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...

Before We Were White takes a mid-point break from our four part series on the history of Christianity in America - "New, Improved, and Super-Sanctified".

Join us as we explore some of the darkness at the heart of Tinsel Town's Golden Era.

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.