“If you narrow the definition of WASP to include primarily upper-middle-class to upper-class, there is something there.”
I’m a WASP, from a poor family. WASP has nothing to do with money.
It does, and it doesn’t. WASP stands for White Anglo Saxon Protestant, but colloquially it implies class as well. A southern redneck often meets the definition but is not typically included in the grouping.
Here is a definition from Perplexity ai:
Some key points about WASPs:
The term emerged in the 1960s to describe the elite upper class of American society that had roots tracing back to the original English Protestant settlers of the 17th century.
WASPs historically held a position of power, wealth, and influence in American society, politics, academia, and culture for several centuries.
The WASP establishment was seen as promoting its own cultural values and traditions derived from Northern European Protestant backgrounds.
Over time, the WASP elite’s influence has declined as American society became more diverse and meritocratic, though remnants of the old establishment persist in certain institutions.
The term can have negative connotations of exclusivity, snobbery, and discrimination against non-WASPs, though it was originally a sociological descriptor.