Red diaper baby

A red diaper baby is a child of parents who were members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) or the Communist Party of Canada, or were close to the party or sympathetic to its aims. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

History

Gary Younge points out that the term "red diaper baby" originated in the 1920s as an insult. It was "aimed at the Communist party's internal aristocracy, which ensured that those with parents in the party would find themselves promoted rapidly through the party ranks". ^[4]

During the 1960s Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the right-wing John Birch Society published a list of Berkeley student leaders, such as Bettina Aptheker, who were "red diaper babies". Instead of stigmatizing the named students, the disclosures had the opposite effect by helping them find one another and build a support network. ^{[4] [5]} In the years that followed, the term began appearing in popular culture without a pejorative connotation, e.g., in the 1976 film Marathon Man , the audience learns that the protagonist, Thomas Levy, played by Dustin Hoffman, is a red diaper baby. ^[6]

In their 1998 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". ^[7] More generally, the term is sometimes used to refer to a child of any radical parent, regardless of that parent's party affiliations.

Linn Shapiro writes that red diaper babies commonly reported "growing up with a sense of difference, both specialness and fear; feeling part of an international community and yet isolated from the mainstream of their own country." ^[8] She adds that as adults, they "may or may not be political activists. Within families, siblings often differ in type and degree of activism and impact of the 'red diaper' experience on their lives." ^[8]

In the U.S., notable red diaper babies have included journalist Carl Bernstein, rock singer Country Joe McDonald, essayist Vivian Gornick, ^[9] playwright David Mamet, historians Linda Gordon, Rosalyn Baxandall and Ronald Radosh, ^[10] conservative activist David Horowitz, scientist Richard Levins, ^[11] and Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. ^{[4] [12]}

Josh Kornbluth titled his 1996 autobiography and its related one-man show, Red Diaper Baby. ^[13] Kornbluth's show was filmed by Doug Pray for the 2004 documentary film Red Diaper Baby. ^[14]

Canadian political scientist James Laxer titled his 2004 memoir Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. ^[15]

References

1. "Mill Valley "red diaper daughter" documents her radical roots". Marin Independent Journal. June 18, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
2. Hall, Tom (March 14, 2020). "Today's Red-Diaper Baby Dilemma". LA Progressive.
3. Gates, Anita (January 22, 2014). "Traveling Back in Time From the Left, With Context". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 11, 2023.
4. Younge, Gary (June 6, 2003). "Born in the eye of the FBI". The Guardian .
5. Kaplan & Shapiro 1998 , p. 3: "The effort at intimidation backfired; students found each other through the list, which helped their organizing efforts immeasurably."
6. Radosh, Ronald; Radosh, Aliss. "Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance with the Left". p. 246. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
7. Kaplan, Judy & Shapiro, Linn, eds. (1998). Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. University of Illinois Press. p. 2. ISBN   0252067258. In this anthology, we define red diaper babies as children of CP members, children of former CP members, and children whose parents never became members of ...
8. Shapiro, Linn (1998). "Red Diaper Baby" . In Buhle, Mari Jo; Buhle, Paul; Georgakas, Dan (eds.). Encyclopedia of the American Left (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 690. ISBN   978-0195120882.
9. Gornick, Vivian (April 3, 2020). "What Endures of the Romance of American Communism" . New York Review of Books .
10. Grimes, William (October 14, 2015). "Rosalyn Baxandall, Feminist Historian and Activist, Dies at 76". The New York Times .
11. Kaplan & Shapiro 1998, pp. 257–265.
12. "Red Diaper Babies". AP News. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
13. Kornbluth, Josh (1996). Red Diaper Baby: Three Comic Monologues (With Mathematics of Change and Haiku Tunnel). Mercury House. ISBN   1562790870.
14. "Red Diaper Baby (2004)". IMDb.
15. Libin, Nicole (January 2004). "View of Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism". Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes: 127–130. doi: 10.25071/1916-0925.22634 . Retrieved May 11, 2023.

Further reading

• Aptheker, Bettina (2006). Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel . Seal Press. ISBN   158005160X.
• Bock, Laura (2017). Red Diaper Daughter: Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries. Laura Bock. ISBN   978-0998161600.
• Chernin, Kim (2019) [1983]. In My Mother's House. Purdue University Press. ISBN   978-1557538710.
• Christie, Chris (2010). This American Family: Growing Up as a Red Diaper Baby - A Memoir. Booklocker. ISBN   978-1609105808.
• Flacks, Mickey; Flacks, Dick (2018). Making History / Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0813589220.
• Horowitz, David (1997). Radical Son: A Journey Through Our Times from Left to Right. Free Press. ISBN   978-0684827933.
• Kimmage, Ann (1998). An Un-American Childhood. University of Georgia Press. ISBN   978-0820320786.
• Laxer, James (2004). Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN   1553650735.
• Meeropol, Robert; Meeropol, Michael (1986). We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (2nd ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN   978-0252012631.
• Mishler, Paul C. (1999). Raising Reds. Columbia University Press. ISBN   0231110456.
• Radosh, Ronald (2001). Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left. Encounter Books. ISBN   1893554058.
• Rosenberg, Daniel (2008). Underground Communists in the McCarthy Period: A Family Memoir. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN   978-0773448421.