Thursday, October 02, 2008

Racism in politics

I see it pretty much every day, where people are using words like "Muslim" or "big city" as code words to allow them to find a reason to reject Barack Obama because of his race. Truth be told, in my hometown area (Cleveland-Lorain) there is a strong undercurrent of work anxiety by blue collar workers which has been exploited many times in the past by companies in racist ways, by trying trying to divide up the workers along race lines to make the union less effective in negotiations. Such tactics cause racism to take root in communities, even ones where blue collar workers literally live and work together side-by-side.

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan, here's an awesome speech by the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka (particularly the first 3/4) where he confronts racism directly.

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