February 12, 2014
The
Portland Observer Black History Month
Page 19
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America the Beautiful for the 21st Century
Coca-Cola’s
inclusive Super
Bowl commercial
R aul A . R eyes
D uring this y e a r’s
S u p e r B o w l, C o c a -
C ola debuted a 60-sec-
ond com m ercial p a y
ing tribute to the d i
versity o f our nation.
C oke’s “It’s B eautiful”
ad featured expansive
scenes o f the country
and shots o f a w ide
variety o f real people.
Som e o f them w ere enjoying a C oke.
It w as set to “A m erica the B eautiful” — as
sung in seven different languages, including
E nglish, Spanish, T agalog, and H indi.
T his com m ercial generated a profoundly
negative response am ong conservative co m
m entators. T hey reacted w ith h o stility, fear,
and even bigotry. T o their discredit, these
com m entators revealed not only their ig n o
rance — but also a w illful refusal to accept
by
the reality o f A m erica in the 21st century.
O n his radio show , G lenn B eck term ed the
ad “ in y o u r face,” and an attem pt to “divide
p eo p le.” This is quite ironic, considering
that only w eeks ago B eck adm itted that his
Fox N ew s program w as itself divisive.
“ I think I played a role, unfortunately, in
helping tear the country apart,” he said. H e ’s
right about that. His conspiracy theories,
“b irth er” com m ents, and dem agoguery w ere
a far m ore corrosive influence on A m erican
society than any com m ercial e v er could be.
F o rm er Rep. A llen W est also took offense
at the C oke com m ercial.
“I f w e cannot be proud enough as a c o u n
try to sing “A m erican the B eautiful” [sic] in
E nglish in a com m ercial during the Super
B ow l, by a com pany as A m erican as they
com e — doggone w e are on the road to
p erd itio n ,” the F lorida R epublican w rote on
his w ebsite.
E ven though W est gets the nam e o f the
song w rong, that does not stop the tea
partying politician from calling the spot “truly
d istu rb in g .” A s a self-styled “G uardian o f
the R ep u b lic,” W est m ight be surprised to
know that o ur country d o e sn ’t have an o ffi
cial language and that the C ensus B ureau
reports that 381 languages are co m m only
spoken w ithin o u r borders.
T hen th e re ’s T o d d Starnes, w ho tw eeted
“C o u ld n ’t m ake out that song they w ere
singing. I only speak E nglish.” T he Fox R a
dio host w ent on to w onder, “ So w as C oca-
C o la saying A m erica is beautiful because
new im m igrants d o n ’t learn to speak E n
g lish ?”
A pparently these conservatives need a
decoderforthiscom m ercial. “W ith ‘It’s B eau
tiful, ’ w e are sim ply show ing that A m erica is
beautiful and C oke is fo r ev ery o n e,” ex
plained K atie B ayne, P resident o f N orth
A m erican B rands fo r C oca-C ola in a state
ment.
By the w ay, new im m igrants do learn E n
glish. C o n sid er a 2012 study by the Pew
R esearch H ispanic Trends Project that looked
at language use am ong L atino im m igrants.
W hile the first generation is usually only
proficient in Spanish, by the second g en era
tion, the use o f Spanish falls as the use o f
English rises. By the third generation, E n
glish is the dom inant language. A separate
study last year by U niversity o f W isconsin
researchers found that L atino im m igrants are
learning E nglish faster than previous groups
o f im m igrants.
It’s sad that B eck, W est, S tarnes and
o th er con serv ativ e co m m en tato rs d o n ’t a p
preciate the richness o f o u r m u lticultural
society.
T he fact is that o u r co u n try has alw ays
been m ultilingual. There are 169 N ative N orth
A m erican languages that are still spoken
today, linguist N ataly K elly notes at T he
H uffington Post, and several o f the F o u n d
ing Fathers spoke languages besides E n
g lish , in c lu d in g Jo h n A d a m s, T h o m a s
Jefferson, and Jam es M onroe.
T oday, 60 m illion A m ericans speak a lan
guage oth er than E nglish at hom e. T his year,
for the first tim e, the S u p er B ow l w as also
televised in Spanish. So C o k e ’s com m ercial
truly reflects o u r n a tio n ’s past, present, and
future. W h at’s w rong w ith that?
C o ca-C o la deserves praise fo r its inclu
sive Super B ow l com m ercial. A nd critics o f
the ad ought to think about the m otto on the
G reat Seal o f the U nited States: E pluribus
unum . It m eans “O ut o f m any, o n e”------and
it’s in Latin.
Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and colum
nist in New York City. Distributed via
OtherWords (OtherWords.org).
We
It’s about safety,
justice and
fairness for all
by M arc H. M orial
E lections have c o n
sequences. N ever has
that been m ore clearly
dem onstrated than last
m o n th w h e n N e w
Y ork’s new m ayor, Bill
de B lasio, announced an agreem ent
to reform the stop-and-frisk p rac
tice o f the c ity ’s police departm ent,
tactics w hich have d isproportio n
ately targeted A frican A m erican and
L atino young m en for years.
At the B row nsville R ecreation
C enter in B rooklyn, a com m unity
burdened w ith m ore police stops
than any other in the city, the m ayor
fulfilled a cam paign prom ise and
announced that his adm inistration
w ould drop an appeal o f a ruling by
Judge S hira S cheindlin, w ho found
the policy unconstitutional and an
exam ple o f “ indirect racial profil
ing.”
M ayor de B lasio m ade stop-and-
frisk reform a m ajor issue in his 2013
cam paign, and the agreem ent he
announced represents a dram atic
re v e rsa l
of
th e
p r e v io u s
a d m in istra tio n ’s staunch d efense
o f the policy.
T he agreem ent calls for the co m
m encem ent o f a dialogue betw een
police and com m unity leaders
to ensure that policies driving
the police and com m unity apart
are co o p erativ ely addressed.
Furtherm ore, fo r the next three
years, a cou rt-ap p o in ted m oni
to r w ill oversee the N Y P D ’s
Let m e be clear. As the form er
m ayor o f N ew O rleans, I fully under
stand that the first obligation o f
governm ent is to protect its citi
zens, and I believe in com m unity
policing - done intelligently.
B ut N ew Y o rk ’s stop-and-frisk
policy w as counterproductive and
violated basic constitutional p rin
ciples. A ccording to statistics c o m
piled by the N ew York Civil Liberties
U nion, “From 2002 to 2011, Black
and L atino residents m ade up close
From 2002 to 2011, Black and
Latino residents made up close to
90 percent o f people stopped, and
about 88 percent o f stops - more
than 3.8 million — were o f innocent
New Yorkers.
co m pliance w ith constitutional law.
T he m ay o r ex plained that once the
resolution is co n firm ed by the F ed
eral D istrict C ourt, N ew Y ork C ity
w ill officially drop the appeal that
w as put in m otion by the B loom berg
adm inistration.
to 90 percent o f people stopped,
and about 88 percent o f stops -
m ore than 3.8 mi 11 ion - w ere o f inno-
cent N ew Y orkers. E ven in n eig h
borhoods that are predom inantly
w hite, B lack and L atino N ew Y ork
e rs fa c e th e d is p r o p o r ti o n a te
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b ru n t... This, on its face, is discrim i
n a to ry .”
this discrim inatory p ractice as we
know it.
T h e c ity ’s n ew p o lic e c o m m is
sio n er, B ill B ratto n , u n d e rsc o re d
the m a y o r’s com m itm ent to reform ,
n o tin g th a t in ste a d o f sec u rin g
c o n fid e n c e , le g itim a c y and j u s
tice, in recen t y ears the c ity ’s stop-
a n d -frisk p ra c tic e s h a v e “ ra ised
d o u b ts an d c o n c e rn s ab o u t the
p olice force in this c ity .” He added,
“ W e w ill no t b re a k the law to e n
fo rce th e la w .”
T he N ational U rban League has
been am ong those calling fo r stop-
and-frisk reform in N ew Y ork City.
T h is new ag reem en t e sse n tially
m arks the beginning o f the end o f
W e applaud M ay o r de Blasio,
C o m m issio n er B ratton and esp e
cially the people o f N ew Y ork w ho
voted for change and got it. By
paving the w ay to a reduction in
racial profiling, a greater guarantee
o f equal treatm ent under the law,
and better relations betw een police
and the com m unity, this m ove o f
fers a guide to other cities across the
n a tio n c o m m itte d to e n s u r in g
safety, ju stic e and fairness for all
citizens. *
Marc H. Morial is president and
chief executive officer o f the Na
tional Urban League.
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Patrick John Sweeney
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