White Anglo-Saxon Protestants

Trinity Church in Manhattan has been seen as embodying the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture in the United States.[1]

In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASP is a sociological term which is often used to describe white Protestant Americans of Northwestern European descent, who are generally part of the white dominant culture or upper-class and historically often the Mainline Protestant elite.[2][3] Historically or most consistently, WASPs are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect.[4] WASPs have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. Critics have disparaged them as "The Establishment".[5][6] Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1960s,[7][8][9] the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics, and philanthropy.[10]

WASP is also used for similar elites in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.[11][12][13][14] The 1998 Random House Unabridged Dictionary says the term is "sometimes disparaging and offensive".[15] Anglo-Saxon refers to people of English ancestry; however, some sociologists and commentators use WASP more broadly to include all White Protestant Americans of Northwestern European and Northern European ancestry.[16][17]

  1. ^ W. Williamls, Peter (2010). Encyclopedia of Religion in America. University of Philadelphia University Press. p. 744. ISBN 9780252009327.
  2. ^ Marty, Martin E. (1976). A nation of behavers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. "the term 'Mainline' may be as unfortunate as the pejorative-sounding WASP, but it is no more likely to fall into disuse and may as well be … Mainline religion had meant simply white Protestant until well into the twentieth century.". ISBN 0-226-50891-9. OCLC 2091625.
  3. ^ The Mainstream Protestant "decline" : the Presbyterian pattern. Milton J. Coalter, John M. Mulder, Louis Weeks, Donald A. Luidens (1st ed.). Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press. 1990. pp. "Some would say the term 'mainstream' or 'mainline' is itself suspect and embodies ethnocentric and elitist assumptions. ... be dropped in favor of talking about 'liberal' Protestantism, but such a change presents additional problems". ISBN 0-664-25150-1. OCLC 21593867.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ^ Zhang, Mobei (2015). "WASPs". In Stone, John; et al. (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. Abstract. doi:10.1002/9781118663202.wberen692. ISBN 978-1-118-66320-2.
  5. ^ Allen, Irving Lewis (1975). "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet". Ethnicity. 2 (2): 153–162. ISSN 0095-6139.
  6. ^ By the 1950s, the emerging New Left was "thumbing their noses at the stuffy white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant establishment." W. J. Rorabaugh, "Challenging Authority, Seeking Community, and Empowerment in the New Left, Black Power, and Feminism," Journal of Policy History (Jan 1996) vol 8 p. 110.
  7. ^ Greenblatt, Allen (September 19, 2012). "The End Of WASP-Dominated Politics". NPR. NPR.
  8. ^ Meacham, Jon (October 15, 2012). "The Decline of the Wasp President". Time. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Epstein, Joseph (December 23, 2013). "The Late, Great American WASP". Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Kaufmann, Eric P. (2004). "The decline of the WASP in the United States and Canada". In Kaufmann, E.P. (ed.). Rethinking Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities. London, New York: Routledge. pp. 61–83. ISBN 0-41-531542-5.
  11. ^ Careless, J.M.S. (1996). Careless at Work: Selected Canadian historical studies. Dundurn. p. 297. ISBN 9781554881253.
  12. ^ Champion, C. P. (2010). The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964–68. McGill–Queen's University Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9780773591059.
  13. ^ Fee, Margery; McAlpine, Janice (2008). Guide to Canadian English Usage. pp. 517–518.
  14. ^ Ludowyk, Frederick; Moore, Bruce, eds. (2007). "WASP". Australian Modern Oxford Dictionary.
  15. ^ "wasp". www.dictionary.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2018.
  16. ^ Wilton, David (2020). "What Do We Mean By Anglo-Saxon? Pre-Conquest to the Present". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 119 (4): 425–454. doi:10.5406/jenglgermphil.119.4.0425. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 10.5406/jenglgermphil.119.4.0425. S2CID 226756882.
  17. ^ Glassman, Ronald; Swatos, William H. Jr.; Denison, Barbara J. (2004). Social Problems in Global Perspective. University Press of America. p. 258. ISBN 9780761829331.