ABSTRACT
The Colonial Jesus articulates to whiteness because it naturalizes "the production of identity on top of differences, of unities out of fragments, of structures across practices". This chapter argues that whiteness and Christianity become intertwined through the production of a White savior trope. It deconstructs the "Colonial Jesus" to demonstrate how White supremacy and Christianity articulate together to naturalize racist nativist ideology. The chapter argues that the colonial legacy of the representation of Jesus as a "white man" maintains whiteness as a propaganda tool to perpetrate the othering of people of color, and thereby retains the power of White supremacy. Through a case study of the "Unite the Right Rally", it illustrates how Christianity still operates as a racialized code for whiteness in othering and oppressing bodies of color in the United States. The chapter advocates for a postcolonial approach to Christianity that challenges the whiteness of Jesus and thereby attempts to disarticulate Christ– and by extension Christianity– from whiteness.
