The term “LatinX” has recently emerged as a gender-neutral replacement for Latina or Latino, especially among younger people. But in a world where people are more polarized than ever before, El Salvadoran immigrant and film producer Laz Ayala says label-obsession is destroying our culture and pushing us further apart.

“It’s insulting,” says Ayala, producer and author of the documentary and book Illegal. “Another label is just going to further marginalize and divide the Hispanic community into sub-groups. As a country, we’re already so far apart that nothing gets done.”

Even before the appearance of the term LatinX, it’s been confusing for people. So confusing that even Latin Americans living in the United States are not in agreement with what they should be called as a group. The emergence of LatinX has created debate about its appropriateness in a gendered language like Spanish. Some critics say its origins are among U.S. English speakers, and that it ignores the Spanish language and its gendered format.

Sociologist Analucía Lopezrevoredo, PhD, says LatinX is, “a way to take American values and anglicize the Spanish.” Lopezrevoredo does not use the term Latinx to define herself because while she feels that Latino does denote gender neutrality, she also views LatinX as too contentious.

In actual use and awareness, LatinX seems mostly irrelevant. While Latinx is seen across social media channels, a recent study by the Pew Research Center finds that only 23 percent of Latinos have heard the term and that only 3 percent of the total population are using it.

The Pew Research study further states that, “Across many demographic subgroups, the share of Hispanics who say they use Latinx to describe their own identity is significantly lower than the share who say they have heard it. Use is among the highest for Hispanic women ages 18 to 29 – 14% say they use it, a considerably higher share than the 1% of Hispanic men in the same age group who say they use it. In addition, the U.S. born are more likely than the foreign born to have heard the term (32% vs. 16%), and Hispanics who are predominantly English speakers or bilingual are more likely than those who mainly speak Spanish to say the same (29% for both vs. 7%).”

“LatinX is another trap to divide. Don’t give me a label,” says Ayala, who speaks and writes about label traps and the impact that sub-categories—like Chicano and Latino—have on the Hispanic community. His focus is on more vital issues in the Hispanic community, such as immigration and employment. Laz’s mission (Illegal: The Project) is about, “recognizing those who have been silenced, empowering immigrants to speak up about their stories.”