It's time for the way Black History Fact. So today's way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground Beach Club. From the streets to the beach to the latest new beach where visit Underground Beach Club dot com. Today I'm gonna share a bit with you from The Guardian. It's the holiday season. Is jingle bells racist? Let's find out kind of? Hammel aimed, sorry to shed light on a
long hidden history detailing racist origins of popular Christmas carol. Instead, the university lecturer ended up the target of a right wing trolling attack after her academic research on jingle bells was twisted into an example of liberal overreach. Hatefield emails flooded her inbox. Hammel, of Boston University told The Guardian quote, I was told that I was trying to ruin Christmas for children who weren't allowed to sing the song anymore, and that I was ruining the jingle bell festival in
our town. Notice they attached children to it to make it a little bit more. I get it. Hamil had probed the origins of the popular carol, hoping to settle a friendly rivalry between Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah, Georgia over where Jingle Bells was written. About two years ago, she stumbled across a rather different story. The song, initially known as one Horse Open Sleigh, was first performed in blackface in a minstrel show in Boston in September eighteen fifty seven.
She discovered for those that don't know, oh, actually, that's right here. Hamill published the findings in a peer reviewed paper in September, noting that during the past one hundred and sixty years, the song had become an example of music whose quote, blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history. The song was written by James Pierpoint, who badly needed work After failing at
several other professional ventures. Pierpoint capitalized on menstrual music and entered upon a safeground for Saturday Rising Black participation in northern winter activities. Last year, she detailed her findings to local media, yielding a front page story in the Boston Globe and no backlash. This year, however, was a different story.
Quote newest Christmas controversy has social justice warriors claiming this classic holiday carol is racist unquote, a Fox News host told viewers earlier this month, Breitbart warned that Hamil was urging people to shun the jahn t tone. Hamil said much reporting of her research was incorrect and laden with all sorts of absolutely absurd accusations. Quote. It was obviously an easy way to bait and politicize Christmas, she said, which seems to be what extreme political outlets want to do.
She had never said the jingle Bells was now racist, nor had she sought to discourage people from singing the tune, she pointed out. Still, the backlash was fierce. Her name soon became a hashtag on Twitter, backing up tweets as users learned of her findings. Hundreds of hate laced emails filled her inbox. Others tried to reach her by phone
or through social media. She replied to a few of the emails, at times receiving an apology quote despite the fact that a lot of the hate mail was really horrible. People just want to communicate and they're stuck in this echo chamber, she said. She goes on to say, so, I think people just want to be heard, and nobody
seems to be listening anymore. Ironically, the controversy has sent interest in her research on jingle bell soaring, placing it currently among the most read articles on Cambridge University Press Quote. If anything, this irresponsible reporting has drawn more attention to an academic article that would usually just sit in a journal that very few would read. So the fact that it was academic in peer reviews means that it's valid.
And for those that don't know, menstrual shows are very racist forms of entertainment in the early nineteen rounders of late eighteen hundreds, So there's your way, Black history fact