What is the least "WASP" city in the United States?

[wwmiv]

1. Irish immigration to the United States occurred in a sporadically paused long-term single wave with the same push and pull factors from a largely heterogenous homeland (Germany was not heterogenous, at all). JFK can simply be described as Irish-American, and Catholic, and Bostonian all separately and simultaneously.

2. Colonial Dutch culture was only ever really been a salient political force in NYC and the Hudson Valley so I am not sure there are distinctions to be made here since we both know he was descended from colonial settlers. Now if I wanted to nitpick, I might bring up Western Michigan, which was largely settled by Dutch immigrants of a particularly conservative religious background—part of the reason why Western Michigan posts particularly large margins for Republicans, outdone in scale and breadth only by Mormon dominated Utah precincts and throughout the white deep south.

3. And no… my implied point here was to show that over time WASP lost any real political salience because the further in time you go, for every seemingly purebred WASP President (Bush), there is also a President you can just call ‘American’ (Clinton) and another who has clear immigrant roots (Trump), and yet another with frankly international roots (Obama).

I.E. WASP means very little.

Edit: Just saw your reply above. Hope you appreciate the further detail I added here.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Yes it is!

I will add that you can thank a native speaker of Texasdeutsch, Nimitz, for a number of WWII victories.

And that around 1/5 of Texans are at least partially German in ancestry. Quite a bit behind places like Wisconsin and North Dakota, as roughly 40% of the residents of those states claim full or partial German ancestry, but 20% of Texas is more, albeit slightly, than the entire populations of Wisconsin and North Dakota combined let alone the share that specifically identify as German or part-German.

I went to his museum in Fredericksburg.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by JManc

I went to his museum in Fredericksburg.

I went one year for a reenactment with my grandfather. He passed last summer and served on the Yorktown in WWII.

[Docere]

All the 30%+ German ancestry states are contiguous:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Ame...ricans_with_German_Ancestry_by_state.svg

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Docere

All the 30%+ German ancestry states are contiguous:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Ame...ricans_with_German_Ancestry_by_state.svg

By ACS numbers, Texas still has more numerically.

[Docere]

Of course.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Docere

Of course.

right.

of course texas has more people of german ancestry than the "empty quarter".

texas probably has more of every kind of people because virtually no one lives up in the northern plains.


source: wikipedia




but as the map shows, texas is not a particularly german place within the greater US context, at least not compared to the midwest/rustbelt, home to the "german super-triangle", defined by the 5 most german major MSAs.


major MSA's where "german" is the largest NHW ancestry:

Milwaukee - 34.6% German
Minneapolis - 31.4% German
Cincinnati - 29.1% German
St. Louis - 28.7% German
Pittsburgh - 27.8% German
Buffalo - 24.7% German
Kansas City - 22.6% German
Grand Rapids - 21.2% German
Rochester - 20.4% German
Indianapolis - 20% German
Cleveland - 19.9% German
Portland - 19.3% German
Denver - 19% German
Baltimore - 16.4% German
Seattle - 16.2% German
Detroit - 16.1% German
Chicago - 15.2% German
Phoenix - 13.8% German
San Diego - 10.5% German


the midwest/rustbelt unsurprisingly dominate the list.



The German Super-Triangle:

[wwmiv]

I will note that the census relies on self-reported ancestry, which dramatically understates Texas’s German ancestry because Texas stopped receiving German immigrants whereas the Midwest did not (altho in much smaller numbers). For many throughout the Midwest “German” is within living memory (which keeps it alive also for many who don’t have, themselves, a more direct personal connection), whereas in Texas for those that immigration or connection to immigration from Germany or a place now in Germany are few in number and far between in place. Thus, higher self-reported identification in Midwestern states. But that matters, or course, which is why German stuff in Texas is very kitsch, whereas in Wisconsin it comes across as a bit more authentic.

Fun fact: one defining characteristic of Tejano music vis-a-vis other Spanish-language genres is the use of the accordion. The practice of using the accordion came during the Republic period in San Antonio icehauses—an establishment where Tejanos, Germans, and others would bring their own beer and listen to music. Tejanos, the artisan class at the time, incorporated the German accordion to adapt to their new audience. A Tejano spin on the German beergarten. The oldest restaurant in San Antonio by the way is Schilo’s just off the Riverwalk—a German restaurant —and, iirc, before it was Schilo’s, it was an icehaus.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by eschaton

There are tons of Mormons in Southern California (particularly in Orange County) which probably accounts for most of this.

According to this site, there are 756,507 Mormons in the entire state of California. Even if every one of them lived in greater LA--and they don't--they would not be numerous enough to "account for most of" the combined 25% in greater LA claiming their ancestry is either English alone or American alone.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

"Latinos" or "Hispanics" are not a monolith. White people from Cuba or Puerto Rico, who might be called "Latino" today, were basically considered Spaniards. They might as well have been from Madrid, Paris, or Lisbon. They would've been treated better than a peasant from Ireland or southern Italy because they would've been part of the upper class. They would have had a COMPLETELY different experience in America than an indigenous or mestizo from Mexico, who's life would have been way more similar to a black person's life than to an affluent Cuban's.

Totally. Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles back in the 1920s used to be referred to as "Spanish restaurants" even though they served full on Mexican or Mexican-American food, but "Spanish" made it more palatable to a broader clientele at the time. Here's an example:

Wikipedia

And, as with black people, Mexicans that look a certain way still get racially profiled. I know several Mexican-Americans who have been pulled over in San Marino (a wealthy neighboring town to mine) by cops for no reason, the pretense being that they didn't make a full stop at a stop sign or didn't signal a turn, but then they keep them detained for a while and start asking questions about why they're in the area.

[pdxtex]

Its probably Detroit or El Paso. Detroit is 80 percent black, 10 percent Asian. 640,000 ppl. El Paso is 83 percent Hispanic and growing.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

Its probably Detroit or El Paso. Detroit is 80 percent black, 10 percent Asian.

Detroit is definitely not 10% Asian lol. Maybe 1%.

[pdxtex]

Oh whoops, wrong row! Yeah its more like 2 percent.

[38 Geary]

According to Wiki, Metro Detroit is 63.7% NHW, 21.8% Black, 5.0% Hispanic, and 4.8% Asian.

And Detroit proper is 77.2% Black, 9.5% NHW, 8.0% Hispanic, and 1.6% Asian.

[Crawford]

Detroit has a growing Bangladeshi community, due to Hamtramck overflow. I believe there are majority Asian elementary and middle schools right next to Hamtramck. But yeah, no way does Detroit have a large Asian community. It's pretty much just the Bangladeshis in one neighborhood, and maybe some students in the Wayne State area.

Up until maybe 20 years ago, there was a Hmong community in Northeast Detroit around East 7 Mile Rd. The film Gran Torino is supposed to depict the community. I'm pretty sure Osborn High School was heavily Hmong in the 1980's and 1990's. But that community migrated to Macomb County.

In most of Detroit, most of the time, the only Asians you'll see are shopkeepers. Beauty supply stores and the like.

[Docere]

NYC's white mainline Protestant population is pretty tiny.

White Mainline Protestant

NYC metro 4%
NYC 2%
Bronx 1%
Brooklyn 2%
Manhattan 3%
Queens 1%
Staten Island 2%

https://www.prri.org/spotlight/religion-new-york-citys-five-boroughs/

Probably a lot of people with WASP backgrounds are religious nones though.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Docere

NYC's white mainline Protestant population is pretty tiny.

White Mainline Protestant

NYC metro 4%
NYC 2%
Bronx 1%
Brooklyn 2%
Manhattan 3%
Queens 1%
Staten Island 2%

https://www.prri.org/spotlight/religion-new-york-citys-five-boroughs/

Probably a lot of people with WASP backgrounds are religious nones though.

Everyones is the whol WASP identity is old and disappearing its not even that common in New England anymore, at least not how it was 100 years ago.

But leaast WASPy would have to be like in New Mexico or California where many of the cities are like 75% Hispanic Catholoic.

[Crawford]

CA and NM probably have a lot more mainline Protestants these days.

Southern CA was largely populated by Protestants from the Midwest/Great Plains.

[Docere]

From the Pew survey:

NYC area whites:

Evangelical Protestant 7%
Mainline Protestant 11%
Catholic 36%
Jewish 14%
Unaffiliated 24%

Los Angeles area whites:

Evangelical Protestant 21%
Mainline Protestant 14%
Catholic 15%
Jewish 8%
Unaffiliated 32%

New Mexico whites:

Evangelical Protestant 32%
Mainline Protestant 22%
Catholic 15%
Unaffiliated 25%

[Docere]

Whites: Evangelical Protestant

Atlanta 45%
Houston 39%
Seattle 27%
Phoenix 26%
Detroit 24%
St. Louis 24%
Los Angeles 21%
Baltimore 20%
Chicago 19%
San Diego 17%
Pittsburgh 14%
Miami 13%
Washington DC 13%
Philadelphia 12%
Providence 10%
NYC 7%
San Francisco 7%
Boston 6%

Whites: Mainline Protestant

San Diego 29%
Pittsburgh 27%
Baltimore 22%
Washington DC 22%
Philadelphia 21%
Houston 19%
St. Louis 19%
Detroit 18%
Atlanta 17%
Boston 16%
Miami 15%
Phoenix 15%
Chicago 14%
Los Angeles 14%
Providence 13%
NYC 11%
Seattle 11%
San Francisco 10%


Whites: Catholic

Providence 46%
Chicago 38%
NYC 36%
Pittsburgh 35%
Philadelphia 34%
Boston 31%
St. Louis 30%
Miami 24%
Baltimore 20%
Detroit 19%
Phoenix 19%
Washington DC 19%
San Francisco 18%
Los Angeles 15%
San Diego 15%
Seattle 15%
Houston 14%
Atlanta 12%

Whites: Jewish (by religion)

Miami 24%
NYC 14%
Los Angeles 8%
Washington DC 7%
San Francisco 6%
Baltimore 5%
Boston 5%
Chicago 4%
Philadelphia 4%
Detroit 3%
San Diego 3%
Houston 2%
Phoenix 2%
Seattle 2%
Atlanta 1%
Pittsburgh 1%
Providence 1%
St. Louis 1%

Whites: Unaffiliated

San Francisco 47%
Seattle 36%
Boston 34%
Los Angeles 32%
San Diego 30%
Washington DC 29%
Baltimore 26%
Detroit 26%
NYC 24%
Philadelphia 24%
Phoenix 24%
Providence 24%
St. Louis 21%
Atlanta 20%
Chicago 20%
Miami 19%
Houston 18%
Pittsburgh 16%