White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

This article is about the cultural ethnonym. For Wasp (disambiguation), see White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (disambiguation).

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a sociological and cultural ethnonym that originated in the United States.

The term originated in reference to White Americans of Anglo-Saxon descent, who were Protestant in religious affiliation. However, the term does not have a precise definition, and can be used to describe greatly differing groups. It initially applied to people with histories in the upper class Northeastern establishment, who were alleged to form a powerful elite. Working class whites in the U.S. are generally not referred to as "WASPs", even if they are Protestants of Anglo-Saxon descent. The word white is redundant, since Anglo-Saxons — whether in the strict or popular sense of the term — are always white.

WASP is gradually being replaced in U.S. liberal circles by "white Christian" as a result of diminished exclusion of Catholics and other non-WASP whites.

Strictly speaking, many people now referred to as "WASPs" are not Anglo-Saxon – that is, the descendants of some Germanic peoples, who settled in Britain between the 5th century and the Norman Conquest. However, in modern North American usage, WASP may include Protestants, from Dutch, German, Huguenot (French Protestant), Scandinavian, Scottish, Scots-Irish and Welsh backgrounds. Therefore, the term WASP is sometimes applied to individuals who are technically non-Anglo-Saxons, including people with:

• Dutch origins, such as the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt families
• German descent, such as the Rockefeller and Astor families.
• French descent, such as the Du Pont family
• Scots origins, such as the Carnegie family.
• Scots-Irish origins, such as the Mellon family.

The term WASP has many meanings. In sociology it reflects that segment of the U.S. population that founded the nation and traced their heritages to ... Western Europe... The term has largely negative connotations... Today... less than 25 percent of the U.S. population [is WASP]. Nevertheless they continue to... have disproportionate influence over... American institutions. The term... has become more inclusive. To many people, WASP now include most 'white' people who are not... members of any minority group (William Thompson & Joseph Hickey, 2005, Society in Focus).

Usage of the term WASP has grown in other English-speaking countries, such as Canada and Australia, which were settled by members of similar ethnic groups. Beyond the English-speaking world, the term is sometimes used in a metaphorical sense, to refer to perceived elite social groups.

WASP stands for "White Anglo Saxon Protestant". This term, often considered derogatory, is used to describe the decendents of the English in the Northeast, most notable in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and often New York. In Massachusetts, there is an Irish-American majority, as well as a strong Italian-American presence. The WASPS are still the majority in many communities in Massachusetts, after fleeing the Boston area when the Irish & Italians took over the city of Boston.

Culture attributed to WASPs

The original WASP establishment created and dominated the social structure of the United States and its significant institutions when the country's social structure took shape in the 17th century until the 20th century. Many scholars, including researcher Anthony Smith, argue that nations tend to be formed on the basis of a pre-modern ethnic "core" that provides the myths, symbols, and memories for the modern nation and that WASPs were indeed that core. Many only associate America's elite institutions with WASPs when it has always been a wider, more diverse group. The class is still imagined to dominate America's prep schools and to older universities including those in the Ivy League or small liberal arts colleges, including NESCAC schools (see the "Little Ivies"). It is true that these elite institutions were important to a certain portion of WASPs, who were taught skills, habits, and attitudes and formed connections which carried over to the influential spheres of finance, culture, and politics. While people labeled as "WASPs" were not a truly insular society, well into the 20th century, prominent families preserved an attitude toward marriage carried over from the British aristocracy: A desire to marry was carefully scrutinized by the potential groom's and potential bride's families. Marriage was often influenced by the desire to maintain each party in their social and cultural milieu. This is something that occurs in other cultures as well.

WASP families are sometimes stereotyped as pursuing traditional British diversions such as squash, golf, tennis, Badminton, riding, polo, and yachting, pursuits that served as a marker of affluence. Social registers and society pages listed the privileged, who mingled in the same private clubs, attended the same churches, and lived in neighborhoods — Philadelphia's Main Line and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods, New York City's Upper East Side, and Boston's Beacon Hill are notable examples — governed by covenants designed to separate the well-bred from the merely wealthy.

It was not until after World War II that the networks of privilege and power in the old Protestant establishment began to lose significance. Many reasons have been attributed to the WASP decline and books have been written detailing it. Among the reasons often cited is increased competitive pressure as the WASPs themselves opened the doors to competition. The GI Bill and government-supported mortgage programs brought higher education to the children of poor European immigrants, and the postwar era created ample economic opportunity for a growing new middle class. Nevertheless, white Protestants remain represented in the country's cultural, political, and economic élite.

While the white Protestant establishment is no longer the sole elite group in American society, it remains a significant presence throughout the nation. WASPs are still predominantly upper middle to upper class and well educated, as well as occasional members of the elite. Some white Protestants families have jettisoned the notion of marriage as a way to maintain culture, and marriages between WASPs and Jews or Catholics are not altogether rare; marriages between WASPs and non-Whites are less common but are not necessarily frowned upon.

WASPs in the Northeast, Midwest, and West were once dominant in the Republican Party. Catholics in the Northeast, generally recent Irish or Italian immigrants, populated that region's Democratic party politics. Catholic, or "white ethnic," voters and politicians failed to find favor among WASP voters even in the liberal Northeast. A popular example was the 1952 senate election in Massachusetts between John F. Kennedy and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., decisively split along sectarian lines (despite JFK's WASPish associations such as Choate, Harvard, Spee Club, Hyannisport). While affluent, white, Protestant Northerners tended at one point toward temperamental conservatism (or noblesse oblige progressivism), trends and demographics have changed these realities. The old style Rockefeller Republicans wing of the party favored by WASPs weakened, as most recent successful Republican politicians in the Northeast have been Catholics, such as George Pataki. Five of the six New England states have recently become reliably Democratic in their presidential voting; the exception, New Hampshire, votes Democratic as often as not, and in any case is characterized by libertarianism more than liberalism or conservatism. White Protestants in the South are largely Republicans. Liberalism or Progressivism has also come to define a certain portion of WASP politics, especially in the Northeast. Prominent WASPs such as Howard Dean and Ned Lamont have become visible leaders of the contemporary Democratic party.

The population of religiously, at least among active Episcopalians, for instance, does not appear to be growing. One Episcopal church leader was quoted in 2006 as estimating the church's national membership as 2.2 million and attributing a low birth rate to their higher level of education. Notwithstanding, white Protestants are still the largest group of Americans with over half of Americans claiming to be Protestant vs. about 25% Catholic.

Criticism

Some object to the expression because of its inaccuracy and because the term is bandied about in a casual manner by people who may not understand its full meaning or its imprecision. As noted above, many people now referred to as "WASPs" are not Anglo-Saxon in the sense of being descendants of the Germanic settlers of Britain. In addition, some see it as a racial, ethnic, and religious slur showing contempt for European Americans and an attempt to smother European American diversity, since European Americans trace their origins to a large number of European countries with a diverse history where a variety of religions are practiced: It is therefore difficult to apply a single catch-all term.

See also

• American Dream
• Boston Brahmin
• Critical race theory
• Gentile
• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Preppy

References

• Allen, Irving Lewis: Unkind Words: Ethnic Labeling from Redskin to Wasp (NY: Bergin & Garvey, 1990)
• Cookson, Peter W.; Persell, Caroline Hodges: Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools (NY: Basic Books, 1985)
• Davidson, James D.; Pyle, Ralph E.; Reyes, David V.: "Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment, 1930-1992"; Social Forces, Vol. 74, No. 1. (September., 1995), pp. 157-175.
• King, Florence: WASP, Where is Thy Sting? (NY: Stein and Day, 1977)
• Pyle, Ralph E.: Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996)
• Schrag, Peter.: The Decline of the WASP (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1970)

External links

• Anglo-Saxons and Britons