Before We Were White

In a time when political gangsters are mobilizing their base by appealing to "White Nationalism", it has never been more important to push back against the ridiculous assertion that "white" is an "ethnicity". The idea that the USA as a project is founded mainly upon "white culture" is equally ridiculous. BWWW Episode 24: "Give Me Back My Country" explores how country music - a musical tradition of...

Just over 5 years ago, in the aftermath of the first Trump presidency (which saw a resurgence of racism in the USA), I started Before We Were White as a project for countering the fake history underpinning White Nationalism. I've updated and recorded the first essay I wrote 5 years ago. Its content has become even more relevant today than it was back then.  

No nation on earth fetishizes its military in the way the USA does. Do the lofty words of praise from US politicians match how veterans are treated? And if not, why not? In this episode of Before We Were White, we explore who actually fights America's wars.   

A simple question: Why have "poor white people" - aka Rednecks and Hillbillies - always been seen as legitimate targets for vicious mockery and public ridicule by "mainstream" American society? The answer to that question goes to the heart of early colonial American self-identity.

What connects The Mayflower with an iconic screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?  And what connects the 1931 James Whale film Frankenstein with the 1956 Hollywood musical The King and I? Why do so many Americans show South Asian ancestry in DNA tests?  And where exactly does John Wayne fit into all of this? Sometimes the real horror is the story behind the actors and storytellers... Be...

America is easily the most religious country among the wealthy western democracies. Why? Episode 19 of Before We Were White - "New, Improved, and Super-Sanctified, Part 2" is out now. Part 2 explores the Medieval Catholic church, and how its quest for total political, economic, and spiritual power and authority led to the birth of Protestantism.

America is easily the most religious country among the wealthy western democracies. In almost every other nation, greater wealth and educational levels correlate with a drop-off in levels of religiosity. The USA remains a conspicuous outlier in this regard. Why?   Episode 18 of Before We Were White - "New, Improved, and Super-Sanctified, Part 1" is out now. An exploration of the curious synergy be...

How did a musical instrument which started off hundreds of years ago in Africa end-up becoming a symbol of "white" American country music? Was this a case of simple cultural appropriation, or is there another story waiting to be told? When it comes to American history, nothing is ever as black and white as people think...

Part Two of "Pre-Deliverance" continues our exploration of some of the forgotten roots of American culture and ethnicity. In this episode, we get closer to understanding the origins of "Hillbilly Jews".

Play a game of word association with the average American. Say "banjo". Chances are, a great many would reply with words like "hillbilly" or "redneck". Some might venture to mention bluegrass music. How did a musical instrument which started off hundreds of years ago in Africa end-up becoming a symbol of "white" American music culture? And what if some of the earliest people of non-African ancestr...

In Part 1 of "Black Paddywhackery", we learned about the origins of the Irish people, and asked why so many Americans self-identify as "Black Irish", believing themselves descended from survivors of the Spanish Armada which wrecked off the west coast of Ireland.   Having shown the flaws in this folk history, in Part 2 of "Black Paddywhackery" we explore the true origins of those who call themselve...

A curious number of Southern Appalachians like to refer to themselves or extended family members as being "Black Irish". There are Facebook discussion groups catering to Appalachian Americans (with tens of thousands of members), and almost weekly an "expert" pops up assuring other members that the "Black Irish" are a thing, and that thing is usually this: "Loads of Irish people have black eyes, da...

The eastern half of the continental USA is dotted with places inaccurately described as "tri-racial isolate communities". One of the largest such population groups can be found spread over Eastern Kentucky, the western parts of Virginia, East Tennessee, and West Virginia. Widely known as "Melungeons", few Americans have been the subject of such intense scrutiny and curiosity. Who are these people?...

The eastern half of the continental USA is dotted with places often described as "tri-racial isolate communities". One of the largest such population groups can be found spread over Eastern Kentucky, the western parts of Virginia, East Tennessee, and West Virginia. Widely known as "Melungeons", few Americans have been the subject of such intense scrutiny and curiosity. Who are these people?  Where...

The eastern half of the continental USA is dotted with places often described as "tri-racial isolate communities". One of the largest such population groups can be found spread over Eastern Kentucky, the western parts of Virginia, East Tennessee, and West Virginia. Widely known as "Melungeons", few Americans have been the subject of such intense scrutiny and curiosity. Who are these people?  Where...

Do the mass media and film industry reflect popular culture, or create it? Where do we get our shared history, our national story, our traditions and identity? Follow us as we explore the origins of Christmas in America, while attempting to discover what connects Hollywood, Abraham Lincoln, and, um, Lebanon?

Appalachia has no shortage of murder ballads and murder tales. And Appalachia certainly has no shortage of folklore dealing with "haints" and witches. But sometimes all of it becomes so entangled that separating folklore from fact is almost impossible. Why are so many Appalachian "witches" buried under strange "tent graves"? Did the old-time communities of Middle Tennessee harbor secrets now lost...

Josie and Celia both ran away from home as teenagers - one before the age of 15. Between them, these girls would travel thousands of miles to meet their similar destinies. Both would end up working as underage "sporting girls" on the 19th century American frontier, and both would become consort to a man still celebrated today in American film and folklore. One would survive her ordeals by forgetti...

It is often said that we live in "post-truth" times, as if misinformation and disinformation are an innovation of the internet age. The people who bend reality to fit ideology have been around for decades - for centuries - and they play the long game. One of the most popular and long-running TV series in US history premiered in 1974. Little House on the Prairie was a big slice of sweet American ap...

Announcing the first of our new "bitesized" episodes, which we hope to release regularly between our "deep dive" episodes. ***** On 4 April 2015, an unarmed man was unlawfully shot dead on the streets of Charleston, South Carolina by a police officer. The local chief of police would be called to testify in the subsequent murder trial, amid national media interest and widespread community unrest. T...

November 1620.  Aboard a freezing ship anchored off Cape Cod, Massachusetts... A mutual cooperation agreement is signed by a group of men representing 101 passengers who had survived a perilous north Atlantic crossing, hoping to found a colony in the "New World". This agreement would be important, because some of these passengers were members of a religious sect calling themselves "Saints". The ot...

Between the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and the end of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars in 1644, there were a mere eight years of relative peace between the rightful inhabitants of Tsenacomoco and English colonisers. Those few years of peace were largely the result of one marriage between two people from utterly different worlds. The descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe are still here today, like se...

A middle-aged artist named John White climbed out of a rowboat onto a beach near Roanoke in America in 1590, searching for his missing daughter and grandchildren.   His paintings from that time and place have survived.   But did his family survive as well?

The sea can be pitiless. In 1477, a small ocean-going craft was found washed ashore in County Galway, Ireland, with the dead bodies of a man and a woman still lashed to it. Of the innumerable maritime mishaps in history, none would have a greater lasting impact on the course of world events.

Before We Were White main theme, featuring Dave McLoughlin of County Sligo, Ireland on bouzouki.   Theme based on the old Irish traditional Molly McAlpine, composed by famed Sligo harpist Thomas Connellan (1640 - 1698).