race suicide

American  

noun

1. the extinction of a racial or ethnic population that tends to result when, through the unwillingness or forbearance of its members to have children, the birthrate falls below the death rate.

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Etymology

Origin of race suicide

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

Counterpoised against the myth of “race suicide” and “race deterioration” was the equal and opposite myth of racial and genetic purity.

From Literature

Theodore Roosevelt, who popularized the phrase “race suicide,” wrote to a eugenicist that “the inescapable duty of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world, and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type.”

From Washington Post

Okrent enlivens his narrative with vivid portraits of Aldrich, Lodge and other prominent figures active in the campaign to avoid the “race suicide” said to follow from allowing the northwestern European population of the United States to be overwhelmed by ostensibly inferior groups.

From Washington Post

Okrent reminds readers of a scene in “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, in which a dimwitted boor explains that books about race suicide are “all scientific,” so it’s imperative for the “dominant race” to “watch out or these other races will have control of things.”

From Washington Post

A century ago, the mere suspicion of being thrust aside by black and yellow peoples sparked apocalyptic visions of “race suicide.”

From New York Times