Controversy over Coke's 'America the Beautiful' ad is silly

Conservatives were outraged less than a week ago after an inane tweet from MSNBC claimed the "rightwing" might hate a Super Bowl commercial for Cheerios that featured a biracial family.

The left-leaning news network's president promptly apologized and admitted that the tweet was "outrageous and unacceptable." And the employee responsible for sending the tweet was fired.

Points scored for the idea that conservatives aren't nearly as monochrome, or narrow-minded, as some on the left make us out to be.

Then came Super Bowl Sunday, and the eruption of another silly controversy that reinforces old, unfair stereotypes about how conservatives view the world. Sadly, this time the controversy is being driven by conservatives themselves, or at least a few of them.

On Sunday night, that all-American of products, Coca-Cola, released a commercial that features a diverse set of Americans enjoying life, and the occasional bottle of Coke, while "America the Beautiful" is sung in the background.

Sappiness aside, how could anyone object to that? Well, the traditional ballad was sung in a nontraditional manner — it featured snippets of the song in eight languages.

Social media erupted. A person using the Twitter handle @tylerwyckoff24 sent this missive: "Nice to see that coke likes to sing an AMERICAN song in the terrorist's language. Way to go coke. You can leave America." And @DevvMitchell11 had this to say: "Dear Coke commercial.... DO NOT sing my Country's song of Freedom in a different language."

On Breitbart.com, columnist Michael Patrick Leahy wrote: "When the company used such an iconic song, one often sung in churches on the 4th of July that represents the old 'E Pluribus Unum' view of how American society is integrated, to push multiculturalism down our throats, it's no wonder conservatives were outraged."

Former Congressman Allen West, a Florida Republican, also weighed in on his blog: "If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'American the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come — doggone we are on the road to perdition. This was a truly disturbing commercial for me, what say you?"

Here's what I say: Come on, Congressman. Road to perdition? It was "America the Beautiful," not the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Speaking of 1990s has-beens, the argument that English is under assault by non-assimilating immigrants stubbornly refusing to learn the language of their adopted country has a decidedly retro feel. I lived in South Florida in the 1980s and '90s when waves of refugees and other immigrants poured into Broward and Dade counties from Cuba, Haiti and other nations in Latin America.

The sheer numbers of new arrivals certainly caused problems at times. Assimilation was often slow and learning a new language difficult, especially for older immigrants. But over time, as new generations were born here, English became the language of school, commerce and public life. And most of the new Americans I encountered wanted it that way.

The same thing is playing out here, in the increasingly diverse American Midwest, these days. Lots of languages are now spoken here, but only one, English, still holds the key to prosperity and the successful pursuit of the American dream. And, again, the vast majority of immigrants understand that.

So, fellow conservatives, relax. English is still, and almost certainly always will be, the dominant language of the United States. And our nation, as it has throughout its history, still draws remarkably diverse groups of immigrants to its fruited plain. That's a strength, not a threat.

And it's one more thing that makes America beautiful.

Swarens is opinion editor for The Indianapolis Star. Email him at tim.swarens@indystar.com Follow him on Twitter @tswarens.