Quick: If you had to pick one classic Christmas song that the thought police would deem racist, which would it be? If you said, “White Christmas,” congratulations!
The 82nd Annual Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting last Wednesday was interrupted by protesters in the wake of the grand-jury decision to not indict an NYPD officer in the death of Eric Garner. The lighting went forward as planned, and Hootie & the Blowfish’s lead singer, Darius Rucker, sang Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gv0jE8fYrWM
Although Rucker’s was a perfectly adequate performance, the song enraged some on social media. An African-American musician singing a song that had the word “white” in it, despite the word’s referring to snow and not skin color, so close to the Eric Garner decision was apparently offensive enough that many felt the need to sound off on Twitter.
Darius Rucker singing White Christmas in Rockefeller Center. One block over, streets shut down for Eric Garner. Utterly surreal.
— Rich Villar (@elprofe316) December 4, 2014
https://twitter.com/Sttbs73/status/540579448123183104
re: Tree Lighting + "White Christmas" being sung….
Can the White People see and hear themselves or nah?#BlackLivesMatter #EricGarner
— Katie Klabusich (@Katie_Speak) December 4, 2014
MT @kmiversen: turned on NBC to see if protest had an impact. greeted by Hootie singing "White Christmas" pic.twitter.com/s0XDls9vu3 #EricGarner
— Manifest Mutiny (@CryingWolfe) December 4, 2014
…there's an odd irony to Darius Rucker singing "White Christmas" with #EricGarner protests only blocks away.
— glossaria (@glossaria) December 4, 2014
The irony of watching Darius Rucker singing "White Christmas" around the corner from the #EricGarner protest is mind-blowing #ShutItDown
— Bryon Vann (@Bryon_Vann) December 4, 2014
Darius Rucker aka Hootie singing White Christmas at #RockCenterXMAS tree lighting. Could it b more awkward? #NoJusticeNoTree #EricGarner
— Chantal NYC 🥌 💙🇺🇸🇮🇪🇫🇷 (@chantalmclaugh) December 4, 2014
A White Christmas is more important than Black Lives to @nbc. #EricGarner
— Jules Winfield (@RealBigSol) December 4, 2014
Avoiding #xmas #Christmas music it's in bad taste for the corporate merchandisers to play #WhiteChristmas #Ferguson #EricGarner #AkaiGurley
— Perestroika may destroy ya (@simoneonphone) December 3, 2014
@dariusrucker I wonder what God wants for Christmas? BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER!!!!!!!!!
— @nothinbutluv (@WinkanaSmile) December 4, 2014
Every holiday season, the Left seems to find a new way to spoil everyone’s fun. National Review readers may remember the war on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which is apparently about date rape. If “White Christmas” is a white-supremacist anthem, then America must be extremely racist, as the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time.
This year, when my family gathers around the piano to sing this classic together, I will be sure to remind them to change the lyrics to, “I’m dreaming of a racially ambiguous holiday season . . .”
— Christine Sisto is an editorial associate at National Review Online.