…and I’ll never drink Coke again!”

While sitting at a Super Bowl party, I browsed through my Twitter feed and came across an outspoken friend who retweeted that tweet. I held a breath. Knowing that he often is ironic and comedic, I wanted to know whether he was serious and whether he supported that tweet. As I clicked through, I found more tweets about their anger against the offensive ad.

“Want a drink?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. “I am not sure if I can drink Coke again. Do you have anything else not from the Coca Cola Company?”

He brought some amber looking liquid that was still not beer. As I sipped it, I softly played the ad on my iPod Touch. Not being able to hear over the beer pong players, I watched various clips of people. “Um, what’s offensive here?” I asked. “This is just bunch of people. I guess that it’s depicting Muslim girls eating street food?”

It took me almost 10 more watches (and finally without beer pong players present) before I heard why. Not English. Not all White people.

I instantly thought about my grandparents who barely spoke any English. And my mom whose job as a nurse at a public hospital requires the English language…yet she powers through anything that requires communication. I never had to be that Asian kid that had to translate for the parents. My dad spoke fluent English, and my mom just powered through anything through her thick accent without any shame or embarrassment. They’re American and so are my grandparents.

As a progressive Asian American, I had trouble understanding what was wrong with the America the Beautiful ad. Doesn’t that say something too?