At one telling point during the question-and-answer session that followed the recent debate between Dinesh D’Souza ’83 and Bill Ayers, a Korean student criticized D’Souza for finding a silver lining in imperialism, colonialism and slavery. As the student spoke, a woman in the crowd yelled, “Go back to Korea!”
In this horrid “like it or leave it” moment, a local resident demanded that a student, who brought up legitimate concerns in a polite manner, leave the country because she dared to criticize an apologist for some of history’s worst mistakes.
Several days later, a Coca-Cola commercial, one of the most highly discussed of the Super Bowl, featured Americans singing “America the Beautiful” in seven different languages — an embrace of a multinational and multicultural American ideal. Yet this trite pitch celebrating the “salad bowl” ideal (the melting pot no longer receives much favor because it emphasizes dissipating cultural identities, rather than preserving a multitude of them) provoked the ire of people on the Internet and implacable conservative commentators. Glenn Beck voiced his displeasure, while Fox News’s Todd Starnes tweeted, “Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful.”
As the Coca-Cola commercial suggests, we should celebrate diversity. Cultural diversity does not somehow dilute or distort “traditional” identity. Rather, they enrich one another, serving to accent and highlight cultural nuances, which help establish national distinctiveness.
I believe that we learn more when we are surrounded by people different from ourselves. To those of us who embrace diversity like I do, the idea of recoiling at a company’s promoting acceptance of different national backgrounds is cringe-worthy. However, there is a subtle irony that Coca-Cola — a company that keeps about $10 billion in countries other than the United States — is touting an American ideal. And Coca-Cola is one of many traditionally “American companies” that have moved multitudes of jobs out of the country in recent years.
Not only should we celebrate this American ideal ourselves, we should also be conscious of efforts of companies that both outsource formerly American jobs and still exploit this American image. These companies tout themselves as American and advertise based off that identity, yet they outsource and offshore, sending both money and jobs overseas. Chrysler, which has outsourced to Mexico, flaunted its American credentials in a commercial featuring Bob Dylan — a countercultural icon in an ad for an Italian-owned company with the signature line “America’s import.”
Both the reaction the Coca-Cola commercial prompted and the outburst at the D’Souza-Ayers debate point to anxieties over a changing America. While xenophobia and nativism deserve nothing less than censure, such general concerns about change in America are legitimate. However, those who target immigrants or multiculturalism misplace their anger.
A blue-collar job could once promise a prosperous life. Now, however, there is less certainty. While the older generation of Americans has seen a dramatic change, cultural diversity is not the culprit. Instead of lashing out at different types of Americans or scapegoating immigrants, we should turn our attention to companies responsible for this change. They — not demographic changes — have eroded job opportunity.
These anxieties are not uniquely American. Across Europe, new populist political parties have risen in numbers thanks to fear mongering on immigration. But people looking for better lives in America, or anywhere, are not enemies. They hold the same common dream as all previous generations. We should, however, be cognizant of companies that promote the American image when they bear some responsibility for the loss of good-paying jobs. Rather than shouting at students or scapegoating immigrants, we should look past the commercial, at the companies that hoist the American flag while sending American jobs and money elsewhere.
