There is much controversy in the most recent super bowl commercial for Coco Cola. This commercial is about America being beautiful and diverse and having it's own culture. Part of the song is sung in English and the other part of the song is sung is Spanish (which a high percent of Americans speak today.) The argument is that this should not have been performed in this way as those in American should speak English and be a true "American". These racial issues are the same that are bought up in the broadway music "South Pacific." This musical is about an American army man who falls in love with an Island girl, they have two children together. Then the man is a widower and cares for the two children of mixed race. As this man goes out to look for another wife he gets a lot of criticism for raising children that are of mixed race. There is so much controversy about this musical, and they got criticized hard for the main song of the musical. This song is called "How You're Taught." This is a song about racism being something that we are taught to feel it is not innate in us from birth. They sing about how each person should be loved and valued the same way no matter the race or background of the individual.
This musical was from the late 1940s, and we are currently in 2014. This is some 50 years later and we are still dealing with the same issues. Now there are laws and rules that say that each individual is equal in all aspects, however this clearly is not the case. I do believe strongly that it is how we are raised. Children learn by example and if there is some issue going on between a white man and a black (or other racial background) man, the children pick up on this much more that we would think. In the United States this has been such an issue that it created the Civil War. Although the war is over and rules have changed, society has yet to change. I fear that this issue will never truly go away.
It is really sad to see kids getting treated differently for something so small as skin color. I grew up in New England, Massachusetts to be specific and we did not have such racial issues in the little town that I grew up. Although people look at whites and blacks differently, there does not seem to be as much segregation as there is in the south. Now I learned this when I moved to Florida 3 years ago. I got a job in Ybor, Tampa and saw first had the discrimination. I was appalled at first, and spoke with managers and coworkers from the area and they see no issue with how they are treating minorities. They told me "this is the south, its our culture." Now after being here for 3 years I see how this is their culture and it is completely unlike New England.
I think that white Americans feel and act this way towards minorities as part of a pride issue? We are all taught in schools that whites came over to America and discovered this land and that it is ours (whites that is.) You do not learn about black leaders in school, only those white presidents and persons of importance. You learn in school that blacks are slaves, and that there was a huge problem that there was a war in place of it. Now things may not have changed because people do not want to accept change and believe in ways they were brought up, or possibly they do not change because people EXPECT things to be a certain way and look out for this.
As far as the Coco Cola commercial "offending" some people because it is in a different language, comes from those uneducated people who believe that there is no room for diversity. In all honesty, when I was younger I did not believe that we should allow immigrants into the country because we should maintain America's way and their culture. However now that I am older and educated, I understand that the WAY of America IS to be diverse and be different. This is a magical place where anyone is welcome and should feel at home. Not a place of discrimination and racism.
Now it may take years and years or we may never see true equality, but I certainly don't think that we should encourage this among children. I do see first hand that it is a cultural issue, and if children in MA are brought us to treat everyone equally I don't see why children in the "south" can't be taught the same thing!!
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