Canadian researcher faces far-right backlash after research uncovers Jingle Bells' racist past
'I've had a lot of hate mail and harassment because of it. All for Jingle Bells.'
A Canadian teaching at Boston University in the U.S. is facing severe backlash online after she published a research paper outlining the racist origins of the beloved Christmas song
Jingle Bells.
"It has been quite surreal. It's been a crash course in public relations and internet trolling," said Kyna Hamill, a lecturer at Boston University, and graduate of the University of Ottawa and University of Alberta.
For years, Hamill has been
studying the history of the song Jingle Bells, but only recently uncovered the song's racist past.
In a peer-reviewed
research paper published in September, she says the song was originally performed in blackface in a minstrel show as
One Horse Open Sleigh at Ordway Hall in Boston, Mass., in September 1857.
She writes that the composer "capitalized on minstrel music and entered upon a 'safe' ground for satirizing black participation in northern winter activities."
...
She says the story was picked up and misrepresented by right-leaning news outlets across the U.S., including Fox News and Breitbart. Her name — #KynaHamill — has also become a hashtag on Twitter.
Loony Liberal Boston University Professor
#KynaHamill claims ‘Jingle Bells’ is a racist song!
She must also think 'White Christmas' is a KKK rally song!
@BU_Tweets #Christmas #Boston pic.twitter.com/OlOoC3AZiB
—
@princezip
"It seems that the work that I've been talking about on
Jingle Bells ... has been absolutely misreported or reported very irresponsibly," she tells
CBC Daybreak South host Chris Walker in her first interview since the backlash.
"It's been pretty stressful because I've had a lot of hate mail and harassment because of it. All for
Jingle Bells."
Certain media outlets have characterized Hamill as saying the song itself is racist and should be shunned, which Hamill denies.
