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. ^[4] Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro write, "The effort at intimidation backfired; students found each other through the list, which helped their organizing efforts immeasurably." ^[5] In the years that followed, the term began appearing in popular culture without a pejorative connotation, for example, 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.

In the U.S., notable red diaper babies have included journalist Carl Bernstein, rock singer Country Joe McDonald, essayist Vivian Gornick, ^[8] playwright David Mamet, historians Linda Gordon and Rosalyn Baxandall, ^[9] scientist Richard Levins, ^[10] and Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. ^{[4] [11]}

Josh Kornbluth titled his 1996 autobiography and its related one-man show, Red Diaper Baby. ^[12] Kornbluth's show was filmed by Doug Pray for the 2004 documentary film Red Diaper Baby. ^[13]

Canadian political scientist James Laxer titled his 2005 memoir Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism.

References

1. "Mill Valley "red diaper daughter" documents her radical roots". Marin Independent Journal. 2017-06-18. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
2. Hall, Tom (March 14, 2020). "Today's Red-Diaper Baby Dilemma". LA Progressive.
3. Gates, Anita (2014-01-22). "Traveling Back in Time From the Left, With Context". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-05-11.
4. Younge, Gary (June 6, 2003). "Born in the eye of the FBI". The Guardian .
5. Kaplan & Shapiro 1998, p. 3.
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   0-252-06725-8. 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. Gornick, Vivian (April 3, 2020). "What Endures of the Romance of American Communism" . New York Review of Books .
9. Grimes, William (October 14, 2015). "Rosalyn Baxandall, Feminist Historian and Activist, Dies at 76". The New York Times .
10. Kaplan & Shapiro 1998, pp. 257–265.
11. "Red Diaper Babies". AP News. Archived from the original on 2023-07-12. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
12. Kornbluth, Josh (1996). Red Diaper Baby: Three Comic Monologues (With Mathematics of Change and Haiku Tunnel). Mercury House. ISBN   1-56279-087-0.
13. "Red Diaper Baby (2004)". IMDb.

Further reading

• Aptheker, Bettina (2006). Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel . Seal Press. ISBN   1-58005-160-X.
• Bock, Laura (2017). Red Diaper Daughter: Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries. Laura Bock. ISBN   978-0-99816-160-0.
• Christie, Chris (2010). This American Family: Growing Up as a Red Diaper Baby - A Memoir. Booklocker. ISBN   978-1-60910-580-8.
• Flacks, Mickey; Flacks, Dick (2018). Making History / Making Blintzes: How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-81358-922-0.
• Horowitz, David (1996). Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey. Simon & Schuster.
• Kimmage, Ann (1998). An Un-American Childhood. University of Georgia Press.
• Laxer, James (2004). Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN   1-55365-073-5.
  • Review of Laxer's book by Nicole LibinLaxer, James (January 2004). "View of Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism (Nicole Libin)". Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes: 127. doi: 10.25071/1916-0925.22634 . Retrieved May 11, 2023.
• Mishler, Paul C. (1999). Raising Reds. Columbia University Press. ISBN   0-231-11045-6.
• Radosh, Ronald (2001). Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left. Encounter Books. ISBN   1-89355-405-8.
• Rosenberg, Daniel (2008). Underground Communists in the McCarthy Period: A Family Memoir. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN   978-0-77344-842-1.