The Unbearable Unwokeness of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
It kicked off the era of all-star do-good pop but sounds totally tone deaf today.
It’s that time of year again. ’Tis the season to drag out all of those end-of-the-year holiday favorites: Christmas trees, mistletoe, eggnog, “White Christmas,” “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and (God help us!) “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
The latter, recorded by the one-time-only supergroup Band Aid in 1984, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Written by Boomtown Rats’ Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure to raise awareness and funds for the famine in Ethiopia, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” assembled an assortment of mostly UK-bred acts into an all-star choir.
Although it peaked at a relatively lowly number 13 in the United States, the song was a global smash that inspired 1985’s “We Are the World” by USA for Africa and decades of superstar-packed benefit concerts and recordings to come. But just because it was one of the most influential recordings of the last 50 years doesn’t mean it was one of the best ones.
I loved the song at the time, but as I’ve grown older and wiser, it’s become more problematic for me. Basically, it’s a recording on which a group of privileged mostly white musicians whitesplain poverty in a…
