Thread by @kelly_j_baker

Now at a panel on Christian nationalism in the Age of Tr*mp.

I think this is missing *white* before Christian.

(But, I would, wouldn't I?)

Um, white Christian nationalism isn't new. It didn't suddenly appear before 2016.

It's been around for....awhile.

I get that it's a better story to suggest that white Christian nationalism is *new*

Suddenly, it seems to just now appear & journalists rush to cover it as *new*

It's not new. It's just a recent example of a longer history.

I feel like I just say this over & over & over again:

White Christian nationalism has long been part of American history. What we are seeing in this moment isn't new. It has a legacy & lineage & a much longer history.

In 2016, I wrote about this impulse to call white nationalism new in 2016:
nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opi…

Okay, this panel is doing something that's a pretty common tactic: suggesting that Christian nationalism was "fringe" until 2016 & is somehow "un-American."

Um, this is...a problem.

First, it's *white* Christian nationalism.

Second, it's not fringe.

Third, it's American.

One of things that commonly happens to me when I lecture or write about white Christian nationalism is that white people tell me it is fringe & an outlier in American history.

Well, it's not fringe. It's mainstream. It has been mainstream. It didn't just appear b/c of Tr*mp.

White Christian nationalism has long been a part of American history. It's appeared in a lot of different forms with similar ideas that America is a white Christian nation that should be defended by white Christians.

For example, the 1920s Klan.

White Christian nationalism didn't magically appear. It's been around. It will continue to be around because it's essential, mainstream part of American culture.

Just because journalists hadn't noticed it before 2016 doesn't mean it wasn't there.

To say white Christian nationalism is "fringe" or "un-American" is a distancing maneuver.

It's a way for the speaker to suggest that "America isn't like this" while blatantly ignoring that America is & has been.

Please see my earlier thread of how & why folks want to believe that America is about things like religious freedom instead of white Christian nationalism.

Folks like ideals but not the actual history.

https://twitter.com/kelly_j_baker/status/1174742967950528512

Oh my gosh, I'm so, so angry right now.

The next person that tries to tell me that white Christian nationalism is "un-American" or "fringe" will make me scream & never stop screaming.

Y'all, I'm trying real hard not to throw myself on the floor & pull my hair out.

I...just...all my work is the exact opposite of what's happening here. My whole goal with my book on white Christian nationalism was to show how American & mainstream this is. Because it is.

I would like to go on record that just because someone doesn't call themselves a "Christian nationalist" in the past or present doesn't mean that they aren't.

There have long been white Christian nationalists. We don't need them to tell us that they are to now that they are.

I mean, it's silly to say that there aren't "Christian nationalists" because they don't call themselves that.

There's this thing called analysis in which we pay attention to their language, practices, writings & actions & then apply a term that fits.