Speaking of being on the wrong side of history, some people certainly proved the point in their reactions to that Coca-Cola ad during the Super Bowl. I'm sure you know about it, but just in case you've been living in a cave for the past couple of weeks, it shows quick cuts of various people doing various things to a soundtrack of "America the Beautiful" sung in various languages, including, according to the website Language Log, English, Spanish, Keres Pueblo, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese French, and Hebrew.And of course the right-wingers went ballistic with outrage at this horrible affront to "our" America, where "Speak English!" is the real national motto.
Perhaps the best response came from John McIntyre, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, who said he was encouraged by the whole thing. The ad, he said, meant Coke had made a hard-headed business calculation that diversity is where their customers are and will be - and the loathsome reaction showed that the nativist white racists are on the losing side of the demographics and they know it.
But my favorite reaction came from Glenn Blech, who insisted he didn't like the ad because it was intended to "divide us politically."
"Because," he said, "that’s all this ad is... It’s in your face, and if you don’t like it, if you’re offended by it, you’re a racist."
Yes, you are.
Sources:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10142
http://deadspin.com/dumb-people-mad-at-multilingual-america-the-beautiful-1514567876
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-cocacola-and-white-outrage-20140204,0,5895928.story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/glenn-beck-coca-cola-super-bowl-ad_n_4719005.html?ref=topbar
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