Washington: The late great Bing Crosby sang famously of a white Christmas by dreaming of it in 1942. Crosby’s song sold over 50 million copies while several cover versions sold at least another 50 million, making it one of the highest selling singles in history. At this time of the year, Christians as well as non-Christians the world over hear it on radios and at holiday gatherings. It’s a beautiful song. But its lyrics hide a few ironies.

To begin with, it is a Christmas song written by a non-Christian, the legendary Irving Berlin, who was Jewish. The lyrics pine for a snow-covered December 25th but Berlin wrote in 1940 in a part of California where it hardly ever snows and he had actually been surprised by a light snowfall early that morning. And, when you think about it, vast numbers of Christians live in parts of the world where either it doesn’t snow at all or not at that time of the year. Think of the Christians in the southern hemisphere, from Australia-New Zealand to southern Africa and South America, and of those who live in tropical or semi-tropical countries.

Yet mental images of Christmas for most people the world over reflect icicles, snowflakes, reindeer and sleds, not of a bright sun shining on sparkling flowers and green grass in summer heat. Therein lies a problem of perception shaped by socio-culturally prevalent global forces. A white Christmas may be merely a fantasy. The perceived or subconscious influence of white, Christian identity, however, remains a strong political current swaying the world.

In the recent colonial era of history and its aftermath, no more than two or three centuries old, the imperial powers that fanned across the globe were Christian and predominantly belonged to a bogus racial category called ‘white’. (The imperial Japanese were briefly the sole exception.)

Anyone who has delved into basic evolutionary history, biology and genetics, will know that a so-called ‘white race’ has no basis in fact. It is a socio-imperial construct reinforced by political and economic power pulling in its wake cultural creativity, such as that of Rudyard Kipling who helped elevate the white man’s reluctant burden to civilise the rest of us into ordained destiny.

Given their coincidence in the colonial era, whiteness and Christianity became enmeshed in a singular category. The white man’s mission to spread virtuous Christian civilisation was the noble fig leaf covering the European imperial venture. It was an aggressive ideology that came to be challenged in the post-colonial era by numerous writers and intellectuals. It never quite died. It nestles in the popular imagination of proponents as well as opponents everywhere.

How the after-effects of the ideology continue to affect us to this day may be a subject for another discussion. What we might note is the defensive posture it accommodates today for the rigid attitudes of those white Christians in Europe and America who fear being overwhelmed in the coming decades by non-Christian, non-white Others.

In the US, a large majority of those supporting President Donald Trump are white Christians. Among Evangelical Christians in particular that support is overwhelming. They want to “take the country back”. But ‘back’ from whom? They would like America to be directed, in spirit and culture, by Christian values but too many of even Christian immigrants are non-white Hispanics, to say nothing of Muslims and pagans or the growing numbers among the young to be secular-minded, not belonging to any religious order or being atheist. For most Trump supporters, Christianity alone is insufficient for being a real American; you also have to be white.

Unfortunately for them, the world is a different place now. Current demographic trends indicate that nearly all of global annual population growth is taking place in non-white, largely non-Christian developing countries. India leads the way by contributing 18% of that growth, followed by China, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia.

After all, Christ was not white. Meanwhile, let’s dream of a white Christmas in a festive spirit. Happy Holidays!