A holiday-season debate has resurfaced after former MSNBC host Joy Reid reposted a viral video claiming the beloved Christmas song “Jingle Bells” has racist origins, prompting renewed discussion about the tune’s 19th-century history and the context in which it was first performed.
The video, created by social media commentator Khalil Greene, examines the origins of “Jingle Bells” and its composer, James Lord Pierpont. Set against a slowed-down instrumental version of the song, Greene’s video uses historical references, visual backdrops, and captions to argue that the song emerged from America’s minstrel entertainment era.
Much of the public backlash has focused on Reid’s decision to share the video, with critics accusing her of participating in an “attack on Christmas.” However, Greene’s video itself does not make sweeping claims about modern performances of the song or suggest contemporary listeners engage with it in a racist way.
Instead, the video draws from academic research, including “The Story I Must Tell: ‘Jingle Bells’ in the Minstrel Repertoire,” a peer-reviewed article by historian Kyna Hamill published in Theatre Survey, a journal of Cambridge University Press.
Hamill’s research asserts that “Jingle Bells” debuted publicly in 1857 at Ordway Hall in Boston during a minstrel show. “The song was first performed in blackface,” Hamill wrote, noting that minstrel performances of the period involved white entertainers using exaggerated and racist caricatures of Black people.
Pierpont, the song’s composer, was connected to minstrel performance culture, which was widespread in American entertainment during the mid-1800s. Hamill’s research focuses on how “Jingle Bells” circulated within the minstrel tradition of its time, rather than how it is understood or celebrated in modern holiday contexts. The study also notes that Pierpont was a Confederate sympathizer whose other works included racist language.
The video does not argue that present-day renditions of “Jingle Bells” carry racist intent. Instead, it situates the song’s origins within the historical conditions under which it was created—a distinction that has often been lost in online debates.
Hamill’s findings have periodically resurfaced over the years, particularly during the holiday season. This latest revival, however, has placed Reid at the center of the controversy, despite her not being involved in the original research or the creation of the video.
As the conversation continues online, the debate highlights broader tensions over how Americans reckon with the complex and often uncomfortable histories behind longstanding cultural traditions.
