‘Jingle Bells’ is racist, claims video shared by Joy Reid — sparking Christmas culture war
In a recent clip that went viral on Instagram, former MSNBC commentator Joy Reid played the part of the Grinch and posted a video asserting that the classic holiday tune “Jingle Bells” was originally written to ridicule black people.
The clip shows a man in a Santa suit standing on a street in Medford, Massachusetts, where a plaque marks the spot that locals believe James Lord Pierpont penned the song back in 1850. The video’s caption claims that this figure was a racist Confederate soldier who composed the melody to mock black folks and that it came from the minstrel shows that were popular in that era.
It goes on to state that Pierpont—whose nephew eventually became the well‑known financier J.P. Morgan—worked out of sheer financial need when he created “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” According to the video, the song was initially performed by white actors in blackface as part of shows that caricatured black people taking part in winter activities.
The narrator suggests that the line “laughing all the way” probably references a then‑popular comedic routine called “Laughing Darkie.” Pierpont is said to have patented the song in 1859, renamed it “Jingle Bells,” and, just before the Civil War, left his family to join the Confederate Army, where he supposedly wrote marching songs to rally soldiers defending slavery.
Reid’s own career has been marked by controversy. After her long‑running MSNBC series “The ReidOut” was axed earlier this year, she’s made a number of provocative claims, most recently alleging that President Trump pushed for “reparations for white people” in the past year.
She’s not alone in casting doubt on the tune’s legacy. In upstate New York, Council Rock Primary School faced backlash when it banned “Jingle Bells” from its holiday concert, citing supposed connections to blackface and minstrel traditions.
The roots of these allegations can be traced back to a 2017 academic paper by Boston University professor Kyna Hamill, which debated the presence of “Jingle Bells” in the minstrel repertoire.
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