Straight White American Jesus

Monster in the Mirror Episode 3:

The trope of the “Asiatic criminal mastermind” has haunted Asians for over a century, from the notorious Fu Manchu right up to the myths of dastardly Wuhan virologists circulating in the COVID era. But these myths, which have helped fuel a historic spike in anti-Asian racism, didn’t start with Sax Rohmer’s “Devil Doctor.” Before Fu Manchu, there was Dr. Yen How, the villain of M.P. Shiel’s smash hit The Yellow Danger (1898). In this episode, we examine how Asians today live not only in the shadow of the ruthless Yen How, but also in the shadow of the mindless monster that Yen How commands: the “Heathen Chinee.”

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Narrated and Scripted By Lucas Kwong

Voice acting: Christian Young Valdovinos, Lucas Kwong

Sound Effects courtesy of royalty free sources Played N Faved, The Sound Source, Free Sound Effects

Theme Song “Lair” by The Brother K Melee (brotherkmusic.com)

End song “Pledge Of Allegiance” by The Brother K Melee (brotherkmusic.com)

Various film and news audio clips used under fair/educational use laws.

Further Reading:

Sascha Auerbach, Race, Law, and the ‘Chinese Puzzle’ in Imperial Britain

Harold Billings, M.P. Shiel: A Biography Of His Early Years

Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief In Modern American Culture

Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime

Ross G. Forman, China And The Victorian Imagination: Empires Entwined

Christopher Frayling, The Yellow Peril: Dr. Fu Manchu And The Rise Of Chinaphobia

Kathryn Gin Lum, Heathen: Religion And Race In American History

Mark Jerng, Racial Worldmaking: The Power Of Popular Fiction

Kirsten MacLeod, "M.P. Shiel and the Love of Pubescent Girls: The Other 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name,'" English Literature in Transition 51.4 (2008): 355–80

Caroline Yang, The Peculiar Afterlife of Slavery: The Chinese Worker And The Minstrel Form.

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We often hear Christians, cultural conservatives, and conservative politicians appeal to the family, and particularly the need for children to have families. Why do they say this? Would anyone disagree with it? When we crack the code of this language, do find more going on that the simple affirmation that children need and deserve adult caregivers who love them, care for them, and want them to thrive? In this episode, Dan argues that when we crack this code, we find that this sentiment is primarily about the family at all.

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Brad is joined by return guest and co-author Annika Brockschmidt to discuss three things:

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Brad and Dan breakdown the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hopeful from the 2022 midterms.

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When it was first published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula immediately triggered a spate of strong emotional responses. These responses partly stemmed from its action-movie depiction of Christianity, but also partly from the xenophobic fears of European Jews that lurk beneath its titular monster. Dracula also introduced the idea of a holy conspiracy, whose members must conduct their sacred fight against evil in secret. In this episode, we talk about how a century of adaptations has preserved the notion of dueling conspiracies, and thereby provided the narrative that fuels QAnon, the Oath Keepers, and other modern Crusaders consumed with their own secret plot to take America back from the "globalist" monsters they fear and loathe.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Voice acting: Christian Young Valdovinos, Alfred Kwong, Lucas Kwong, Naomi Kwong

For Further Reading:

Audio from various films used under fair/educational use laws.

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Brad and Dan begin by discussing the attack on Paul Pelosi. Brad discusses the conspiracy theories that have taken hold surrounding the attack and why the jokes, memes, and laughs coming from the American Right reveal how they think of the country - and themselves.

Dan then dives into Kanye West's anti-Semitic remarks and discusses his history of anti-Blackness.

The episode finishes with an examination of the open racial fear mongering on GOP midterm ads in the South.

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One of the most central commands given by Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible is to “love your enemies.” But if this is true, why does it seem like we seldom see this in practice among Christians, especially those who actively articulate their faith in terms of culture war and Christian nationalism? Dan tackles these issues in this episode, decode Christian understandings of what “love of enemies” does, and doesn’t mean, for the Christians who appeal to it.

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Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

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Monster in the Mirror is a limited audio series produced by Straight White American Jesus, and created and written by Dr. Lucas Kwong.

Monster in the Mirror is a series about monsters. It's about how the fantastical beasts who stalk the imagination of contemporary Christian nationalists were birthed in another white God fearing empire. It's about how Christian nationalism's past and the clues to its future line, the pages of some of the most popular novels in English.

Christian nationalism isn't just a set of policies or a material network of influencers. It's a story, a story that seduces the imagination, one that's been told over and over, but that is now enjoying a renaissance. And if we wanna trace today's reboot back to its source material, we have to go back further than the Reagan eighties or even the Billy Graham fifties.

We have to go back to another time and place where the script that MAGA religion has now revived first entered white Christian consciousness, not as an explicit political ideology, but as entertainment. That time and place is late 19th century Britain. Monster in the Mirror explores how at the height of its powers, the British Empire began to suffer nightmares, visions of an apocalyptic future, of a decline.

That in some sense, actually is happening today in our place in time. And we're gonna see how the monsters that today's Christian right blames for that decline originated in the stories that the late Victorians told themselves about Christianity's enemies and protectors.

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Brad and Dan begin by discussing the brand new survey data from Pew Religion and PRRI about faith, politics, and American values. Dan brings up the numbers on how many people think the USA is a Christian nation and what that means. Brad discusses the high number of Christians who think that patriotism is an important part of faith - and why that feeds Christian nationalism on an everyday level.

After the break, Dan brings up the PRRI data that shows how many Americans think the country has been a force for good in the world without exception. Brad talks about how White Christians, according to the data, see newcomers to the country as a threat to it. They finish by discussing the 50 point divide in how Republicans and Democrats feel about the "femininity" of American society.

Pew Research

PRRI American Values Survey

In the final segment, Brad brings up how Trump, Tucker Carlson, and local offiicals are setting the stage to cast doubt on the election results in the state - and fuel the fire for another violent political event.

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Brad speaks with Dr. Lucas Kwong, creator of the SWAJ spinoff podcast series Monster in the Mirror - first episode drops Halloween 2022.

They discuss how Christian nationalism is a story - a story about empire, fear of replacement, and anxiety about the other. In this story, White Christian invent monsters that they then blame for "destroying" the nation and the culture they want to protect. So, political enemies become demons. Elections become apocalyptic events. And the stakes are reduced to a battle between the Good Guys and the monsters they have invented. This explains how 19th century Gothic literature such as Dracula and War of the Worlds provides a map for understanding the monsters that contemporary American Christian nationalists have invented.

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