I love many of the songs in Avenue Q, but that song AND THE WHOLE FRICKING CHARACTER of Christmas Eve make me cringe. What *were* they thinking? Why is this okay? They commented once that they got hate stares on the bus when they were working out Christmas Eve’s song — why was this not a clue???

“What most annoys me about the song is that it is fucking catchy and I resent it for being catchy.”

Yes, and now I am earwormed. (sticks fingers in ears and starts humming “C is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me.)

If someone is white and they like this song, they are one of two things:

1) Ignorant (meaning unaware), or
2) Not empathetic (meaning they are aware and don’t care)

Now, on the plus side, this is a song that alot of well-intentioned people might like. After all, it does speak of unity as well. A straight-up racists probably wouldn’t care for it at all.

If, from my previous two explanations, you still don’t get it, well, I don’t know what to say. I understand why you didn’t get why it might bother a person of color to begin with, as that’s not your point of view and, in fact, does seem like a well-intentioned pice of music.

And, if someone has pretty racists tendencies, it can be a very positive influence. It’s the people that espouse egalitarian values for which this song is bad.

It suggest that if we just “act swell” everything’s cool. Never mind the HUGE disparities that exists everyday. Never mind the tragic historical theft and other crimes that led to the disparity. Never mind the routine privilege of whites to move through society relatively successfully and with, relatively, little impedence.

I guess I can’t break it down any more than that. I do think well of you. Anybody that’s white who is trying to understand these thing is, in my mind, trying to make a better society for all of us.

I can see why you feel how you feel, almost all white folks, even with the best inentions, see things like this the same way.

Let me try again. I don’t mean to be nasty here, but its what came to mind. Imagine, if you will, that there is a teenage girl that argues with her father alot. She sometimes says rude things to him; he sometimes says rude things to her.

Now, imagine one evening he’s drinking his beer and they start arguing again. Now, imagine he completely snaps and beats her up (sorry, I know it’s graphic). She runs to her room in tears and bruised.

Now, how do you think she would feel if, the next day, he goes into her room with a guitar and starts playing and singing, “Hey, we can all be a little rude sometimes….if we could both admit we can be a little rude…maybe we could live in harmony.”

Factually, they both can be a little rude. Would you suggest then, she should not be pissed off by that?

That is why I REALLY don’t like that song. It’s adding insult to injury, a giant slap in the face.

P.S. I am not suggesting the artist does not have good intentions, that I do not know.