The multilingual song prompted #SpeakAmerican to trend on Twitter.
I thought America was the land of opportunity, dreams and progress. But reactions to a Super Bowl commercial showed me that the concept of the American Dream has still got a ways to go.
When watching commercials last night in between breaks during the Super Bowl, one had me smiling from ear to ear. Coca-Cola’s commercial was a 60-second clip in which people of different nationalities sang “America the Beautiful” in various languages.
However, responses were surprisingly critical. Twitter handles blaring “#SpeakAmerican” trended on the social media site, declaring the advertisement to be anti-American and unpatriotic.
The question I have for everyone is this one: Isn’t America a land of many cultures, ideologies and nationalities?
Then why are we asking others to abandon their languages and their cultures for this portrayal of “America”? Do we want America to be more exclusive, and because of that are we asking all individuals to become less individualized?
I thought differences are what made life beautiful. Not necessarily making America beautiful, but the people who came to America to find their own futures and to find their own “pursuit of happiness,” as Thomas Jefferson would say.
Perhaps one of the reasons why this has affected me so much is that I am a first-generation Korean-American. My parents are both South Korean immigrants who came to America for “the dream.” The dream of raising their children in a loving home, the dream for the opportunity to start their own business and the dream of seeing their children pursuing their own dreams.
Though growing up in a household where holding onto my culture is important, I’ve learned to embrace both my Korean heritage and my American culture.
Yet, this whole controversy shattered my idea of “the dream” and brought me back to reality with a fearful thought: Does the idea of being American imply exclusivity? In fact, is this patriotic stance a stance for ignorance? Has patriotism become a fuel for prejudice?
Though there were negative remarks, many still believed Coca-Cola was taking a positive approach in advocating and advertising for its diverse consumers, that no matter what background you have, we all can have shared common values and human experiences.
It’s a terrible shame that we failed to acknowledge the similarities we have with others, and some prefer to accentuate the differences. We failed to grow and see progress in acceptance and we failed to see commonalities. Instead of embracing the beauty of uniqueness, we chose to campaign for the ugliness of sameness.
Will this become the America that we choose to portray to those who come here for their own personal dream?
All in all, I won’t proudly say, “I am an American” until change and progress is made. Then, maybe America will be beautiful to me.
Hannah Yang is a senior studying journalism and a writer for The Post. Tell Hannah what you think about Coca-Cola’s ad at hy135010@ohiou.edu.
