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 (CP) or were close to the party or sympathetic to its aims.
In their book Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left (University of Illinois Press, 1998; [1]), Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro define red diaper babies as "children of CP members, children of former CP members, and children whose parents never became members of the CP 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, Lynne Stewart, Ron Kuby, 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.
Writer and graphic novelist Arie Kaplan explores red diaper baby Harvey Kurtzman, who founded MAD Magazine.
