Red Diaper Baby

RED DIAPER BABY. This phrase describes children whose parents were members of the Communist Party or held political beliefs similar to those of the Party. In the 1920s, children of Southern California Communist Party members used the label derisively to refer to their peers who acted as if birthright, not activism or theoretical knowledge, conferred revolutionary credentials. In the early years of the New Left, the term was used, often disparagingly, to label activists who identified with the Old Left, rather than with emerging political and cultural trends. In 1965, the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom published the names of dozens of red diaper babies entering the University of California at Berkeley. This attempt at intimidation failed; the students used the list to create a support network.

A series of intergenerational conferences begun in 1982 provided the first public discussion in the USA of the red diaper experience. By the mid-1980s, the phrase began to appear in mainstream media, primarily in reviews of books and films about the American Left. An anthology of autobiographical writing by children of American communists was published in 1998.

Common themes of the red diaper experience include: (1) growing up in a subculture defined by opposition to capitalism and other deeply held values of mainstream society, (2) the centrality of politics to everyday life, and (3) feeling part of an international community that through collective action had made and would continue to make history.

Despite shared childhood experiences, red diaper babies offer differing assessments of their upbringing. Some have fond memories of family activism; some recall years of confusion or fear and isolation from mainstream society. A minority reject their inheritance and embrace centrist or right-wing political views.

Red diaper babies have been well represented over the past century in every movement for radical or revolutionary change. Even those who are not activists typically maintain a sense of civic responsibility and may strive throughout their lives to balance personal contentment and material comfort with a desire for societal impact.

Chernin, Kim. In My Mother’s House. New Haven, Conn.: Ticknor and Fields, 1983.

Dennis, Peggy. The Autobiography of An American Communist, A Personal View of a Political Life, 1925-1975. Westport/Berkeley: Lawrence Hill & Co., Creative Arts Book Co., 1977.

Kaplan, Judy, and Linn Shapiro, eds. Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.

Kimmage, Ann. An Un-American Childhood. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.

Lazarre, Jane. The Communist and the Communist′s Daughter, a Memoir. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Meeropol, Robert, and Michael Meeropol. We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. 2d ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Raskin, Jonah. Out of the Whale: Growing up in the American Left. New York: Links, 1974.