Making America Great: Examining the Race-Religion-Nation Nexus (PoliticoReligion)

In the aftermath of President Trump's 2016 victory, racially motivated hate crimes and violence have surged in the US, especially toward Muslim Americans, creating what Edwards and Rushin call the 'Trump Effect'. As the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests demonstrated, racial tensions are reaching a breaking point, and Trump's rhetoric and policies directly fuelled those tensions. One of the ideologies bolstering Trumpism is Christian nationalism. The US isn't the only country where religious nationalism has flourished in recent years. Religion has also provided a powerful vehicle for nationalist ideology in countries such as Poland, India, and Brazil. But how do high levels of religious nationalism connect to the rise in racial conflict? PoliticoReligion responds to these societal challenges by examining the relationship between race, religion, and nationalism.