Red diaper baby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Red diaper baby describes a child of parents who were members of the U.S. Communist Party (CPUSA) or were close to the party or sympathetic to its aims.
In their book Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left, Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro define red diaper babies as "children of CPUSA members, children of former CPUSA members, and children whose parents never became members of the CPUSA but were involved in political, cultural, or educational activities led or supported by the Party."
More generally, the phrase is sometimes used to refer to a child of any radical parent, regardless of that parent's past partisan affiliation (or the affiliation of the child). It can be used as a pejorative, as when David Horowitz uses the term in his books and columns. Examples of red diaper babies include Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Horowitz himself (though he now strongly opposes communism and socialism).
Red Diaper Baby is also the title of an autobiographical one-man show and book by monologist Josh Kornbluth.
[edit] References and further reading
- Kaplan, Judy and Shapiro, Linn (1998). Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252067258.
- Kornbluth, Josh (1996). Red Diaper Baby: Three Comic Monologues (With Mathematics of Change and Haiku Tunnel). Mercury House. ISBN 1562790870.
- Laxer, James (2004). Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 1553650735.
- Mishler, Paul C. (1999). Raising Reds. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231110456.
- Aptheker, Bettina (2006). Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel. Seal Press. ISBN 158005160X.
