A tweet by the New York Yankees baseball team using the term Latinx to refer to people of Latin American descent has generated controversy and memes debating the use of the term, which some find offensive or unnecessary.

Each year, more than 4,100 Latinx people die from gun violence in the U.S. and 13,300 are shot and wounded.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 26, 2022

Actually, zero Latinx people have died from gun violence because there is no such thing as a Latinx person https://t.co/PJLQqWeviM

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 27, 2022

“Latinx” is intended to be a gender-neutral way of saying “Latino/a.” It came into use in the early 2000s as a way for Spanish-speaking LGBTQ+ people to identify themselves without having to specify a gender, although use was mostly centered around academia and social media.

Many find the term problematic because the sound of the English letter “x” doesn’t exist in Spanish, and so the term is difficult for many to pronounce. To many detractors, it is strongly associated with woke culture.

We Latinos can't even pronounce the word latinX in our natives languages, in Spanish, the neutral plural for a Latino person is Latinos… So stop using the white word latinX to talk about us please

— William Portillo (@FolloWilliaMe) May 27, 2022

Over 90% of latinos hate the term "latinx" and they've tried to tell rich white leftists this time and time again. How about you stand down and stop engaging in linguistic colonialism? https://t.co/StAbTd5ZGb

— D3SL (@D3Shabat) May 27, 2022

LATINX IS NOT A WORD PLEASE STOP https://t.co/sRWlLw9AKM pic.twitter.com/jacDRFfHet

— ? (@phife__) May 27, 2022

Amid the viral debate over the term in recent years, some have proposed “Latine” as an alternative and gender-neutral way of saying “Latino” or “Latina.”

Not to mention how fucking outdated this discussion is in 2022.

Folks in LatAm AND the US have already moved on to “Latine/s.” But they don’t focus on that cuz it doesn’t fit their “Latinx is pushed by white academics 😡” narrative plus it’s easy to prove its use in LatAm. https://t.co/yP62YY1yrN

— Rubén (@xoxorubenangel) May 27, 2022

There were many memes mocking the Yankees (or anyone who uses Latinx) as a "fake white progressive," and some posters even went so far as to call the term a racial slur.

Did someone say “Latinx”? https://t.co/Glatz7ts7A pic.twitter.com/1jY1WbuaGv

— Oscar 🇻🇦🇸🇻 (@cathsalvadoreno) May 27, 2022

Latinx? https://t.co/8Bip43uUbT pic.twitter.com/cg4ABy3Z50

— El Azul (@ONeill_ForReal) May 27, 2022

There was backlash to the backlash, however, with some defending the use of “Latinx” or simply counseling the anti-Latinx camp to calm down a little.

Just saw a tweet that said latinx is a racial slur and I just….. pic.twitter.com/UR2D9flTf9

— ? (@goldenratiho) May 27, 2022

latinx is trending pic.twitter.com/0JlUAPr8uP

— sock (classic edition) (@sockdeluxe) May 27, 2022

The Latinx tweet is one of many put out by the Yankees in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas shooting that attempts to promote gun control measures and highlight the problem of gun violence in America. In addition to backlashing against the use of "Latinx," some pro-gun users on social media platforms like Twitter also spoke out against the whole series of tweets.

Wow!!! Thank you Yankees</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">RaysBaseball. On behalf of my daughter Jaime and all victims of gun violence, I thank you. https://t.co/UdhW8lELzP

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 26, 2022

absolute meltdowns happening in the Yankees replies pic.twitter.com/u4ndqnpY4C

— jordan (@JordanUhl) May 26, 2022