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  #1  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 7:00 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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What is the least "WASP" city in the United States?

Among the major metros, my nstinct says NYC - no metro seems to have such a low percentage of WASPs among its white population. Percentage of overall population might be Miami or L.A. though given that they have such a low white percentage overall.

Also depends on how "WASP" too - strictly whites with mostly British Isles ancestry (and no other ethnic identity) or does it include all the northwest European Protestant groups?
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  #2  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 7:21 PM
austlar1 austlar1 is offline
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Using your definition, a more interesting discussion might be had determining what is still the most WASP city in the US, city and/or metro.
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  #3  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 7:38 PM
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Using First Ancestry (2013 is the latest available) to avoid overlap and add some groups together. In other words, this is people's primary identity.



Boston

Irish 16%
British/American 11.9%
Italian 10.5%

Chicago

German 9.8%
Irish 7.1%
Polish 6.8%
British/American 6%
Italian 5.2%

New York

Italian 11%
Irish 6.8%
British/American 6.3%
German 3.9%

Philadelphia

Irish 13%
Italian 10.9%
German 9.9%
British/American 8.6%
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  #4  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 7:41 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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Highly doubt it's anywhere in the northeast, since that's the WASPiest region in the entire country.
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  #5  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 7:51 PM
dave8721 dave8721 is offline
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Miami is probably among the least Waspy. Whites in general are a small minority and most of the white population is Jewish/Italian/Russian.
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  #6  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 8:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere View Post
Among the major metros, my nstinct says NYC - no metro seems to have such a low percentage of WASPs among its white population. Percentage of overall population might be Miami or L.A. though given that they have such a low white percentage overall.

Also depends on how "WASP" too - strictly whites with mostly British Isles ancestry (and no other ethnic identity) or does it include all the northwest European Protestant groups?
I would say any white person who is not a Catholic at this point. Most whites are no longer 100% of anything and are pretty mixed.
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  #7  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 8:22 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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There's been a major decline in Catholic identity in Boston/Massachusetts over the past two decades. Remarkably Boston looks more like San Francisco or Seattle in it's % declaring no religion than other "northern ethnic" cities like New York, Philadelphia or Chicago.
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  #8  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 8:38 PM
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Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
Highly doubt it's anywhere in the northeast, since that's the WASPiest region in the entire country.
The Northeast is the least "WASP" region of the US.

Among white Americans, you sort of have an Anglo-Saxon South, German Midwest and Pennsylvania, and Irish/Italian Catholic Northeast.
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  #9  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 8:42 PM
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ChiSoxRox ChiSoxRox is offline
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New Orleans? High minority population, and unlike the rest of the Protestant south, has a significant Catholic population. I'm not sure about the Anglo ancestry, though. Is there a high French/Cajun heritage in the NOLA metro, like in rural Louisiana?
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  #10  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 9:08 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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Originally Posted by Docere View Post
The Northeast is the least "WASP" region of the US.

Among white Americans, you sort of have an Anglo-Saxon South, German Midwest and Pennsylvania, and Irish/Italian Catholic Northeast.
Are we talking Anglo-Saxon or WASP, though? Yes, I'd say that the northeast is less dominated by Anglo-Saxons, but WASPs in the U.S. context are of British ancestry. New England is the epicenter of WASP culture in the United States. Technically, Donald Trump is not a WASP, or is at least only part WASP, because his father's family is German. The Bush family, New England natives, are the quintessential WASP family.
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  #11  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 9:30 PM
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Never liked this acronym

Seems pejorative, for such a high achieving , inventive , socially and culturally fundamental group of Americans

Anyhow ,

Boston
Stamford
New haven
Greenwich / Fairfield county


Philadelphia is Quaker
New York is Jewish
Baltimore is catholic
Dc is episcopal
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  #12  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 9:54 PM
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Originally Posted by JManc View Post
I would say any white person who is not a Catholic at this point. Most whites are no longer 100% of anything and are pretty mixed.
Eh, Eastern Europeans wouldn't fall under a WASP label either, I don't think. Unless by catholic you mean non-protestant.

As for the thread topic, I'd wager it's San Juan or Honolulu.
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Last edited by SIGSEGV; Nov 29, 2020 at 7:13 AM.
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  #13  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:00 PM
BigDipper 80 BigDipper 80 is offline
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Detroit is 82% black and 10% white, which probably makes it pretty non-WASPy.
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  #14  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere View Post
The Northeast is the least "WASP" region of the US.

Among white Americans, you sort of have an Anglo-Saxon South, German Midwest and Pennsylvania, and Irish/Italian Catholic Northeast.
The Northeast US is certainly very Catholic, but it is also the very epicenter of WASP culture.

Old money, Ivy League, country clubs, Wall Street, "society", elite private boarding schools, and dudes with first names like Whitaker or Goodman...etc. etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox View Post
New Orleans? High minority population, and unlike the rest of the Protestant south, has a significant Catholic population. I'm not sure about the Anglo ancestry, though. Is there a high French/Cajun heritage in the NOLA metro, like in rural Louisiana?
New Orleans is a mix, more like a northern city is, but southern WASP culture is definitely prominent.
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  #15  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere View Post
The Northeast is the least "WASP" region of the US.

Among white Americans, you sort of have an Anglo-Saxon South, German Midwest and Pennsylvania, and Irish/Italian Catholic Northeast.
I think he means culturally. WASPism's Vatican would be the East Side of Manhattan/coastal Fairfield County, CT. Park Ave. and Sutton Place were (and are still, to an extent) WASP strongholds. Even the Jews on Park are culturally WASP.

No one really talks about WASPs as a distinct group outside of the Northeast (probably in part because white anglo saxon Protestants aren't rare outside the Northeast, and because most WASPisms are associated with traditional Northeast elites).

So culturally, least WASP is probably somewhere like Miami or Dallas, with their flaunting, more is more, Sunbelt elites.
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  #16  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:28 PM
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Originally Posted by BigDipper 80 View Post
Detroit is 82% black and 10% white, which probably makes it pretty non-WASPy.
Detroit isn't a particularly WASP metro, but it has nothing to do with the % black in the city proper. The Pointes are kind of late-stage, withered WASPdom.
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  #17  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:28 PM
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Originally Posted by SIGSEGV View Post
Eh, Eastern Europeans wouldn't fall under a WASP label either, I don't think. Unless by catholic you mean non-protestant.
Well, no... since eastern Europeans in the US are most often Catholic.
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  #18  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:36 PM
CaliNative CaliNative is offline
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Like New Orleans, Baltimore is pretty low "waspy". Most of the whites are probably Catholic (often Italian, Irish, German, Slavic) and the non- white pop. is high.

The most "waspy" place might be the upper Maine coast, at least in summer. Places like Bar Harbor. The place reeks of old money waspiness, like Newport RI used to (not sure if it still does).

Last edited by CaliNative; Nov 28, 2020 at 10:50 PM.
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  #19  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:43 PM
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Are German Catholics considered "white ethnic" as well? If not, is it important to distinguish them from their Protestant counterparts like it is with the Irish?

I essentially interpret this question as what's the least British Isles, Germanic (German/Dutch/Belgian/Austrian/Swiss/Scandinavian), and maybe even French city, and to me it's clearly NYC. Anytime there's a New Yorker with a German surname, I automatically assume they're Ashkenazi Jewish; or they have a British-sounding last name (i.e. "As Good As It Gets" director James L. Brooks or Woody Allen) because their ancestors chose to Anglicize their legal identity when they immigrated.

I don't think being Catholic "matters" today if we're talking German, Irish, or French ancestry, as they are often intermixed with English, Scottish, or some other Western or Northern European group. On the other hand, Italian and Polish Americans tend to be less integrated and more overtly "ethnic." And in NYC, with its large Polish population, probably a decent share of them are Jewish.
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  #20  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2020, 10:45 PM
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Well, no... since eastern Europeans in the US are most often Catholic.
I guess that depends on if you consider Poland to be Central or Eastern European .

Russians/Greeks/Serbs/Romanians/Moldovans/Ukrainians/Belorussians are all majority Orthodox. Croats/Slovaks/Slovenes/Hungarians/Lithuanians are majority-Catholic.

Of course Poles dominate all these groups.
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