Former MSNBC host Joy Reid stirred up social media this week by sharing a video that claimed “Jingle Bells,” a well-loved Christmas song, was originally composed to mock Black people.
In the video, she presented to her 1.3 million followers, there’s a clip of a man donning a Christmas sweater and Santa hat, standing in Medford, Massachusetts, next to a plaque where James Lord Pierpont supposedly wrote the song in 1850.
He asserts, “This is where a racist Confederate soldier wrote ‘Jingle Bells’ to make fun of Black people, and its origins can be traced back to the bigoted minstrel shows popular at that time,” as he took off his hat and grimaced.
The caption of the video went further, alleging Pierpont—whose nephew later became the famous financier J.P. Morgan—was financially struggling when he penned “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” It claims white performers initially used this song in blackface to mock Black people’s attempts at winter fun.
There’s also a suggestion that the lyric “I’m smiling all the time” likely refers to the racially insensitive humor known then as “Laughing Darkie.”
Pierpont secured a patent for the song in 1859, renaming it “Jingle Bells” right before the Civil War began. Allegedly, he “abandoned his family” to fight for the Confederate Army and wrote songs to motivate those supporting slavery.
Reid, whose show “The Readout” on MSNBC was canceled earlier this year after nearly five years, has a record of making racially charged comments, including dubious claims about President Trump wanting reparations for white individuals.
Interestingly, Reid isn’t the first to criticize this iconic holiday tune. In New York, Council Rock Elementary School faced backlash for banning “Jingle Bells” from their annual holiday concert because of its links to blackface and minstrelsy.
The conversation about the song’s alleged racist roots began gaining traction in 2017, fueled by an academic paper by Kaina Hamill from Boston University.
