The Sons of Sweyn Forkbeard

Number of ancestors per generation

As expected, this blog and podcast is beginning to be noticed by “white” Christian nationalist ideologues.

I find myself conflicted trying to decide whether the people commenting from this ideological position should be ignored or blocked.

It is beyond laughable that anyone with deep roots in colonial-era America would use iconography associated with medieval Germanic Europe as their “identity” – Scandinavian runes, Viking imagery, tattoos of St. George crosses or pathetic weightlifter-inflected fantasy artwork depicting Frankish crusaders, Saxon warlords, and Norman knights.

The National Socialists of 1920s and 1930s Germany loved this sort of thing, with composers like Richard Wagner being much admired for offering an artistic pseudo-backstory of ancient Germania and Scandinavia – full of “pure”, but utterly imaginary ancient folk legends.

Explaining the difference between the fake concept of “race”, and population groups, nationality, ethnicity, tribalism, and culture is so complicated that I started this podcast.

In order to claim an “ethnicity”, surely a person should be able to demonstrate one or more things:

Immersion within a specific ethnic community’s culture, or at the very least, a majority of ancestors from that claimed ethnic group.

THIS WILL ALMOST NEVER BE POSSIBLE FOR LONG-TIME AMERICANS, BECAUSE THEY ARE A PROFOUNDLY MIXED PEOPLE.

I’ve shared a table above showing the number of ancestors all of us have, as we travel back through the generations.

Can any American seriously claim that half, or even a quarter, of their 8,192 eleventh great-grandparents came from one single culture or ethnic community?

*****

Before We Were White will offer this public challenge to any self-identified American “white Christian nationalist” who believes they are ethnically or “racially” pure:

If at least half of your family has been in America since colonial times (pre-Revolution), prove that none of those ancestors were people of color.

You will not be able to do it.

You’re not who you wish you were.  And you’re certainly not a Norse or Saxon warrior.

You’re an American with serious masculinity, educational and cultural issues.