap we should never have fallen into: the original pitch was written by non-Spanish speakers and translated by Google Translate.  Oh that was just silly.  That isn’t the way to create ad-copy or culturally-sensitive promotional material.  We shoulda known better than that.  Unforced error.

>…Ironic that the inclusiveness that "latinx" tries to foster doesn't cross a cultural divide from American english to ... likely anywhere with a strong ethnic identity associated with language - including gendered words…

More than that.  Many cultures find the whole concept of gender ambiguity offensive as all hell.  We think everywhere is filled with hipsters like the USA and Europe.  Not so much.

>…How is that pronounced, anyway?  La-tinks?  Latin-eks? La-tinsh?

It isn’t pronounced, not by me it isn’t.  Once burned, twice shy.  It is presumptuous beyond arrogant to reinvent someone else’s language or culture.  Oh do not go there, and while not there, stay not there.

I was present when we showed the original to the Mexican family, who apparently thought I wrote the damn thing (I had nothing to do with it.)  It was: Oooooh nooo no no no noooooo.  Ohhh Meeeeester Joooones, no.  This isn’t right at all.

Eeesh.

Turns out that presentation was not just wrong, it was wrong on all axes simultaneously.  It was not just language-wrong, it was culture wrong, tone wrong, attitude wrong, pretty much everything wrong with nothing right about it.  But… the whole misadventure ended well, for now we know better.  That mistake was stopped before the damage was done and will not be repeated.

spike

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