Introduction to WASP

WASP is the abbreviation of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, which means Protestant Anglo -Saxon American, and now it can refer to Protestant European American.

1964 After Digby Baltzell used it in his book Protestant Authority: American Aristocracy and Social Class, the word gradually spread in American society (note that it was coined by another scholar in 1962). WASP originally meant the Protestant upper class in the United States, that is, immigrants from Britain (especially England and Scotland) during the colonial period. These people belong to the Presbyterian Church, the Congregational Church and the Episcopal Church in America. Now this word also appears in other English-speaking countries with the same colonial history, such as Australia.

WASP has a much broader meaning now than when it was first created. Today, all English-speaking European Protestants can be called WASP, even if they are not descended from the Angles, Saxons and similar peoples. However, Jews, Catholics and Orthodox Christians are not included. In fact, this usage is trite and imprecise, because Protestants in the United States have a complex pedigree and are scattered in many sects. Ancestors can be Huguenots from England, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia or France; It can belong to the Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church, Lutheran Church, Methodist Church, Congregation, Dutch Reformists, Quakers, Baptists, Evangelicals and even Mormons. Not only the elite, but all social classes have their existence. Even the poor white people at the lower level who are satirized as "white trash" may be wasps.

The word WASP is often heard on the east coast of the United States. It is generally used to compare the original colonists with later European immigrants, such as Irish Catholics, Jews, Italians and other "white minorities".

The southern United States is different, because there are relatively few immigrants who moved here after the Civil War, so the word WASP is not often heard. Southern Louisiana and southern Florida are exceptions, because French and Latin American immigrants make up the majority. In addition to these places, most whites in the southern United States are descendants of British islanders. However, due to historical contradictions and other reasons, there are also great differences in language and culture between English descendants living in Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina and Scottish-Irish descendants living in the highlands.

In the western United States, the word "Anglo" is often used to describe non-Hispanic European English speakers, so it is broader than WASP. The differences between British and American people and other ethnic groups are not as obvious as those on the east coast.