She’s Back for the Holidays! Former MSNBC Host Joy Reid Claims ‘Jingle Bells’ Is Racist
The article discusses a controversial claim recently shared by former MSNBC host Joy Reid in a holiday Instagram special. Reid reposted a video asserting that the popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells” has racist origins. The video features creator Khalil Greene,who alleges that James Lord Pierpont,the song’s purported composer,was a racist Confederate soldier and that the song was originally writen for minstrel shows meant to mock Black people. it also suggests that some lyrics, like “laughing all the way,” reference racist comedic routines of the era. while these claims draw from a 2017 academic paper hinting the song may have been part of minstrel performances, the song’s true origins remain unclear and disputed, with multiple locations claiming credit for its creation.
The article points out that such theories are speculative and far from established fact, describing the video’s interpretation as “cheerful revisionism” lacking strong evidence. It also notes that Joy Reid’s career has included various racial controversies, and she now shares her views on YouTube with a smaller audience. The piece concludes that while this provocative theory might not gain widespread attention, it serves as a reminder that Reid remains as controversial as ever.
Joy Reid’s back, baby! And just as insane as ever!
In a holiday special from the canceled former MSNBC host, Reid reposted a bizarre theory that “Jingle Bells,” the song we all know and love, is actually racist.
According to a Wednesday report from the New York Post, Reid d the video with her 1.3 million followers on Instagram. It begins with Khalil Greene, a creator with pronouns in his bio and a mission to expose “historical injustice,” in front of the plaque in Massachusetts where James Lord Pierpont is purported to have composed the song in 1850.
“This is where a racist Confederate soldier wrote ‘Jingle Bells’ to make fun of Black people, and has its origins in bigoted minstrel shows that were popular at the time,” a caption reads as Greene looks in disdain at the plaque.
From the New York Post:
The video captions go on to claim Pierpont — whose nephew grew up to be legendary financier J.P. Morgan — was hard up for cash when he composed “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” and did so expressly for its use in performances in which white actors put on blackface to “mock and caricature black people trying to participate in winter activities.”
It alleges that the lyrics “laughing all the way” in the song “likely” is a reference to a racist comedic routine of the day known as the “Laughing Darkie.”
Pierpont patented the song in 1859 and changed its name to the familiar “Jingle Bells” before the start of the Civil War, at which point the video claims he “abandoned his family” to join the Confederate Army, and wrote Southern fight songs to “rouse men defending slavery.”
This claim, such as evidence may exist for it, mostly comes from a 2017 paper by a Boston University professor in which it was asserted the best evidence for the song’s origin story — which is indeed quite hazy — involved it first being performed in a minstrel show.
Whether or not this is accurate is anyone’s guess; the pair notes that both Medford, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia, still claim to be where the song was written, which complicates any narrative regarding the context of its composition.
To the extent that this may or may not be true, the rest of the Instagram video is cheerful revisionism dressed up as serious thought.
If I were to assert that the original lyrics to the song were actually about Batman smelling and Robin laying an egg, this anachronistic theory would only have slightly less correlation to the known facts as Greene’s Instagram video did:
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Let’s not pretend that this is an outlier for Reid, either.
This is a woman whose tenure on MSNBC was marred by controversies, usually of the racial variety. This included up until after she was dismissed from the network that would soon become known as MS NOW for low ratings and a high price tag; fellow host Rachel Maddow used the occasion to imply that the decision to dismiss her colleague was a racial one.
The 57-year-old Reid has been hosting her show on YouTube, where some episodes barely clear 10,000 views depending on whether she has a guest worth watching or not. (An episode last week with Rep. Ilhan Omar got over 114,000 views as of Thursday, but an episode this week without guests didn’t even manage 6,500 views.)
And now she’s back, amplifying a dubious influencer theory that “Jingle Bells” is a racist tune.
Thus, I guess the good news is that the outré theory won’t reach too many ears via Reid. However, if you needed a holiday card from the former host to inform you that she’s still every bit as crazy, now you have one.
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