I am not a big sports fan, but I appreciate the hype built around popular sporting events. Events like the World Cup and the Super Bowl unite people of different ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds under one common goal — winning. For a brief moment, Americans can almost pretend that we are all the same.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl this year, but I did watch the commercials. Companies invest millions of dollars in their advertisements each year, which are as much a part of the event as the game itself. In particular, Coca-Cola’s ad stood out to me. In the commercial, Americans of various ethnicities sing “America the Beautiful” in their own languages. The jumping frames and diverse languages showcase a country that is culturally and ethnically diverse. I found this beautiful, but not all Americans agreed with me. The ad brought out one of the most beautiful things about the United States — multiculturalism — but also the ugliest — racism.
Because the United States is a country with a history of racism, I was surprised to find that it is still prevalent. As a foreigner myself, I have never felt attacked by anyone, but the outrage caused by the Coca-Cola commercial scared me. The United States is constantly becoming more multicultural. At the same time, it seems xenophobia and intolerance are also growing.
President Obama’s promise — published on the White House website — to implement “a smart, effective immigration system that continues efforts to secure our borders” reflects the desires of the American public. Many Americans do not welcome immigrants, even though this country was built by them. However, the Coca-Cola advertisement showed that public opinion has gone a step further than simply not wanting to allow new immigrants into the United States.
Facebook blew up with posts like: “Today we are throwing away all our Coca-Cola products and replacing them with Faygo. Faygo represents Christian Values and follows the Constitution. Mexicans singing the National Anthem is an abomination,” and the hashtag “SpeakAmerican” appeared on Twitter. These claims are not only offensive to a great number of people who live in the United States, but they are also ignorant. The song featured in the ad was “America the Beautiful,” not the National Anthem.
To me, public outrage against the advertisement shows an American population that is closed off and unwilling to learn. It paints America as a country that doesn’t want to accept other cultures or languages, even though a large percentage of the population speaks a language other than English. Furthermore, the United States does not have an official language, which means that the people in the ad were in fact “speaking American.”
University of California at Los Angeles Professor Carlos Alberto Torres writes that diversity “defines the … social fabric of cities around the globe, and most certainly characterizes the population of the United States.” American society was built upon diverse cultures. Thus, it is wrong to believe that there is only one type of American. In spite of some Americans’ desire to retain a homogeneous society, this is not and never was possible.
Though the racism that exists today may not be as visible as it used to be, it is definitely there. It is in the allegedly meaningless jokes that people make, and even in the so-called “ethnic quotas” American universities and companies must fill. Americans should be evaluated by their merits, not their ethnicities.
I understand the need to protect the jobs and livelihood of current citizens of the United States through immigration laws. However, active discrimination against immigrants does not serve the same purpose and will never be effective. America is a self-proclaimed country of equal opportunity. As such, we should provide opportunities equally rather than hide behind a motto that we refuse to follow.
Granted, it’s not the entire population of the United States that feels this way. More and more people are beginning to understand the value of protecting multiculturalism. Many people were touched by Coca-Cola’s ad and its representation of a united but diverse America. Even though racism is not as overt and widespread as it used to be, it will still make its presence known as long as an ad like Coca-Cola’s — which was supposed to get “people thinking about what it means to be proud to be American ” — causes the kind of outrage it did.
Sami Isman ‘15 believes that multiculturalism has only helped her grow. She can be reached at samantha_isman@brown.edu.
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