WASP
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- Alternate meaning: Wasp (disambiguation)
WASP (an acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is a term, sometimes derogatory, that denotes either an ethnic group, or the culture, customs, and heritage of the Yankee ethnic group in the United States, or more specifically to the American elite establishment, a large proportion of whom have been Yankees. The term was first used by Irish Catholics in America to denote their longstanding conflict with the "Anglo-Saxons" (the Protestants in New England). It was popularized by sociologist E. Digby Baltzell in his 1964 book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America.Template:Fn Others add the descendants of colonial-era British (Yankee) immigrants—especially from England, but also people descended from Scots Irish, Welsh and Scottish gentry (irrespective of the fact that such immigrants were predominantly descended from Celts, rather than Angles or Saxons)—who belonged to the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Episcopalian (Anglican) denominations of Protestantism. Working class whites are usually not designated WASPs, even if they are Protestants of British descent. The WASP designation usually includes persons of Dutch descent such as the Vanderbilts and Roosevelts, although some, such as Theodore Roosevelt have vigorously rejected the term.
Usage of the term WASP is growing in other English-speaking countries settled, in part, by similar groups, such as Australia.
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Modern use
Use of the term WASP has broadened significantly since its first use. Some people use it to refer to a powerful elite, with little regard to actual ethnicity. Others use it to refer to an ethnic group. Users vary widely in terms of which ethnic group they mean, and some even apply it to all Protestants of European descent. Most dictionaries warn the term is often derogatory or insulting. In the Northeast United States, it generally is used to contrast 'old stock' Americans from the colonial era with the descendants of later European immigrants, such as Irish-American Catholics, Jewish-Americans, Italian-Americans, and other "white ethnics." Northeastern WASPs today often refer to themselves as simply "yankees."
In the South, where relatively few immigrants settled after 1860, WASP is less commonly used. In the Western United States, 'Anglo' is often used to contrast white Americans of European ancestry from Hispanics. It has a broader meaning than 'WASP', as it includes all white people, no matter their religion or actual ancestry as well as ethnicity.
In 2002, Abdullah Gül called his fellow cadres in AK Parti as "WASPs of this country" (possibly referring to their ethnic Turkish origins, strongly mainstream Sunni beliefs, and their "enterprising spirit" thought to be compatible with Protestant work ethic) and declaring their party would necessarily follow a centrist line instead of hardline Islamism. [1]
The original WASPs
The original WASP élite supposedly dominated the social structure of the United States since the early 1800s. Legacy admission to prep schools and to large universities in Ivy League or small liberal arts colleges such as the "Little Ivies" taught habit and attitude and formed connections which carried over to the influential spheres of finance, culture, and politics. Intermarriage preserved large inherited fortunes. Diversions such as polo and yachting marked those with sufficient wealth and leisure to pursue them. 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 Boston's Beacon Hill are two 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. The GI Bill brought higher education to the children of poor immigrants, postwar era created ample economic opportunity and a large new middle class. Nevertheless, the WASPs remain overrepresented in the country's cultural, political, and economic élite. Template:Fn
Aspects of the WASP establishment remain visible today. They are still upper middle to upper class educated Protestants, members of high society, with prep school and Ivy League educations. They are concentrated in New England and the Northeast. However, these regions now have majority Catholic populations and are no longer WASP heartlands, while Ivy League schools no longer admit WASPs in disproportionate numbers. In general, the American Protestant heartland is now located in the Midwest and South, and as Protestants from these regions achieve national prominence, they reflect an entirely different family of the species of WASP than once existed on the Eastern Seaboard.
See also
Notes
- Template:Fnb Erdman B. Palmore coined the term in his article "Ethnophaulisms and Ethnocentrisms" (The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 67, No. 4. (Jan., 1962), p. 442), but it was Baltzell who popularized it.
- Template:Fnb Davidson, Pyle, Reyes, p. 164
- Template:Fnb Allen, p. 110
- Template:Fnb Allen, pp. 114–116
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. (Sep., 1995), pp. 157-175.
- James D. Davidson; "Religion Among America's Elite: Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment." Sociology of Religion. Volume: 55. Issue: 4. 1994. pp 437+.
- Jensen, Richard. "Midwestern Metropolitan Elites," in Frederick Jaher, ed., The Rich, The Well Born, and the Powerful (U. of Illinois Press, 1974), 285-303.
- Jensen, Richard. "Yankees" in Encyclopedia of Chicago (2005). online
- Pyle, Ralph E.: Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996)de:White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
eo:WASP fr:White Anglo-Saxon Protestant it:White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ja:ワスプ zh:WASP