South Pacific, The National Anthem, & Why Racism is Still a Problem in the U.S.

Every year one of my favorite parts about watching the Super Bowl is getting to see all of the commercials that are being putting out during it. There were many commercials that had me laughing and some that were very touching. But when I saw the commercial by Coca Cola, featuring the National Anthem, sung in many different languages in everywhere across the nation. I found this commercial extremely moving and beautiful, something more advertising should try to display. It came as a shock to me when we were told in class that this commercial had been receiving negative feed back. It is amazing to me that people can remain so narrow minded in a country that takes pride in over coming racisms and being open to all people. The comparison between this commercial and the 1949 musical South Pacific are vast. South Pacific took a bold leap for it's time in pairing interracial couples and mixed ethnicity children. Audiences were shocked, but sometimes shock is what people need. This Coca Cola commercial is the first to have the country's anthem sung by an array of languages and featured all types of people, even a featuring gay parents, a boundary pushing move for today. The responses to the commercial were vast, some, like myself, praised the commercial for being beautiful and moving, while some, criticized it and bashed it as un-American. The idea that if you live in America you should speak "American" is just ridiculous, and people should not be allowed to live a life with such a narrow view. It is mind sets like these that hold this country back, while other countries encourage and even require their children to be educated in multiple languages, while here in America there a people encouraging a lack of world view and narrow mindedness.