OPINION
Are you still struggling to get into the Christmas spirit?
Here’s a suggestion: Brew up a cup of joe, sit down with family and friends, and turn on those favorite Christmas carols.
How about starting off with that classic, “White Christmas”? Heck, why not try out this new rendition?
They’re dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones the bigots know
Where justice is missing and fairness isn’t
Because fairness and justice they don’t know
They’re dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones the bigots know
Where Fox News they listen and reason is distant …
If this rendition doesn’t quite fit your fancy, surely at least one of the songs out of the Protestor’s Caroling for Justice Song Book will get you into the holiday spirit.
Inspired by the protests and riots that engulfed Ferguson, Mo., following the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, the song book includes Ferguson-related renditions of four classic Christmas songs: “Silver Bells,” “The Christmas Song,” “Silent Night” and “White Christmas.”
The song book was published earlier this month by the student-led, St. Louis-based activist group Tribe X, which made headlines this fall when it staged a six-night sit-in, Occupy SLU, at Saint Louis University.
Tribe X and other groups removed their encampment from the Jesuit campus after the university’s president, Fred Pestello, agreed to their academic and budgetary demands.
The songs’ hyperbolic lyrics suggest spreading Christmas cheer is not the end goal of Tribe X. Consider its rendition of “Silver Bells,” entitled “Life is Hell”:
Busy racists, busy racists.
Dressed in KKK style
In the air
There’s a feeling of bias
Bigots laughing
Racists passing
Every mile after mile
And on every street corner you’ll hear
Life is hell…
When shown a copy of the songs, a group of Saint Louis University students studying for their final exams laughed at the “ridiculous” lyrics. Their response was indicative of the “Ferguson fatigue” felt by many students at the school, just 20 minutes from Ferguson.
Pat Lally, an SLU senior, said the songs didn’t put him in the Christmas spirit. “Lyrically, it’s actually more funny than anything else,” he said.
College Fix contributor Nathan Rubbelke is a student at Saint Louis University.
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IMAGE: Tribe X screenshot
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