Ju Man Kim celebrates with his daughter Leilani at his naturalization ceremony at the Olympia Timberland Library on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Kim, a Tacoma pastor originally from South Korea, was one of 10 immigrants to become U.S. citizens that day. The others came from Vietnam, Laos, India, Philippines, Japan, West Samoa, and American Samoa. (Photo by Homero A. Guadagnino/USCIS Seattle Field Office)
Part of the fun of the Super Bowl, aside from watching the Seahawks become champions of the world, is the commercials. There’s always one or two that get people riled up, and this year, Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” ad was one such culprit.
The ad depicts scenes of Americans of all ages and colors playing and working across the country, while nine girls sing “America the Beautiful” in nine different languages, beginning and ending with English. In between, you heard Spanish, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese-French, Hebrew, Mandarin, Arabic, and Keres — an actual, native, American language of the Pueblos of New Mexico. Naturally, the Internet exploded.
“Hey coca cola we live in the USA where we speak American”
“don’t you love how coke has turned our National Anthem in to EVERYONE else’s?”
“please unfollow @CocaCola, they are clearly against the most fundamental American values.”
“Good job coke….im now switching to Pepsi for good. Way to ruin an American song.”
(all sic)
Let’s ignore the annoying ignorance of English grammar, spelling, and facts (“America the Beautiful” is not our national anthem) displayed by these supposed native English-speaking commentators. Let’s focus momentarily on the sadness of individuals who cannot accept the reality that America — the United States portion of it — has no official language and no official ethnicity. Then let’s focus longer on what really does make America beautiful.
“When I sing the song I feel really happy, I feel joyful, I feel every word that explains happy.”
“It’s so beautiful that we are all the same. We just have different backgrounds and that’s OK, we’re all Americans and we can come together to make change.”
“I think people will feel really good in themselves to know America is there and to hear it in many other languages spoken, especially if one of the languages is a language that you speak, and it will really get deep inside of you.”
“Out of many people, out of many cultures, that’s what makes it one country, and one nation. We can speak whatever we want. We can pray whatever we want to pray, and I just think that’s pretty amazing, and that we’re lucky to have it.”
Those are the words of the young American girls who talked about what singing “America the Beautiful” in the ad meant to them. You can see and hear them on YouTube: “Coca-Cola — It’s Beautiful — Behind the Scenes.”
Fortunately, saner voices stepped in on the hashtag to remind folks that America does not equal homogeneity, that racism is an endless loop to nowhere, and that the CEO of Pepsi is an Indian woman and its president a Muslim man. Oh, and the author of “America the Beautiful” was a lesbian named Katharine Lee Bates.
“Pizza just called to say from now on you can only order it in Italian”
“We godless liberals tend not to like Coke anyway! Now we’re backed into supporting them? Well played, Coke.”
“Pisses me off SO MUCH! This is America! They should be singing in Navajo! Take your English back to England, you dirty immigrants!”
On Tuesday, 10 people became American citizens at a naturalization ceremony in Tacoma. They are all beautiful. Coke boycotters, get over it! (end)