In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a sociological term which is often used to describe whiteProtestant Americans of British descent (sometimes more broadly of Northwestern European descent), who are generally part of the white dominant culture or upper-class and historically often the Mainline Protestantelite.[2][3] Historically or most consistently, WASPs are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect.[4] It was seen to be in exclusionary contrast to Catholics, Jews, Irish, immigrants, southern or eastern Europeans, and the non-White. 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]
^W. Williamls, Peter (2010). Encyclopedia of Religion in America. University of Philadelphia University Press. p. 744. ISBN9780252009327.
^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.". ISBN0-226-50891-9. OCLC2091625.
^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". ISBN0-664-25150-1. OCLC21593867.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Allen, Irving Lewis (1975). "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet". Ethnicity. 2 (2): 153–162. ISSN0095-6139.
^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.