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.

---

Etymology

Origin of race suicide

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

Because they are the hybrid, infertile offspring of a mare and a jackass, race suicide is as involuntary among mules as old-fashioned families among rabbits.

From Time Magazine Archive

Prominent objectors to birth control are less vocal than in the past, but the late Theodore Roosevelt's protest against "race suicide" is well known.

From Time Magazine Archive

Except for Alice, whose daughter Paulina is now 6, each of the Roosevelt children has obeyed his father's command for large families to combat "race suicide."

From Time Magazine Archive

The man generally credited with having invented the phrase "race suicide."

From Time Magazine Archive

With characteristic courage, Mr. Roosevelt attacked race suicide when speaking to a race whose population is diminishing, and was loudly applauded.

From African and European Addresses by Roosevelt, Theodore