New Cheerios Ad Sparks Controversy

Cheerios is standing by their new commercial featuring a mixed race family.

The ad, featuring a biracial little girl, a white mother, and a black father, sparked so many racist comments online that the maker of Cheerios, General Mills, disabled the comments section for the commercial on YouTube.

So why would a commercial featuring a little girl dumping Cheerios on her father's chest cause such a controversy? It's a question many are asking in a post-racial America that has a mixed race president.

Mixed race couples appear more in real life than they do on television. The 2010 census reports say that they make up 14% of co-habitating couples in the United States.

Meanwhile, just over the weekend, the son of Senator John McCain's married his sweetheart, a woman of a different race and a captain in the Air Force Reserve. The groom is a Navy Lieutenant.

The actress who plays the mom in the commericial, Whitney Avalon, jumped into the fray, tweeting:

"Proud to play mom in this adorable new @cheerios commercial!"

Lisa Granatstein of Adweek applauds Cheerios' decision to continue running the commercial despite the online firestorm.

"The ad is a good commercial. It's sweet, it's warm, there's nothing controversial about it. It's the face of America," Granatstein said.