America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful

In the world we live in it is very popular to voice our opinions without thinking about who gets hurt by those words.  The Coca Cola ad campaign, “It’s Beautiful”, portrayed a variety of different faces and different languages that showed the diversity in America. Based on what we have learned about the different languages we can see that there will always be those who will not accept something that is different from what they think or like.  The video received so much backlash because the song was sung in different languages and because there were different ethnicities and races represented. This does not faze me because racism has always been and will always be very prominent.  

I believe people were so upset about this ad because they are so close-minded.  They cannot accept that what makes America beautiful is its diversity.  The fact that many different races and many different languages make us one is just beautiful.  Many don’t understand this concept because to them America is all about just strictly speaking English and all looking one certain way; white, blonde hair and colored eyes.  Being American is much more than that.  It is not about your looks or if you were born here but it our identity because this is where we feel that we belong; it is a part of us.  

The ad itself is representing diversity and how beautiful it is for all of us to come together as one and represent America for what it really is.  It is the home of many who come from different countries and different backgrounds but make the best of it.  It also shows that it does not matter what you look like or where you come from because we are all equal; we are America the beautiful.  If we take a look on the reactions that people had from this ad, we can see that they are similar to those we saw when we studied AAVE, Spanish, and Asian Languages.  Many are told to speak English because this is America, but you cannot simply ask someone to abandon their preferred language just because it is not what you speak.  Many AAVE speakers were judged because they were not speaking “correct English” or because they sounded “uneducated”.  Spanish speakers were also judged because “this is America, learn to speak English”.  We also see discrimination in this ad because many so called Americans do not understand the concept of diversity and acceptance.  “Hey @CocaCola This is America. English, please” (USA Today Tweet) .Society as one is so close-minded that they do not realize that the language people chose to speak is the language that they relate to.  

Not speaking English all the time or not looking like the “ideal American” does not make us any less American.  “We come to America, in other words, and we become American--but we don't erase everything else that we were before, we don't forget our cultures and languages as if they never existed, and we don't hide them as if they're shameful or less than patriotic.  We bring them out and share them, and they make this country better and stronger.” (Poniewozik)  This is what America is all about, combing cultures and making it into one beautiful one.