Did you know that the national language of the United States is English? Oh, you didn’t? That’s because we don’t have a national language. Which is why it was so fun to watch the ignorance come out in response to the Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial “It’s Beautiful,” which showed shots of different people while “America the Beautiful” played in multiple languages.
Because seriously? America isn’t a monolith. Just like Richard Sherman isn’t a thug.
On today’s show #TeamBlackness discusses that big game or something that happened yesterday, why the Oakland police don’t like liberals, and why Bill O’Reilly should show a little respect.
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The Morning Crew discusses the unpaid labor involved in the Super Bowl (19:00), the Children’s Education Bill of Rights (28:30), the starfish apocalypse (40:00), and the stress levels of the African-American professional (50:15).
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The Other Bob
I asked my 8 year old what she thought of the ad. She said she thought it was nice that it was in more languages because more people would understand the song. Hmmmm.
Villago Delenda Est
America isn’t a monolith, although certain blockheaded people apparently think it is.
Whocouldanode that the right wing would go apeshit over this commercial?
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: Um, some guy on twitter at MSNBC?
Mnemosyne
I also wonder if people watching the commercial somehow didn’t “get” that all of the shots were of the United States and not, say, foreigners in their own countries singing the song in their own languages. I think I saw some non-wingnuts yesterday who were a little confused on that point.
Though, as someone said earlier, I’m really enjoying the spectacle of Angry White Guys telling Native Americans to go back where they came from. Almost as though Coke was expecting that response with their choices …
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl:
Thank you. Yes, I did set that up…
And there it goes, on it’s way to South America…
Mnemosyne
Though at least Coke took the pressure off Mrs. Obama for daring to appear on the Puppy Bowl with Bo and Sunny. Yes, folks, there actually was a right-wing freakout too small for the national media to notice.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
Oh, please. You can’t be serious.
Oh, wait, we’re dealing with rabid racist scum here.
Never mind…
Baud
Coke should have just done the whole ad in Esperanto
Shortstop
And “America the Beautiful” isn’t our national anthem.
Both of these points are news to the people expressing their outrage at this ad via abysmal English. Welcome to America! Now speak English as badly as I do!
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Twitchy.com (aka Michelle Malkin). Because there’s nothing too small for her to get upset about.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud:
And had William Shatner narrate it.
In Esperanto.
Mandalay
While we are on the subject of thugs….
If this murdering racist fucker walks then very bad things are going to happen.
Mandalay
While we are on the subject of thugs….
If this murdering racist fucker walks then very bad things are going to happen.
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
Have to admit, that would have been awesomer.
Maybe next year they can do a similar ad in Klingon.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay:
Holy Flurking Snitt.
Dunn needs to go away into the Big House. Forever.
Mandalay
@Mandalay: But the good news is that the murdering fucker is also very dumb, and wrote racist rants while he was locked up, not realizing that the screws would read everything he wrote…
Ooops.
I can’t see this guy coming out of prison alive.
Mandalay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well it won’t be forever, but I think he’ll be leaving in a box.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Under Florida law, he will probably walk free, because all their self-defense law requires now is that Dunn show that he felt that his life was in danger. Not that a reasonable person in the same situation would have felt threatened (which is the standard in most other states), but whether he, personally, felt threatened.
That was a change that was made to the regular self-defense law thanks to Stand Your Ground, BTW. As soon as I saw that during the Zimmerman trial, I knew Zimmerman was going to walk, and this guy is going to walk, too. Once you make it about what the person’s fee-fees were and not how a reasonable person thinks, you basically gut the law entirely.
Slugger
I did learn something from the ad; though, Coke is kosher! Cool.
Actually, the people upset by this ad might want to think about the fact that the Coca-Cola corporation which is a marketing behemoth cares more about reaching out to the people in the ad than it worries about offending them. The Coke ad deniers are an unimportant minority….ha, ha, you lost Mr. Easily Offended.
Mandalay
Would that Coca Cola be related to this Coca Cola, or are they completely different companies?….
pseudonymous in nc
Keeping with the TWIB theme, what’s interesting about the reaction to the Coke ad is that America has actually proved very good at turning families who arrive speaking a foreign language into English-speaking xenophobes in about two generations, especially if those families are white.
It is less good at treating non-whites as equals regardless of how long they or their ancestors have been in America, and comes up with all sorts of ways to exclude them.
Mnemosyne
@Slugger:
Depending on where you live, you can sometimes find specially formulated Coke that’s kosher for Passover (i.e. it’s made with real sugar, not HFCS). It comes with a yellow cap on the 2-liter.
I used to be able to find it in the Valley, but not anymore. Maybe I have to find a mass-market grocery store around Fairfax.
ETA: Ah, okay — California banned one of the chemicals in Coke as a carcinogen, and Coke says they’re still working on the reformulation. I may have to have a relative out of state send me a bottle.
Mnemosyne
@Mandalay:
IIRC, the Coca-Cola Company franchises itself to other countries, so they may not have control over the actions of the South African franchise.
Origuy
@Slugger:
Except during Passover. Coke in the US is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews consider corn forbidden during Passover. Sephardim do not. I don’t think I could explain why even if I were Jewish, so here’s what Wikipedia says. All I know is that Mexican Coke gets extra popular around here at Pesach.
Slugger
Thanks for the kashrut info. I have long thought a Sephardic seder with chips and salsa would be fun.
My comments were intended to point out that the far right is a set out dead-enders that corporate America, Coke and General Mills for example, ignores. This probably accounts for their bitterness.
Glocksman
@Mnemosyne:
That’s not what Florida law says.
Florida self defense law
776.013 is the home defense section.
The Florida standard is the same one used in just about every other state.
Putting it mildly, It’s Florida’s application of the standard that leaves a little bit to be desired.
Mnemosyne
@Glocksman:
Here’s what jurors in California are told (emphasis mine):
(snip)
So, yes, there is a difference between states where jurors are asked to consider what a “reasonable person” would think and states where jurors are told to consider what the defendant “reasonably believed.” California uses the “reasonable person” standard. As you can see in your quote above, Florida uses the defendant’s belief as the standard.
I know it seems like a fine distinction, but it’s a very important one.
ETA: Sorry, forgot the link.
mclaren
The responses to that commercial were more powerful in the original German, especially when screamed by that guy with the toothbrush moustache.
Jay C
@Slugger:
Is it also halal?
Someone should find out and publicize the fact so that more wingnuts can make asses out of themselves screeching about “Creeping Sharia” or whatever….
Glocksman
@Mnemosyne:
Thanks for the link.
IANAL, but wouldn’t the defendant’s belief still have to be a reasonable one?
In this particular case, Dunn may indeed walk if he can convince a jury his belief was reasonable.
Which would explain why his lawyer doesn’t want any of his jailhouse letters and utterances to come within a mile of that jury box.
On the other hand, that nut in West Virginia who shot the 2 guys entering their own shed with a scoped rifle would have a hell of a time convincing even Ted Nugent that his belief was reasonable.
Amir Khalid
@Jay C:
As far as I know, there’s no reason to suspect Coke is haram, and so no real need to certify it as halal. No credible religious authority has issued a fatwa (i.e. guidance) against drinking it. It contains no alcohol or other intoxicant. It’s not made with parts from pigs or any animal not properly slaughtered, or other ritually unclean ingredients.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne & @Glocksman: This is a dead thread and y’all might not see this, but as I understand it, the elimination of the “duty to retreat” is what makes FL law different — and so dangerous. The “reasonable person” standard applies WRT assessing danger, but prior to SYG, the shooter had to take all reasonable steps to remove himself from the confrontation before using deadly force. That’s what SYG eliminated.
PS: I correctly predicted that Zimmerman would walk, but I think Dunn will almost certainly be convicted and go to jail for life, as he should. There were witnesses whom he neglected to shoot.
Glocksman
@Betty Cracker:
It *might* be the difference, but Florida is hardly alone in not having a duty to retreat.
Indiana for example only recently added a SYG provision to the Indiana Code, but the doctrine has been established case law here for decades.
California, surprisingly enough, doesn’t either.
Interesting piece on CA defense laws.
Bart
Guys, please FIX YOUR SOUND. This video starts of with a loud song, followed by a man speaking at a much lower volume, and then a woman is significantly lower. Level that out, please, for the sake of my speakers and my ears.