How to Gain Confidence When Resisting White Christian Nationalism

Here's the first one.

A lot of people think we don't need to say the white part out loud.

When you hear me talk about white Christian nationalism, you hear me use all three terms, white Christian nationalism.

Now, when you hear a lot of individuals or news outlets talk about it, they'll just say Christian nationalism.

Now, I'm not some fundamentalist about this.

I'm not some teetotaler on this.

I'm not going to slap anyone's wrist if they don't say white, but I need us to understand that.

how important race is to this entire ideology of Christian nationalism.

So think of it this way.

In a fully realized Christian nationalist vision, who's in charge? Who's on the top of the social hierarchy? Who is in the center of the cultural, political, economic conversation? Is it Black people? Is it brown-skinned immigrants? No, of course not.

It's white people.

And more specifically, it's white wealthy men.

This is why in my definition of white Christian nationalism, I say it is an ethno-cultural ideology.

Ethno-cultural.

So it has a whole lot to do with this idea of Anglo-Saxons or people of Western Europe being the most important historical figures in the world, being the most advanced, having the most to contribute to global society.

It is centering what we racialize as white people.

And by the way, this has a lot also to do with this conversation you'll sometimes hear from right-wing folks about Western civilization.

Now, on its face, Western civilization, it's like a body of knowledge that communicated in high schools and colleges and other programs and it's not in and of itself bad but in the hands of these right wingers what it becomes is it's not just western civilization as a body of knowledge it's as a superior body of knowledge from a superior people which means all the folks in africa or places in asia or central or south america or beyond yeah you know they got stuff But really what everyone needs to learn and focus on is Western civilization, Western culture, Western knowledge, right? As if that wasn't created through the interchange and exchange of ideas globally.

So it is this ethno-cultural centeredness that puts white people at the center.

So I say the white part out loud.

Now, if you don't say it, then you must understand still implicitly the centrality of race to this ideology and this vision.

And as we talk about who's at the center of white Christian nationalism, you know what it looks like? It looks a lot like the plantation.

The plantation society was organized around a hierarchy.

At the very top was the white male plantation

owner.