SalarShushan: Seriously, nobody should be drinking Coca Cola OR Pepsi anymore...not until they get rid of the High Fructose Corn Syrup and [url=http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-caramel-color-20140123,0,4630.story ]get rid of 4-Mel [/url]

As for the song, its choosing favorite languages, and skipping others that are a larger part of the American history and society. Aside from Spanish, which makes perfect sense, they seem to be playing political favorites, and several of their chosen interest groups are - rightly or wrongly - not perceived to be all that patriotic by those reacting to it.

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If you run across someone who feels like these angry Tweeters do, please try to keep your temper and use truth to change minds. It works far better than negativity. They are far more likely to listen if you don't feel you are judging them harshly right back (as tempting as that can be.) I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do. I'm not saying I don't lose my temper sometimes too. I'm just saying that if we can keep explanations and discourse civil between opposing points of view, we are far more likely to get non-violent change that will last.

Peace

Red_Avatar: <snip>

Tomkel: The media is always preaching to Americans about 'respecting other peoples culture'. What about respecting our culture?

SalarShushan: Seriously, nobody should be drinking Coca Cola OR Pepsi anymore...not until they get rid of the High Fructose Corn Syrup and [url=http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-caramel-color-20140123,0,4630.story ]get rid of 4-Mel [/url]

As for the song, its choosing favorite languages, and skipping others that are a larger part of the American history and society. Aside from Spanish, which makes perfect sense, they seem to be playing political favorites, and several of their chosen interest groups are - rightly or wrongly - not perceived to be all that patriotic by those reacting to it.

Singing in different languages I have no problem with, I just wished they had made sure to use Spanish, French, German, and Hawaiian - since these predate the adoption of English as a lingua franca in many parts of the USA. If they had slipped a little history in there (maybe with dated maps,) I'd have been very happy with them. That would save me a little work. You see, a lot of these folks truly are ignorant about this..literally ignorant.

Over and over again, I find that the decidedly ignorant-sounding people who yowl about English only have absolutely no clue that English was NOT the first non-native common language - most places - in colonial times. Spanish has always been the main colonial language of the Southwest. This is nothing new! Tweeters featured in this piece were either never taught that or never took in what that means. Spanish is at least as 'American' as English. I have lost track of the number of times and places I have ended up launching into a gentle History lesson as a cure to reactions like these. It usually works too. People just don't know.

There's another issue too.

Please try to understand. These people are angry for a reason (as dumb as they sound and as poorly as they put it.) Not all of these are 'unreasoning haters' - [though I imagine a certain percentage are exactly that. Every village has its idiots.] Americans have been dealing with a government that has been regularly been seen as selling out to (foreign) corporate interests, to (foreign) world govt interests, and even selling the rights of citizenry - like voting - to anyone (including foreign nationals) who will vote for a particular party.

Again, a lot of those views are skewed by inaccurate reports and cultural mores, but there is a real hot-point buried there under all the stupidity.

This commercial punched that sore spot good and hard because it was suddenly too obvious that Coca-Cola didn't view itself as primarily American. People grew up believing they were a part of traditional American culture, that Coca-Cola's dominance was some leftover proof of American ways being influential and positive.

Now, I'd agree that the company isn't American any more and likely hasn't viewed itself that way for decades.

I understand the Global Conglomerate thinking they should celebrate their own diversity along with America's diversity, but I suspect another round of "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" would have gone over a lot better than handing over what is considered a secondary American Anthem to be sung by people that seem to represent interest groups that many other regular Americans feel have been given super-status by its own government for its own reasons.

Another reason for the knee-jerk lash-back? There is a very real fear here that America will be handed over to foreign powers, and its citizens made subordinate to laws and peoples who hate them. This is also what is behind the political pressure to reject just about every treaty and foreign policy anyone comes up with. People feel that every time a new plan gets signed, a little more personal liberty and national sovereignty go with it. It sounds paranoid, but they aren't 'always' wrong about that. They just aren't always right ;) - and sometimes its hard to reason people past their fears when this is the case. They feel like they've been lied to over and over, and they have - just maybe not by the representative trying to persuade a given community that global cooperation can do better things than non-cooperation.

Affection, patience and reason usually work, if we can find enough nobility within ourselves to avoid the low-hanging fruits of anger and polarized behavior. Only some of them could not be reasoned with. The rest will respond better to gentle, plainspoken truth than to 'shaming' - they just think that's the work of those duped by 'America's enemies.'

This needs to be stressed. 'Shaming' and hostility are NOT going to improve matters.

Ridicule has been majorly over-used as a political tool, and is now just seen as bias. Most won't listen to it.

I'm with the poster that we'd be better off focusing on the positive, but since I've already listened to and found myself 'splainin things to overly conservative friends who needed a history lesson and a chill pill... Well, I thought in all fairness I should try and explain how an apparently inoffensive commercial managed to kick a hornet's nest over the goal line.

If you run across someone who feels like these angry Tweeters do, please try to keep your temper and use truth to change minds. It works far better than negativity. They are far more likely to listen if you don't feel you are judging them harshly right back (as tempting as that can be.) I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do. I'm not saying I don't lose my temper sometimes too. I'm just saying that if we can keep explanations and discourse civil between opposing points of view, we are far more likely to get non-violent change that will last.

Peace

jamyskis: You have to consider though that there is a difference between speaking another language to other people of your heritage or culture and not being able to speak the language of the country you reside in. We have a lot of Turks, Russians and Poles in Germany, and while the vast majority of them do speak German - you don't actually get granted German citizenship now without passing a language test first - they are also bilingual and speak Russian/Turkish/Polish with other people of the same descent (oh, how I wish the English language had a word like "gleichstämmig").

There are actually very few people who don't speak German here - much of the ire of people is directed at people that speak foreign languages in public, regardless of their German-speaking skills.

And it's really no different in the UK, when people hear Arabic being spoken and immediately go on the defensive.

The US is slightly different though. There is a huge number of people in the United States with some kind of migratory background. There are German speakers in Pennsylvania. There are substantial numbers of French speakers in Louisiana. Let's not get started on California, Florida, Texas and so on, where around one-fifth of the population is of Hispanic heritage and speaks Spanish on a regular basis.

English might be the official language of the country, but it has never been anything like the only language. These assertions that English is somehow the only language that is allowed in America is born of racism and a supremacist attitude, nothing more. Look at the Twitter feeds of some of these assholes and you'll gain a deeper insight to what vicious, unpleasant cocksuckers many of those people are.

jamyskis: I see what you did thar...

But seriously, a minority they may be, but it's a minority that puts the country in a very bad light. Kinda like the Nazis, who were also a minority here in Germany (the majority of people just kept quiet out of fear for their lives).

HereForTheBeer: Just trying to keep things in perspective, that those boneheads in the OPs link do not represent the majority opinion here in the States, and that there is a silent majority that do good things for others every day in big and small ways. Those are the folks to be proud of, and that's most of us. If we focus on the small things, these obvious dipshits, we'll get the wrong impression of what this country is actually like.

jamyskis: One of the biggest problems in America is that a lot of people - particularly of neo-con persuasion, but by no means exclusively so - seem to think that THEIR culture and THEIR religion define America. Conservative evangelicals seem to think that American is first and foremost Christian and that everyone who is not a Baptist/Mormon is not a real American. People in New York think that life in New York defines America. Hell, I've even met a lot of people in New England who consider their part of America to be the "real America". You'll meet a lot of white people on the West Coast who consider Hispanics to be immigrants, despite their being 2nd or 3rd generation American-born.

America's problems start when one individual starts making noises to the effect that "they represent America". You cannot "represent America". The cultural differences from Mississippi to Massachusetts are too profound to do so.

GastonArg: http://www.usaisnotamerica.com/index.php

:)
clearing that up, it's a shame and very sad so much racism..

GastonArg: It is used incorrectly, for example if in Argentina we start calling ourself "Canadians" and it's so popular that the term is accepted, it doesn't mean that it's not wrongly used, in USA is common even "correct" to use it but again that doesn't mean it's used correctly, it doesn't matter the language either (USA doesn't even have an official language..!).

ne_zavarj: And people in the US don't understand why the rest of the world is laughing at them .

Tomkel: The coke commercial is a beautiful commercial if it was intended for a foreign audience overseas.

However, it was aired to an American audience during the most popular American sporting event of the year, so it completely missed the mark. It was justifiably offensive to many Americans.

I'm sure Coke did not mean to deliberately disrespect the American people, but that is what they did. They were trying to hard to be clever and they dropped the ball.

The reaction of Americans tweeting about this is ugly, but they are justifiably angry. Coke screwed up.

I absolutely loathe the hateful racist comments made in the tweets but many Americans are justifiably offended by that commercial.

The media is always preaching to Americans about 'respecting other peoples culture'. What about respecting our culture?

jamyskis: One of the biggest problems in America is that a lot of people - particularly of neo-con persuasion, but by no means exclusively so - seem to think that THEIR culture and THEIR religion define America. Conservative evangelicals seem to think that American is first and foremost Christian and that everyone who is not a Baptist/Mormon is not a real American. People in New York think that life in New York defines America. Hell, I've even met a lot of people in New England who consider their part of America to be the "real America". You'll meet a lot of white people on the West Coast who consider Hispanics to be immigrants, despite their being 2nd or 3rd generation American-born.

America's problems start when one individual starts making noises to the effect that "they represent America". You cannot "represent America". The cultural differences from Mississippi to Massachusetts are too profound to do so.

jamyskis: You have to consider though that there is a difference between speaking another language to other people of your heritage or culture and not being able to speak the language of the country you reside in. We have a lot of Turks, Russians and Poles in Germany, and while the vast majority of them do speak German - you don't actually get granted German citizenship now without passing a language test first - they are also bilingual and speak Russian/Turkish/Polish with other people of the same descent (oh, how I wish the English language had a word like "gleichstämmig").

There are actually very few people who don't speak German here - much of the ire of people is directed at people that speak foreign languages in public, regardless of their German-speaking skills.

And it's really no different in the UK, when people hear Arabic being spoken and immediately go on the defensive.

The US is slightly different though. There is a huge number of people in the United States with some kind of migratory background. There are German speakers in Pennsylvania. There are substantial numbers of French speakers in Louisiana. Let's not get started on California, Florida, Texas and so on, where around one-fifth of the population is of Hispanic heritage and speaks Spanish on a regular basis.

English might be the official language of the country, but it has never been anything like the only language. These assertions that English is somehow the only language that is allowed in America is born of racism and a supremacist attitude, nothing more. Look at the Twitter feeds of some of these assholes and you'll gain a deeper insight to what vicious, unpleasant cocksuckers many of those people are.
jamyskis: That is your culture - diversity. Or are we supposed to believe that America is all about white people, evangelical Christianity, cowboys, SUVs and New York, New York?