WASPishness Ain’t What It Used to Be
By Robert Higgs • Wednesday October 6, 2010 7:02 PM PDT • 4 Comments
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the social and political elite of the British North American colonies and, after they gained their independence, the United States of America was overwhelmingly WASPish — consisting of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. In the twentieth century, the composition of the elite changed enormously. This fact was brought home to me again this morning by a feature in USA Today about the current U.S. Supreme Court justices. They include six Catholics and three Jews. I daresay that a hundred years ago, a court with this religious composition would have been quite unthinkable for most Americans.
Oh, yes, Chief Justice John Roberts would seem to be the only Anglo-Saxon on the court–I’m not sure whether this designation correctly describes his ethnicity.
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Check the Forbes 400, and other wealth vs religion data. Then population vs religion.
ralph | Oct 7, 2010 | Reply
Back in the WASPish times you recall, the power structure of the US reflected the makeup of the population much more-closely than it does today.
Various factors have brought this about, but the end result is the subjugation of the (smaller, but enduring) WASP majority to various minority religious and racial groups.
I am a WASP (married to a non-WASP, and my mother was Catholic). Knowing you, as I do, I hereby out YOU as a WASP also.
N. Joseph Potts | Oct 11, 2010 | Reply
However, Joe, my WASPishness or the lack thereof is not germane in the present discussion, because I am certainly not a member of the elite. Au contraire . . . .
Robert Higgs | Oct 11, 2010 | Reply
I’m pretty sure CJ Roberts is half Czech.
MichaelC | Oct 14, 2010 | Reply