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I think animosity between WASPS and "ethnic" whites has all but disappeared, but it persisted at least thru the 1950's in a lot of eastern cities. My dad was Italian, Catholic, and a Democrat. My mom was Scots/English, Protestant, and a Republican. When they got married in the early 1950's, both families had a MAJOR problem with it, to the extent that my paternal grandparents refused to ever meet my mom. This was in Boston. Not every WASP was wealthy, either. My mom's family was very middle class. My dad's family were more working class. So there was a definite socio-economic difference between them, as well as cultural, since my dad's family did not speak English at home.
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Originally Posted by green_mariner
It isn't just tensions between "WASPS" and other "ethnic Whites". There are even tensions between "WASPS" and "non-ethnic Whites". Whites from Appalachia have never been considered "ethnic" by any stretch of the imagination. However, there were tensions between Appalachian White migrants who went to northern cities, and the Whites who lived in the northern cities. I would read up on Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and some other cities. Appalachian Whites were looked down on as well.
Agreed.
Hell; there were places here in the US where Jews were NOT allowed to live in till 1948 and word is many other "anglo white" groups like us "Irish" and many others had to put up with that kind of Jim Crow too after WW 2.
I've heard the Irish say some pretty negative things about WASPs. I think there's a tension there brewing underneath the surface.
Perhaps a sociologist should go to some of these neighborhoods to get a better understanding of this.
A former Boston mayor:
Curley accused the English of having a temperament inclined toward ‘‘political chicanery and hypocricy,’’ and railed against ‘‘the inhumane numb-skulduggery of the Yankee overlords.’’ ‘‘The day of the Puritan has passed, the Anglo-Saxon is a joke, a newer and better America is here,’’ he said, and ‘‘the New England of the Puritans and the Boston of rum, codfish and slaves are as dead as Julius Caeser’’ (O’Connor, 1995:188). Instead, he favored a Boston filled with ‘‘a virile, intelligent, God-fearing, patriotic people like the Irish.’’
For every remaining working class Irish neighborhood somewhere like Boston, there's tons more people who claim Irish heritage out in the suburbs who are as average as any white American or WASP at this point.
The Boston suburbs, for one. More "ethnic whites" in the Boston suburbs than WASPS, including some rather wealthy ones.
Hell; there were places here in the US where Jews were NOT allowed to live in till 1948 and word is many other "anglo white" groups like us "Irish" and many others had to put up with that kind of Jim Crow too after WW 2.
There is one difference. With Whites, one could hide being of a certain ethnicity in certain ways. Being Black, it was all apparent and one was treated according to skin color.
On another note, it wasn't just Appalachian migrants who were looked down on. Migrants from Oklahoma were looked down on when they went out to California.
Curley accused the English of having a temperament inclined toward ‘‘political chicanery and hypocricy,’’ and railed against ‘‘the inhumane numb-skulduggery of the Yankee overlords.’’ ‘‘The day of the Puritan has passed, the Anglo-Saxon is a joke, a newer and better America is here,’’ he said, and ‘‘the New England of the Puritans and the Boston of rum, codfish and slaves are as dead as Julius Caeser’’ (O’Connor, 1995:188). Instead, he favored a Boston filled with ‘‘a virile, intelligent, God-fearing, patriotic people like the Irish.’’
People of German and Scandinavian descent have for the most part "melted" and are pretty much WASPs. There are lots of people of German and Swedish descent in Chicago but I've never heard much reference to Germans and Swedes in terms of ethnic machine politics, unlike the Irish, Poles, Italians, etc. And ca. 1900, there were about as many Germans as Irish in NYC.
The Irish seem to have a stronger identity in the Northeast, particularly in Boston than elsewhere in the US. I believe the Irish who settled in Northeastern cities took longer to move up the economic ladder. I recall reading somewhere comparing mobility in various cities with the Irish in San Francisco moving into white collar occupations fastest, then Chicago, then NYC and Philadelphia, and in Boston they lagged the furthest behind.
What is the cause of this tension? It's well-known that there has been tension among these groups.
Yeah so well known that nobody knows what you are talking about .........just more nonsense, how in the hell would I know if my neighbor is ethnic white or a wasp?
People of German and Scandinavian descent have for the most part "melted" and are pretty much WASPs. There are lots of people of German and Swedish descent in Chicago but I've never heard much reference to Germans and Swedes in terms of ethnic machine politics, unlike the Irish, Poles, Italians, etc. And ca. 1900, there were about as many Germans as Irish in NYC.
The Irish seem to have a stronger identity in the Northeast, particularly in Boston than elsewhere in the US. I believe the Irish who settled in Northeastern cities took longer to move up the economic ladder. I recall reading somewhere comparing mobility in various cities with the Irish in San Francisco moving into white collar occupations fastest, then Chicago, then NYC and Philadelphia, and in Boston they lagged the furthest behind.
Agreed and it's to the point that us "Irish" here in Arizona are now "anglo" white along with people of Swedish, German and so on family.
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