Is “Jingle Bells” Racist?
Power Line,
by
John Hinderaker
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
12/11/2025 2:18:13 PM
One’s first impulse is to say: of course! Everything that Americans like is racist.
More specifically, defrocked MSNBC host Joy Reid is alleging that the song “Jingle Bells” is racist:
In the video she shared to her 1.3 million Instagram followers, a man in a Christmas sweater and Santa hat stands on the streets of Medford, Massachusetts near a plaque [that] marks the site where James Lord Pierpont is believed to have penned the song in 1850.
He takes off his hat disapprovingly and scowls at the plaque, the video caption reading “this is where a racist Confederate soldier wrote ‘Jingle Bells’ to make fun of black people, and has its origins
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
volksford 12/11/2025 2:39:54 PM (No. 2039966)
It boggles the mind knowing you share the planet with these idiots .
26 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Namma 12/11/2025 2:40:50 PM (No. 2039967)
don't like the song, don't sing it
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
chance_232 12/11/2025 2:57:17 PM (No. 2039973)
"Racist" has become a punch line. Nazi, facist, white supremacist and "anythingphobic" are right up there with racist. The words have lost their meaning, punch and power. Most sane Americans, when hearing these epitaphs just roll their eyes.
You've lost the argument and any sane listener the second one of these insults is thrown.
16 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Catherine 12/11/2025 2:58:33 PM (No. 2039974)
These people are getting scary sick. And by 'these people' I mean anyone of any race who finds the time to decide a favorite Christmas song for children, is racist. The only racists these people see are in their mirror.
19 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
mc squared 12/11/2025 3:03:11 PM (No. 2039976)
Of course, everything is the R-word.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 12/11/2025 3:20:28 PM (No. 2039979)
Oh yes. That's exactly why I sing it every year. Every Christmas season, I get up every morning and ask myself, "What Christmas song can sing today to denigrate and demean yet another long-suffering ethic group?"
Because that's how I live my life: Riven by hate. Obsessed with race. Dedicated to the diminution of my fellow Americans and furthering the ethnic divisions in my country.
Sometimes I even sing "Frosty The Snowman" to celebrate my hatred of white people and my desire to see them all systematically liquidated.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
marbles 12/11/2025 3:24:39 PM (No. 2039980)
For the professional racist, everything is racist.
15 people like this.
James Lord Pierpont, the author, came from an abolitionist family. His father was a Unitarian reverend and strongly abolitionist. James never owned slaves, not was involved in the slave trade. His father actually served in the Union Army as a chaplain.
What he was, was a young man who grew up in Savanah, married a local girl, and was enlisted into the Confederate Army as a private, just like every other young man. He wrote songs and played in bands, but otherwise had an unremarkable military career.
There is absolutely nothing to support these allegations.
18 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
valinva 12/11/2025 3:41:11 PM (No. 2039984)
If your industry and the way you make money and gather followers is to call everything racist, that is what you will do. Anyone who follows her and believes what she said is irredeemable anyway so who cares what they think.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 12/11/2025 3:57:18 PM (No. 2039986)
I completely agree with #2. Along similar lines, if anyone--no matter who they are--is stupid enough to tell me they don't like something I'm wearing, my automatic reply is: "Then don't look at it!"
In both instances, their dislike and/or offense is THEIR problem, not mine!
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 12/11/2025 4:04:04 PM (No. 2039988)
Joy Reid is a racist.
12 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 12/11/2025 4:22:23 PM (No. 2039996)
It's a bizarre world where Joy Reid, Candace Ownen, Tucker Carlson and other get tossed into a big container of "insane and evil people who get more attention than they deserve".
5 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 12/11/2025 4:24:36 PM (No. 2039998)
They don't like to be laughed at but they keep putting their best clowns front and center.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
konocti95 12/11/2025 4:34:45 PM (No. 2040003)
Wasn't the controversial holiday song a little while ago "Baby, It's Cold Outside?" "Jingle Bells" (the non-grade school version) this year. Next year I predict..."I'll Be Home for Christmas " due to the fact it mentions having a family home and keeping a promise.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
padiva 12/11/2025 4:44:36 PM (No. 2040007)
let's see how she celebrates Kwaunzaa.....
6 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
bpl40 12/11/2025 4:59:56 PM (No. 2040011)
Is a rabbit racist compared to say a crow?
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
FJB 2022 23 24 12/11/2025 5:45:22 PM (No. 2040018)
No, but Joy Reid is!!!
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Troutgreen 12/11/2025 5:46:22 PM (No. 2040019)
White Christmas oughta really make their heads explode.
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
mamabear 12/11/2025 6:23:24 PM (No. 2040028)
Thanks #8 for providing historical background. :-) Here is a bit more context: When the song was published in 1857, it was originally titled 'One Horse Open Sleigh'. "The plaque in Pierpont's hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, insists that Pierpont wrote the song in a local tavern whilst watching the sleigh races." (https://www.imagininghistory.co.uk/post/the-history-of-jingle-bells-in-5-fun-facts) . With historical background and its proper context, jingling sleigh bells make sense. There appears to be nothing racist about it unless one counts the possible absence of black sledders - the assumption of which would be ridiculous, a rewrite of history, deliberately incendiary, and unprovable.
Can we please just stop listening to these people or giving them clicks? Just please Stop! We've just about reached the point where everything is racist, and nothing is racist. And I, for one, have had more than enough of both.
Have a Merry Christmas with all the jingling bells on your tree, wrapped packages or in your caroling that your heart desires! :-)
2 people like this.
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