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White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
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White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a sociological and cultural pejorative 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.
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White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a sociological and cultural pejorative 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.
Protestant Christianity is considered the dominant religious sect among WASPs, particularly mainline denominations such as Presbyterianism, Unitarianism, Congregationalism, Lutheranism, and Episcopalianism. However in some areas of the U.S. – particularly in Maryland and other areas in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay – the term in its wider sense may even apply to upper-class descendants of early Catholic settlers from England, who are historically considered members of the old white establishment in the state. The situation is similar to the one that prevails in Britain, where the Catholic Dukes of Norfolk, highest ranking Peer of England by birthright, are nonetheless considered the most powerful and respected members of the overwhelmingly Anglican English aristocratic elite. Transplanted to the United States, such a situation is where one is considered a WASP by virtue of being English (ethnic origin) and social status (hereditary wealth and/or political influence) regardless of religious affiliation.
Strictly speaking, many people now referred to as "WASPs" are not Anglo-Saxon – that is, the descendants of the 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 English, Dutch, German, Huguenot (French Protestant), Scandinavian, Scottish, Ulster Irish and Welsh backgrounds, as well as persons of Irish Catholic ancestry who assimilated into Protestant religious traditions. Therefore, the term WASP is sometimes applied to individuals who are technically non-Anglo-Saxons, including people with:
Usage
The term was popularized by sociologist and University of Pennsylvania professor E. Digby Baltzell in his 1964 book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America. However, its first recorded use was by Andrew Hacker in 1957.
The original use of WASP denoted either an ethnic group, or the culture, customs, and heritage of early Northwestern European settlers in what is today the United States. The New England Yankee elite were almost exclusively of British extraction (the remainder consisting mostly of prominent Dutch and French Huguenot families), although some early German immigrants, largely Protestant, arrived in the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
Sociologists William Thompson and Joseph Hickey noted the impreciseness of usage. Conceived as the upper class, well-educated of English descent residing in the Northeast, they note that such WASPs are a minority of Americans and a minority of white Protestants:
In the Southwestern United States, "Anglo" is often used to contrast white Americans of non-Spanish European ancestry from Hispanics. It has a broader meaning than WASP, as it is often used to include all non-Hispanic English-speaking whites, regardless of their religion or ethnicity.
When using the term, speakers vary widely in terms of which ethnic group they mean to designate, and some even apply it to all Protestants of European descent. For that reason, use of the term WASP has broadened significantly since its first use. Others use it only to refer to only certain members of this ethnic group and its culture.
In the United States, it is most prevalently used today to contrast early-arriving settlers from the British Isles and Northwestern Europe with the descendants of later arriving groups from Southern and Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. The term WASP is also often used in a way which is synonymous with "The Establishment", reflecting the privilege that white Protestants in America allegedly enjoyed.
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.
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, particularly the affluent upper-class, are sometimes stereotyped as pursuing traditional British diversions such as squash, golf, tennis, Badminton, riding, croquet, 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.
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. The shifting of a significant portion of American economic activity and wealth to the Sun Belt during the latter part of the 20th century, as well as the advent of a more globalized economy, can also be attributed to the "decline" of the Eastern-based WASP establishment. Nevertheless, white Protestants remain represented in the country's cultural, political, and economic élite.
Related political culture
WASPs were once major players in the Republican Party, particularly in the Northeast. Politicians such as Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Prescott Bush of Connecticut, and Nelson Rockefeller of New York exemplified the liberal Republicanism of their social stratum, espousing internationalist views on foreign policy, supporting social programs, and holding progressive views on issues like racial integration and abortion. Catholics in the Northeast, usually Irish- or Italian-American, dominated Democratic party politics in big cities through the ward boss system. 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. By the 1980s, the liberal Rockefeller Republican wing of the party was marginalized, with the ascent of the conservative Republicans led by Ronald Reagan. Today, there are no Republican members of the six New England states' delegations to the U.S. House of Representatives, and only three Republican senators out of twelve. No Republican presidential candidate has carried more than one New England state since George H.W. Bush won four of six in the 1988 election.
See also
External links
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