WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants)

Although the United States is a pluralistic society comprising many different racial, ethnic, and religious groups from six continents, the origins of American society as an independent nation began with British settlement and colonization in the early 17th century. Over the course of the next two centuries, the number of settlers from the British Isles steadily increased, while the 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent emerged as among the most significant territorial possessions within Great Britain's vast overseas empire. Despite the presence of other European nationalities, African slaves, and dozens of indigenous cultural groups whose ancestors had lived on the American continent for millennia, the early British colonizers established economic, cultural, and political hegemony over the lands that were to eventually become the United States.

Sociologists and historians use the term WASP, an acronym for White Anglo Saxon Protestant, to refer to a British-derived ethnic heritage in American society that often traces its origins and family history in North America to the era of British colonization and settlement during the 1600s and 1700s. Specifically, WASP heritage reflects the diversity of British society and includes Americans of English, Scottish, Welsh, and/or Scots-Irish ancestry. Academics also typically include the descendants of colonial-era Dutch and Scandinavian settlers as part of the greater WASP collective. To a somewhat lesser degree, the ethnic label WASP is used to refer to the colonial-era British settlers in Canada as a contrast to the French Catholic settlement of, and cultural legacy in, Québec.

Sociologists Adalberto Aguirre and Jonathan Turner have defined WASP as “an ethnic complex consisting of northern European ethnic stock with light, ‘white’ skin; Protestant religious beliefs; [Page 2162]Protestant-inspired values based on individualism, hard work, savings, and secular material success; and English cultural traditions (language, laws, and beliefs) and institutional structures (politics, economics, and education).” Scholars use the labels Anglo-Protestant, WASP, and White Anglo Saxon Protestant interchangeably, with Anglo-Protestant becoming increasingly more popular as the most accurate descriptor for this particular population.