White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of English Protestant ancestry. The term implies the group controls disproportionate social and financial power. The term WASP does not describe every Protestant of English background, but rather a small restricted group whose family wealth and elite connections allow them a degree of privilege held by few others. When the term appears in writing, it usually indicates the author's disapproval of the group's perceived excessive power in society. The hostile tone can be seen in an alternative dictionary: "The WASP culture has been the most aggressive, powerful, and arrogant society in the world for the last thousand years, so it is natural that it should receive a certain amount of warranted criticism." People seldom call themselves WASPs, except humorously; the acronym is typically used by non-WASPs.
Scholars agree that the group's influence has waned since the end of World War II, with the growing importance of Jews, Catholics, and other former outsiders. The term is also used in Australia and Canada for similar elites.
Read more about White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Origin of Term, Expansion, Culture Attributed To WASPs, Fading Dominance, Related Political Culture, Anglo-Saxon Variant
Famous quotes containing the words white, anglo-saxon and/or protestant:
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