The use of "Latinx" is one of the best examples of just how disconnected these people are from those they seek to represent/protect.

The discourse around policing is another one. Eric Adams addressed this in his recent op ed on moving the Democratic primary to South Carolina: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/opinions/democrats-2024-prima.... Adams writes that the move could help “address[] the concerns of all people of color and working-class people, many of whom feel the party has misrepresented their beliefs.”

Adams is talking about white political elites rather than white academics, but as Elizabeth Warren illustrates, there’s a lot of ideological overlap between the two.

"Latinx" also proves that the motivation is grounded in bad faith, for if someone were truly offended by the gendered term "Latino", they would surely use "Latin" instead of creating an ostentatious monstrosity that is totally alien to both English and Spanish.

Or, like the people who came up with :-), lmfao, wtf, l33t, pwned!!!111!1 and similar internet shortcuts, they were communicating in a text only medium and didn't need to worry about pronunciation?

Wait, how does the effort ostensibly against "elite whites" and in support of minorities, that looks exactly like many similar efforts by minorities and their advocates aimed against "elite whites" (or white men in general), ends up being "diverting political and cultural power from minority group to elite whites"?

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm completely baffled by how you've managed to reach the opposite conclusion to the one I'd expect.

The project of identity politics is based in the elite classes, and is used to further alienate the working classes, who lack the time or interest to keep up with the quickly-evolving shibboleths, that often contradict their lived experiences.

Identity politics is gleefully adopted by the elite institutions, and the base of resistance against it is working class.

It's because this is simply an exercise in wasting resources while looking progressive. Instead of advocating to actually help discriminated people in important ways (pressure on wages, blind interviews to combat unfair hiring, unionization to help solidify such practices, and many other real social changes), they are pushing bullshit changes that don't help anyone in the affected groups, but make them feel better and give them a new lever to use against ideological opponents.

Historically, advocacy on minority issues was done mainly through minority communities and had those communities as their primary constituency. Today, advocacy on behalf of minorities has increasingly been taken over by universities, large media entities, major foundations like the Ford Foundation, and activist organizations that rely on the above for financial support. These organizations are run by white people, and insofar as they have minorities in them, those minorities were selected by white people. That obviously transfers power from minorities to white people.

To use a concrete example, consider MacKenzie Bezos donating tens of millions of dollars to “AAPI” organizations. Those AAPI organizations don’t answer to recent Chinese or Bangladeshi immigrants in Queens. Their whole incentive structure is oriented around appealing to rich white people like MacKenzie Bezos. Or to use another example, consider BLM. Civil rights issues historically were championed by black churches, who answered to black constituencies. But organizations like BLM are funded mainly by white people. Ibram Kendi is a professor selected by white faculty at a university run by white people.

The fact that those white elites will often support advocacy complaining about “white people” doesn’t change that. When a white Harvard professor complains about “white people” they don’t mean themselves. They mean some racist truck driver in Iowa. They’re in denial of the fact that they’re actually the elites.