An Atlanta anchorwoman has defended a
gay-inclusive Coca-Cola ad which premiered during Sunday's Super
Bowl.
Social conservatives attacked the ad
after its debut.
Their outrage, however, was not
targeted at the ad's inclusion of a gay family, but rather Coke's use
of immigrants singing America's praises in foreign languages.
(Related: Coca-Cola
premieres first Super Bowl ad featuring gay family.)
Glenn Beck declared that the ad was “an
in your face” effort to “divide people” and Fox News' Todd
Starnes tweeted that “Coca Cola is the official soft drink of
illegals crossing the border.”
“Coca-Cola has always been about
inclusion,” Brenda Wood told viewers of her Last Word
segment on WXIA. “But the fact that people are outraged over this
ad is outrageous itself. People indignant that others would have the
audacity to sing America the Beautiful in a language other
than English when America was built on opening its arms to the
world?”
“Have we forgotten that every one of
us 'Americans' – except for Native Americans – are descendants of
foreigners? That the English language is from England?” she
rhetorically asked.
“How dare there be indignation over
the very thing that makes us great. What's so sacrosanct about this
song that it can't be sung in other languages by other ethnicities,
by those of diverse religions and diverse lifestyles?”
Wood
reminded viewers that Katharine Lee Bates was gay.
“A relevant question considering the
words of America the Beautiful were penned by a gay woman,
Katharine Lee Bates, in 1895, an English professor at Wellesley who
also wrote lovingly of her longtime committed relationship with
another woman.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)