This year’s Super Bowl commercials were sub par, to say the least. Most were your usual funny beer and celebrity commercials with a few heartfelt ones thrown in the mix. For myself, the “America the Beautiful” Coca-Cola commercial really hit me as a strong one. This is a country that is divided like never before, and this commercial showed that no matter who we are, we are Americans.
As I went through my Twitter feed, I saw plenty of tweets praising the commercial, but I also saw far too many tweets and Facebook posts that completely bashed the commercial due to the song being sung in other languages.
One comment stated, “No. No. No. You do not sing America the Beautiful in anything expect English.” Another one said, “Well coke.... That commercial just made me a Pepsi customer.” Is this a joke, people? This is 2014, we have a black president, openly gay members of congress and female CEOs. Why is it a big deal that “America the Beautiful” was sung in languages other than English?
Are citizens that speak other languages any less American than you and I? The answer is no. It is pathetic that we still have people who make a big deal overthis. My grandfather was raised only speaking Spanish. He was teased and got into fights every day for not knowing English when he was in grade school. He taught himself and his family how to speak English and continued to speak Spanish with his family. He also joined the army and fought for his country. Does the fact that he spoke Spanish make him less of an American?
The bigotry exposed from a 30 second commercial is outrageous. Believe it or not, English is not the official language of this country. It is time to get off our high horse and realize that singing a song about American pride, such as “America the Beautiful” in a different language is not a sign of disrespect. If anything, it is a true representation of what this country is: a country of immigrants who work hard to make us great.
