Class Quote by Christopher Hitchens
“'WASP' is the only ethnic term that is in fact a term of class, apart from redneck, which is another word for the same group but who are in the lower social strata, so it's inexplicably tied up with social standing and culture and history in a way that the other hyphenations just are not.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: The Spectator, 1995
The term “WASP” uniquely denotes a high‑class white Anglo‑Saxon Protestant group, unlike “redneck,” which refers to a lower‑class subset, linking ethnicity with social hierarchy and cultural history.
In simple terms: “ASP label signals elite status, while redneck denotes lower status, tying ethnicity to class.
Key Takeaway
Recognize how language encodes class distinctions.
Themes
class
identity
language
social hierarchy
culture
Mood
analytical
critical
reflective
Type
sociological
cultural
When to use this quote
- discussions on social class
- media analysis
- academic research on ethnicity
- political commentary
- cultural criticism
Key Concepts
Sociology
class theory
ethnolinguistics
Questions to Reflect On
- How does labeling affect social perception?
- Can we separate ethnicity from class?
A Different Perspective
The term can be over‑generalized, ignoring individual variation within groups.
![“The venerable emeritus professors still at Yale when I entered graduate school [in the 1960s] may have been reserved, puritanical WASPs, but they were men of honor who had given their lives to scholarship. Today in the elite schools, honor and ethics are gone.” quote by Camille Paglia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/87e/camille-paglia-652_1960s_the-venerable-emeritus-professors-still_309445.jpg)
![“It's [Los Angeles] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them aren't even young and beautiful now.” quote by Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a86/christopher-hitchens-117_beautiful_it-s-los-angeles-mostly-full-of-nonsense_10462.jpg)
![“[Religion] attacks us in our deepest integrity - the core of our self-respect. Religion says that we would not know right from wrong, we would not know an evil, wicked act from a decent human act without divine permission, without divine authority or without, even worse, either the fear of a…” quote by Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ab6/christopher-hitchens-117_action_religion-attacks-us-in-our-deepest-integ_23299.jpg)
