Below is a detailed article about the White Anglo Saxon Protestants, a group of white people who have British ancestry and live in the united states. They are known to have dominated the Americans in terms of education, finance, government fields, medical fields, business, etc. If you are looking for what does anglo saxon mean then please click the link to know more.
Who were the White Anglo Saxon Protestants?
During the 19th century, ‘Anglo Saxons’ was a synonym for white people that spoke English. When used in that manner, it was often used in implying superiority which was not appreciated by other racial groups.
During the 20th century, the WASP had dominance over all the fields that they occupied. However, this was seen to diminish during the later 20th century as other racial groups came in and their dominance grew. Sociologists also describe the Northwestern Europeans to be a part of the WASP and also Australians and Canadians.
White Anglo Saxon Protestants are an American community that goes by that name. They are commonly referred to as the WASP and were founded during the second world war. They belong to a wealthy white protestant social group and have a British descent. They dominated American society in the fields of finance, culture, education, and other areas too.
Anglo Saxon was a community in England between the 8th to the 11th century and forms a cognitive part of the history of British culture. Therefore, the term for WASPs has been adopted from the same. It does not refer to the actual Anglo Saxons of medieval Europe.
It is basically used to describe the ‘White’ people. It is also in sync with the Protestant community of New America and New England. The stereotypes mostly refer to the English speaking white community in different parts of the world. In this concept, the Jews and the Catholics suffered discrimination.
The WASPs are associated with the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian, the Methodist and the Congregationalist churches of Eastern and Western Europe.
WASP culture
The WASP prefer authenticity and rich elements in their culture. Their education had to be the best and associated with the church and history. Many of the WASP students are graduated from the worlds best universities – Harward, Yale and Princeton. As they were educated in a certain way, they are usually well to do people, coming from wealthy families. They take up careers and American law, business and politics.
Their social values include good posture, good manners, personal hygiene, overly disciplined upbringing and more. The white people are generally referred to as being highly self-involved and unaware of other peoples life and opinions. The people of the lower class are referred to as backward and uneducated by them. They considered them as those that needed the help of some sort.
Manhattan’s upper east side in America is dominated by the WASP families. They include in a large part of the American gentry. However, the population is being slowly seen to diminish day by day as people change their faiths from protestant to that many others. The population has fallen in America and in the United Kingdom as well.
