Although New York is currently seeing surges in COVID-19 even with the Democrats controlling the state, a school district has decided not to worry so much about mandates as they recently banned the Christmas classic, “Jingle Bells”, from the music curriculum at the elementary school. And according to the school district, the reason behind the ban was due to a theory that the carol was first performed in Boston at a minstrel show. The performers are reported to have donned blackface while singing the song, which has somehow made the song racist. 

Reported by the Rochester Beacon,  the Brighton Central School District nixed James L. Pierpont’s song from the curriculum at Council Rock Primary School due to “the potential to be controversial or offensive.” The move to ban the song comes from a 2017 article authored by Kyna Hamill, the Boston University’s Director of Core Curriculum. 

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The outlet noted, “She found documents showing that the song’s first public performance may have occurred in 1857 at a Boston minstrel show. Minstrelsy was a then-popular form of entertainment in which white actors performed in blackface.”

Reaching out to Hamill, the author was shocked that the song had been banned from the school. “I am actually quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire. … I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children.” She added, “My article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now.”

Going against the district, Hamill was adamant that the song still be used. “The very fact of (“Jingle Bells’”) popularity has to do (with) the very catchy melody of the song, and not to be only understood in terms of its origins in the minstrel tradition. … I would say it should very much be sung and enjoyed, and perhaps discussed.”

After Hamill’s statement,  Allison Rioux, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, insisted, “Some suggest that the use of collars on slaves with bells to send an alert that they were running away is connected to the origin of the song Jingle Bells. While we are not taking a stance to whether that is true or not, we do feel strongly that this line of thinking is not in agreement with our district beliefs to value all cultures and experiences of our students. For this reason, along with the idea that there are hundreds of other 5 note songs, we made the decision to not teach the song directly to all students.”

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Hamill answered back, stating, “The use of bells on enslaved peoples may be true,” but“Perhaps finding a well-referenced source for this claim might be in order if that is what (school officials) want to determine as the cause for not singing it.”