Race traitor is a pejorative reference to a person who is perceived as supporting attitudes or positions thought to be against the interests or well-being of their own race. For example, one or both parties to an interracial relationship may be characterized as "race traitors". As another example, a person who supports affirmative action or other policies that allegedly benefit races other than his/her own may be characterized as a "race traitor". The term may indicate racialist attitudes on the part of those who use it.
The term is the source of the name of a quarterly magazine, Race Traitor, founded in 1993.
Famous quotes containing the words race and/or traitor:
“I’ve always wondered why European politicians as a group seemed brighter than American politicians as a group. Maybe it’s because many American politicians have the race issue to fall back on. They become lazy, suspicious of innovative ideas, and as a result American institutions atrophy.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“... the black woman can never forget—however lukewarm the party may to-day appear—that it was a Republican president who struck the manacles from her own wrists and gave the possibilities of manhood to her helpless little ones; and to her mind the Democratic Negro is a traitor and a time-server.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)