Christmas in the United States is a magical time of shopping, wrapping gifts, putting up a Christmas tree and decorating the house with lights in a duel with your neighbors to create the most festive and maddening display of yule tide expression.
It is a holiday that's increasingly secular, with an emphasis on asserting the validity behind the legend of Santa Clause and perpetuating this important myth to teach children the power of imagination and belief in a legend steeped in the greatness of altruism:
"Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or simply "Santa", is a legendary figure who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24 or on his Feast Day, December 6 (Saint Nicholas Day)."Sadly, not everyone gets to celebrate Christmas and enjoy the fruits of Santa's elves labor on the 25th. For there exists a continent so unspeakably brutal and nightmarish that the birthday of the son of God himself can't bring peace, harmony and joy to it: Africa.
Or so one is inclined to believe when they listen to the hauntingly incontinent song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?", a song that brings together the top mid-1980s British rockers to croon in harmony about the endless insanity of life in Africa and the importance of the West to do something about it:
Sting, Bono and Boy George (when he wasn't cruising London bathrooms for conjugal visits), George Michael and the rest of England's only remaining export (pop music) gathered in one venue to extol the virtues of altruism and bringing light to the dark continent in the form of a whimsical rock song are the primary ingredients for a hit song:"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.
In late 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired highlighting the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof saw the report and wanted to raise money. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
The world's media were in attendance as artists began arriving from 9am. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club (without Boy George, initially), George Michael of Wham!, Kool and the Gang, Sting, Bono and Adam Clayton of U2, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 (whom Ure personally ordered down) and his bandmate Martyn Ware, Phil Collins, Paul Weller of the Style Council, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo, Jody Watley of Shalamar, Bananarama, Marilyn (who was not invited but arrived anyway) and some of Geldof's bandmates from the Boomtown Rats all arrived.
Only one of Ure's Ultravox colleagues, Chris Cross, attended. Geldof, noticing Boy George's non-attendance (despite ringing him up in New York the day before demanding he sing on the record), went back to the phone to get the Culture Club frontman out of bed and on to Concorde."
"The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK singles chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks and ultimately sold more than 3.5 million copies domestically."Do They Know It's Christmas?", is the ultimate Disingenuous White Liberal Christmas song and bespeaks an attitude of smug apathy to a world that most white people would gladly send a check to help as long as they never have to view the unpleasant mess that Darwin would have difficulty explaining.
It remained the largest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" was released in tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, which sold almost 5 million copies in Britain."
Let's take a look at the lyrics of this Christmas classic:
Paul YoungSaving Black people is the cause célèbre of all enlightened white people across the world, and if only this song were taken to heart by all the melanin-slighted individuals in the West, Africa would no longer be the land where the "only water flowing, is a bitter sting of tears."
It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid
At christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade
Boy George
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy!
Throw your arms around the world at christmas time
(Phil Collins on the drums)
George Micheal
But say a prayer - pray for the other ones
At christmas time
Simon Le Bon
it's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
Sting and Simon Le Bon
And it's a world of dreaded fear
Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears
And the christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Bono
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you
And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's christmas time at all?
Here's to you
Raise your glass for everyone
Here's to them
Underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's christmas time at all?
Feed the world
Feed the world
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time
I hope you like this song even though its not christmas!
Black people in the West listen to this Christmas song and gag, for only disingenuous white liberals would dare put pen to paper and create a song of this nature, then enlist the help of vapid celebrities to sing about Africa, a land "where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow."
Haven't these people heard of Africa by Toto?
Is Africa that backward that the only person capable of saving the continent and it's ever growing population is Bono and his band of pop-rock singers?:
JUST WHEN IT SEEMED that Western images of Africa could not get any weirder, the July 2007 special Africa issue of Vanity Fair was published, complete with a feature article on "Madonna's Malawi." At the same time, the memoirs of an African child soldier are on sale at your local Starbucks, and celebrity activist Bob Geldof is touring Africa yet again, followed by TV cameras, to document that "War, Famine, Plague & Death are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and these days they're riding hard through the back roads of Africa."Do they know it's Christmas time at all? What a perplexing question to be asked by pompous white pop-rock talent, for the world as we know it originated in Africa! More important, Black people in America listen to this song and cringe, for Black people instinctively believe anytime white people speak of Africa they automatically are speaking in a dichotomous derogatory/enlightened sense.
It's a dark and scary picture of a helpless, backward continent that's being offered up to TV watchers and coffee drinkers. But in fact, the real Africa is quite a bit different. And the problem with all this Western stereotyping is that it manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of some current victories, fueling support for patronizing Western policies designed to rescue the allegedly helpless African people while often discouraging those policies that might actually help.
The real Africa needs increased trade from the West more than it needs more aid handouts. A respected Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda, made this point at a recent African conference despite the fact that the world's most famous celebrity activist — Bono — was attempting to shout him down. Mwenda was suffering from too much reality for Bono's taste: "What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?" asked Mwenda.
The cover of the single speaks volumes as to how white people view Blacks, for it features white, well-dressed families enjoying Christmas, while two sickly Black people appear in the middle sans clothes, parents and hope.
Stuff Black People Don't Like includes "Do They Know It's Christmas?", a song that eloquently describes how Disingenuous White Liberals view the world. Beautifully harmonized by pop-rocks top talent, Black people have the honor of being serenaded by white people bent on "throwing their arms around the world at Christmas time."
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