Gin night ruined by my son?

[Becc91]

So my DS came back from Bristol Uni (with a mullet no less 😣) and told me off in front of my girl friends - all for singing Do They Know It's Christmas?
Apparently one term of a politics degree makes him qualified to tell me what I can and can't sing in my own home after a few gins. Feeling quite hurt and embarrassed as this all happened in front of my friends.

I don't see what I've done wrong but I don't want to be ignorant, is it just me??
Opinions wanted , thanks xx and merry christmas

You aren't old , just un-informed (dis-instrested ) like most white people in the UK, sorry if that's sounds cold, but its the truth, most middle aged white people in the UK know fuck all about race issues to do with black people or Africa.

Anyway, is this a red herring? Son back from Uni and hates you, WOW, that's never happened before .....

What is the excuse for singing it TODAY after decades of this song being criticised for its racism?

But Africa STILL has famine, horrific famine we’re collectively ignoring. It’s all very well saying ‘it’s patronising, they don’t need us’

but ignoring the politicians and the media and ego (?), there are kids dying, and we shouldn’t be worrying about Wokeness or racism, let’s just help them.

You should have said you'd think he'd be a fan of the 80s considering his haircut is from there 😁

It's a great tune, you can try and mimic each singer, you can remember the words after four drinks...

@pinkrawwbit wow how patronising. Thanks for your uninformed opinion of me.

It is possible to donate to humanitarian aid without being racist to boot.

The song is shit, and wildly problematic. If you listen to the lyrics you'll know this.

His haircut has absolutely no bearing on this whatsoever either?

It was made with the best of intentions, groundbreaking in its money raising concept. It perhaps hasn’t aged well into fitting with modern sensibilities, however I do think some lyrics are being misunderstood now. “Thank god tonight…” was effectively “check your privilege” for 1984.

I think people also forget that information was far less accessible in 1984 - and images of the famine were absolutely shocking to people. The general public had very much not been almost entirely desensitised to that type of tragic news by 24 hour rolling news and social media, as they have now.

As for the op’s son - I agree with the poster who said first Christmas after starting uni is a horror. I remember going home for Christmas after my first term and, in hindsight, being the most arrogant know it all twit ever. It’s actually somewhat impressive my mother didn’t murder me slowly over that break. But we all grow up and get over ourselves eventually.

@pinkrawwbit nice bit of ageism there.

Maybe dismantanle unfair trade and massive debt and legacies of colonial rape of the continent?

No-one in the West is interested in anything meaningful, so we sing songs to make ourselves feel better.

Its easier to sell guns to Africa than for Africa to sell us bananans , but we don't want to hear the truth....

https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/comparing-bananas-to-the-global-arms-trade/

Is this thread for real sounds like a joke to me. Or is your son going to be a future Labour leader. What a pretentious prat he sounds. I didn’t know that song was racist . I was singing it with DM at her care home yesterday. Along with all the other classics.

I was born long before 1978

It was of its time (in its ignorance too.) But at least it was trying to help. I think it’s quite easy to talk about (and berate others for) what’s ‘problematic’ and ‘white saviourism’ while doing absolutely nothing positive to actually help anyone. I am also beginning to find the word ‘problematic’ quite problematic.

Happy to be corrected, but I don't think there was much tourism in Ehtiopia in the mid 1980s. The country had undergone a Communist coup ten years earlier and was being supported by the USSR (i.e. Soviet Union, Communist Russia) and Cuba, then also very Communist. There was civil unrest in Eritrea, then not a separate sovereign country, and opportunistic attacks on Ethiopia from Somalia, then descending into anarchy. The Communist president of Ethiopia is now holed up in Zimbabwe since his faction was violently overthrown in the early 90s and he has been found guilty of genocide in absentia for what he and his allies did in Ethiopia in the 1980s, using forced relocations and starvation as methods of control.

As I recall from 1984, it was perfectly obvious that Geldof and Ure had written a guaranteed chart-topping song on the back of an envelope in a white-hot fury at the appalling suffering of many Ethiopians who couldn't expect any help from their own government. It wasn't a considered political statement by any means. It was really just a great outpouring of fury and compassion for people who by force of circumstances couldn't feed themselves and their families when their crops failed after drought struck. It may well have been inept but the desire to help and to make a difference came from a good place, no matter how ill-informed and patronising it seems now.

I think for some of us it is a song that reminds us of a time in our childhood. As above Band Aid was everywhere, Blue Peter and on Top of the Pops. Then of course Live Aid which was watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people.

No it hasn't aged well and I would still sing along to it. This was also a time where Spitting Image released "I've never met a nice South African" song just to put it into context. It is very easy to look back and say things are problematic now.

The message of the song isn't that people in Africa are too stupid to know that it is Christmastime, but that while people in the UK are celebrating with plenty of food, people in famine stricken areas have a life and death survival situation to manage that takes precedence over festival celebrations

Same as people still singing it’s cold outside. Although I watched a Xmas film recently where they changed the lyrics.

Nostalgia, people not reading too much into things. I think Cold outside is far worse.

The OP's son was rude.

However, slagging your children off on social a great way to broadcast to world that you are obnoxious.

Hey??

You said you know nothing of the problems with Band Aid , and then accuse me of patronising you? You are either un-informed or un-interested, what's patronising about that???

Reading between the lines it looks like your son was embarrassed by your drunken behaviour?

A raucous rendition of Do They Know Its Christmas as a karaoke song doesn't sit well with me either.

(But I'm secretly with you on the new mullet hairstyles, wtf?)

I sing along to it every time i hear it on the radio, the narrative might have changed and the lyrics have aged badly, but it's a catchy song that is played every Christmas and one that everyone knows.

Your son didn't need to make into a drama on the night and upset you in front of friends. If he felt so strongly about it, he could have just had a conversation about it later on.

so if he does not want this song sang, then are we banning all songs by controversial authors starting with elvis ? etc

But surely you know, teenagers know EVERYTHING. And they are always right.
One term of Uni always qualifies them to know everything there is to know. Ever.

Roll your eyes, say that’s nice dear, what are your plans for this evening.

(And yes, it is a bit of a shit song. But it was of it’s time. Every night on the news we were seeing dreadful scenes and no one seemed to be doing anything. The famine affected vast numbers of people)

then the same with books and controversial authors etc