This is a pretty sweet commercial. It isn't exactly ground-breaking, but it is nice, uplifting and inoffensive.
That is, it's inoffensive as long as you're not an angry, white, conservative bigot with a Twitter account who thinks the official language of America - and therefore the world - should be English.
Shortly after this commercial was aired, #boycottcoke began trending on Twitter. To be fair, part of the reason for that was because people were trolling bigots, but there were still plenty of folks who posted stuff like this:
And this:
For those who are really upset by this alleged affront to hard-working Americans everywhere, #fuckcoke is also trending thanks to brilliant minds such as this one:
In case you were wondering, of course this outrage isn't just limited to Twitter. Former Florida Representative Allen West called the ad "disturbing" and said that America is "...on the road to perdition." Right-wing aggregator The Right Scoop also had this to say:
"...in a day and age where no political party is willing to fix our porous border, I can understand the outrage. America has a culture of its own, primarily denoted by our official language, English, and there are many in our society who would like to destroy that culture and are working hard at doing exactly that."
I wish I could say that I'm surprised that this is happening, but I can't. I saw this coming as soon as I started watching the commercial. People like to go on and on about how we live in a "post-racial" society and that people of color are now treated just as well as white people in our country, but there are still people who are convinced that being an American means being a WASP (that's White Anglo-Saxon Protestant for those who don't know) who only speaks English. Anybody who isn't white or who doesn't speak English as their first language apparently isn't a "real" American and is therefore inferior to the rest of us.
(Wow. I just realized that the last sentence I typed reads like something from a white supremacist manifesto. That's the first time I've ever actually scared myself while writing a blog post.)
I think it's time to set some things straight, because there are apparently just too many people out there who don't get it.
1. English is not the official language of the United States of America. The U.S. has no official language. You could argue that English has become the country's de facto official language, but it technically has no greater validity than any other language people choose to speak.
2. American culture clearly is not the melting pot we've all been led to believe. The only ones who seem to be unanimously accepted as American are white people from a traditional Christian background. Everyone else has been segregated, marginalized and ostracized in many ways since this country was founded. If we really were the melting pot that our teachers said we were, people wouldn't react so strongly to this commercial. People celebrating being American in different languages would be the status quo.
3. Europeans were not the first people in this country. There were hundreds of indigenous tribes that were here long before Spanish explorers, British colonists or any other white settlers showed up. That means all these dumbass white 'Murricans who want to "keep America American" have no more of a right to be here than "illegal" Mexicans and Muslim "terrorists."
4. "America the Beautiful" is not our national anthem. "The Star Spangled Banner" is.
It's stuff like this that makes me a little ashamed to call myself an American. I was born and raised here, and I haven't lived in any other country, yet there's a reason why I've decided to tell everybody I meet that I'm Canadian if I ever go overseas. I know that the people who took offense to this commercial don't represent everyone in this country, but there are enough of them making their voices heard to make it clear that we are not living in a "post-racial" society.
I'm sure there are people who will tell me that I'm un-American for saying these things, but to hell with them. If being an American means choosing to boycott a damn soft drink company for acknowledging a multi-cultural society, then I don't think I want to be an American.
I wish I could say that I'm surprised that this is happening, but I can't. I saw this coming as soon as I started watching the commercial. People like to go on and on about how we live in a "post-racial" society and that people of color are now treated just as well as white people in our country, but there are still people who are convinced that being an American means being a WASP (that's White Anglo-Saxon Protestant for those who don't know) who only speaks English. Anybody who isn't white or who doesn't speak English as their first language apparently isn't a "real" American and is therefore inferior to the rest of us.
(Wow. I just realized that the last sentence I typed reads like something from a white supremacist manifesto. That's the first time I've ever actually scared myself while writing a blog post.)
I think it's time to set some things straight, because there are apparently just too many people out there who don't get it.
1. English is not the official language of the United States of America. The U.S. has no official language. You could argue that English has become the country's de facto official language, but it technically has no greater validity than any other language people choose to speak.
2. American culture clearly is not the melting pot we've all been led to believe. The only ones who seem to be unanimously accepted as American are white people from a traditional Christian background. Everyone else has been segregated, marginalized and ostracized in many ways since this country was founded. If we really were the melting pot that our teachers said we were, people wouldn't react so strongly to this commercial. People celebrating being American in different languages would be the status quo.
3. Europeans were not the first people in this country. There were hundreds of indigenous tribes that were here long before Spanish explorers, British colonists or any other white settlers showed up. That means all these dumbass white 'Murricans who want to "keep America American" have no more of a right to be here than "illegal" Mexicans and Muslim "terrorists."
4. "America the Beautiful" is not our national anthem. "The Star Spangled Banner" is.
It's stuff like this that makes me a little ashamed to call myself an American. I was born and raised here, and I haven't lived in any other country, yet there's a reason why I've decided to tell everybody I meet that I'm Canadian if I ever go overseas. I know that the people who took offense to this commercial don't represent everyone in this country, but there are enough of them making their voices heard to make it clear that we are not living in a "post-racial" society.
I'm sure there are people who will tell me that I'm un-American for saying these things, but to hell with them. If being an American means choosing to boycott a damn soft drink company for acknowledging a multi-cultural society, then I don't think I want to be an American.
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