I'm amazed by the words liberals get away with to describe people from Central and South America. Formerly, people from Central and South America were called "Hispanics" or lumped together with Black people to be called "People of Color," but recently I've seen a lot of references to "black and brown people."

In Slate:

Donald Trump wants the death penalty for the black and brown people he blames for the opioid crisis.

At the NYT:

“Through most of its history, National Geographic, in words and images, reproduced a racial hierarchy with brown and black people at the bottom, and white people at the top,” Mr. Mason said in an interview on Tuesday.

And here's  a website using the term to describe how the marijuana industry is white and racist:

 Another problem is in the fact that even now the Brown and Black communities could have the opportunities to pursue this entrepreneurship, getting a license and fighting against societal prejudices has become very hard. 

"Brown people," it seems, is only used in the context of describing Central and South Americans as victims of racism. You never see someone write, "I went to lunch with a brown person today," or "I saw a brown person in the math club after school." No, brown person is only reserved for claims of discrimination and victimhood.

And yet, many people from Central and South America are not actually brown.

Look at this Mexican in this photo here. I suppose you could say his skin is brown.

But now look at this Mexican. Clearly not brown at all.

Do Mexicans who are not dark skinned really want to be called "brown people"? I'm guessing not.

Then there is the term "Latinx." I'm inferring that it refers to both male and female people originally from Central and South America.

More than 100 students and faculty attended the “I Am Enough: Afro-Latinx” panel at Pugh Hall on March 20 to learn about the experiences and challenges of the Afro-Latinx community.

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Twitter is now specifically focusing on increasing black, Latinx and female representation

Again, the term seems to be used in the context of identity politics. But ending the word with an "x" makes it sound so harsh. It's like calling Mexicans Windex, spandex, or even a disease like herpes simplex.  Using the "x" makes them all sound like neutered robots.

I have never heard people from Central or South America call each other these names. Have you ever heard a Mexican say things like, "Hey, brown person, how are you today?"  or "I'm fine, Latinx, how are you?"

I get the feeling that Central and South Americans don't use these names, that only white liberals use these names to describe them in their identity politics diatribe. Even the established name "Hispanic" is weird, because it encompasses so many people who are so different--Mexicans, Guatemalans, Bolivians, even Guarani Indians who don't speak Spanish, but not people from Spain who do speak Spanish.

Questions for discussion:

1) What would happen to you if you went to a Central or South American person and said, "Hey, brown person, how are you today"?

2) How can liberals get away with such blatantly racist or nonsensical terms that would land someone with a black eye or worse if used in person?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.