Game company Bungie in ‘Latinx’ blunder as Twitter rejects their ‘inclusive’ initiative

On October 2, Bungie, unveiled Latin@Bungie, an employee resource group to connect its staff with people of similar cultural backgrounds. However, the announcement has received major criticism for its terminology.

Bungie offends Latin community with ‘Latinx’ announcement

Bungie, the company behind the hit game Destiny 2, posted a Twitter update on Monday, reading: “Being Latin/a/e/o/x is more than just a location on a map, just as being Hispanic is more than the language we might speak.”

Latina and Latino are two traditional terms used to identify a female or male with roots in Latin America, respectively. In recent years, however, the word Latinx has circulated online as a gender-neutral or nonbinary alternative to Latino or Latina.

The exact date of introduction of Latinx is unknown but reports claim that it first appeared on Google Trends in 2004.

The modern term has received some pushback as Spanish itself is a gendered language. Nouns are differentiated as either masculine or feminine, with the masculine vocabulary ending with an -o suffix. Feminine terminology, meanwhile, ends with the -a suffix.

Twitter reacts to Bungie’s blunder

An influx of negative comments has followed Bungie’s announcement. The company has yet to address the backlash but is aware of the response as they have hidden countless hateful fan tweets.

“There’s only Latino or Latina,” one person corrected. “No Latino person asked for Latinx. Y’all should be ashamed for posting this. Call me a slur instead of this.”

Another added: “This is insanely tone-deaf on multiple levels and you hiding the replies and doubling down on this is awful. Do better.”

An early edition of the community-added context notes has been screenshotted:

GRV Media and HITC have reached out to Bungie for comment.

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