I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing...

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be defending not only Superbowl commercials, but Coca-Cola as well, but here I am.  Coca-Cola's human rights abuses as a company are legend, and I don't drink soda anyway, but here I feel the need to defend them from the knuckle-draggers who are throwing a fit over this lovely commercial:

2014 Superbowl Coke Ad

I watched very little of the Superbowl yesterday, but did manage to catch this particular ad, and found it touching.  Apparently, some people didn't feel the same way, because (gasp!) the entire song wasn't sung in English.  It never occurred to me that people would stoop to this level of bigotry, until I looked at Facebook today, and saw this meme (and others like it):







 










Particularly ironic about their complaints is the fact that three of the languages being sung were being spoken in this land called America for centuries before the arrival of English-speakers.  Of course this irony would be lost on people who seem only to be intent on something to complain about. 

They missed the entire point of the ad (besides selling soda) while they were busy spouting their vitriol: that the American ideal is people coming from all over to fulfill their dreams, being welcomed with open arms, and working together to create a great society.  Or at least that's the drivel I was taught in school.  Of course, growing older, I learned the truth: there is no equal playing field.  Native Alaskans, Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Mexicans were driven off their land, or forced into slavery to benefit white masters.  Africans were shipped here for similar purposes, and worse.  Immigrants have historically been given the hardest, dirtiest, least respected jobs, while being blamed for crime rates, treated with suspicion, and persecuted.  It happened with the Chinese, the Irish, and now the Mexicans.  And God forbid someone move here from the Middle East, because that entire group is automatically assigned the title of "terrorists," by the same group invading, occupying, droning, and bombing the rest of the world.   But I digress.

This ad could serve as a reminder of our common humanity... make us all want to try a little harder... to sing the same song, to be a team?  I would like to believe more than soda unites us, things like freedom and equality.  Apparently this group of Einsteins does not agree.  
 
So now we have a patriotic American song being sung by people in different languages, and the xenophobes just can't deal with it.  Since they don't appear to be the sharpest tools in the shed, I am going to craft my message to them in simple English words that they can understand and here it is:

"Get over it.  The world does not 'belong' to English-speaking white people.  Nobody is hurting you by singing a song you like in another language.  I know it may be hard for you to believe, but there are wonderful, intelligent, thoughtful, kind people everywhere who don't speak a word of English.  You are not superior.  They are not inferior.  It's not 'un-American' to show real Americans from another culture singing in a tongue you don't understand, just because they don't look and sound like you.  You are not 'more' American than they are.  People like you are the reason that people all over the world think Americans are stupid.  You don't speak for me or any other intelligent, thinking American.  Lastly, grow up."

Vanquishing Columbus

It’s funny, but not so funny… how the victors write history.  If I were to believe the history books, Columbus, like so many other powerful historical figures, was a hero.  A great conqueror who “discovered” America; apparently, the people already living here didn’t know it existed.  One of the legacies left by the great historian Howard Zinn is that he gave us all a new perspective: history written by the conquered, the marginalized, the trampled, the disenfranchised.  In other words, the truth.  No need for propaganda to rally the masses, just the unvarnished and very ugly truth about some of the people our history teachers taught us to worship and adore.

None of us are perfect.  But the varnish on some of these despots and villains is so thick, it takes a while to get through it.  Then it’s pretty embarrassing to realize that we once thought so highly of them.  And once you’ve seen the truth, you’re no longer in the mood for a good shellacking by the spin doctors who have peddled our history books.  A good example of this is Christopher Columbus.

His name is so hallowed that books that are critical of him are still banned from schools.  In January 2012, Tucson schools banned Rethinking Columbus by Bob Peterson and Bill Bigelow.  The only people who would undertake to silence truth are those who would benefit greatly from lies.  And if we are compelled to believe those lies, we are complicit in the very sorts of human rights abuses they are trying to hide, that Columbus committed, and that our nation has continued to commit, against people of color and other cultures. 

It’s an effective way to keep those people invisible – those people with faces, names, families – who were raped, tortured, murdered, and enslaved by Columbus and his men.

I am ashamed that we were never taught as children the perspective of Native Americans, who rightfully view Columbus’s arrival as an invasion that resulted in genocide.  It was only the beginning of hell for an entire continent of human beings, resulting in untold human agony.  How can we, in good conscience, celebrate this man?  To do so is to perpetuate that very harmful myth of American imperialism, and the notion that there is glory in being a bully.

This Monday is Columbus Day, and instead of honoring a murderous slave trader, let’s honor the people who deserve it.  Let’s do the right thing, and tell the truth… about the Tainos, who were raped and enslaved.  If they failed to deliver the quota of gold Columbus demanded, he had their hands cut off or had them chased down and attacked by vicious dogs.  He reveled in the sale of young Native girls as sexual slaves for his personal profit.  He was not a “brave adventurer.”  He was a rapacious terrorist with no regard for human life or dignity.

Others who feel like I do have renamed Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day.  This Monday, I hope you will join me in celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, by committing to learn the truth about Columbus, and vowing to support indigenous peoples all over the world, who continue to be terrorized.

The Zinn Education Project (http://zinnedproject.org) has some great articles about Columbus.  To learn more about the experience of the Tainos under Columbus, visit http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/taino/taino-conquest.htm.  There are many other informative websites as well.


Let’s remove the varnish and uncover the truth.  Let’s work together to create a world where perpetrators of violence are held accountable instead of glorified.  We may not be able to change past history, but let’s not forget that we are responsible for the history our children and grandchildren will be taught.