So they sent Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka to set them straight. From the story: Trumka knew, as well, that there are steelworkers -- and autoworkers and machinists and others-- who are committed to the labor movement but cautious about backing a person of color for president. So the Pennsylvania populist went to the heart of the matter -- challenging ignorance and fear and calling on the House of Labor to identify and reject the politics of race in order to elect an ally to the presidency. In his speech, which is in the story in its entirety, he tells of a racist Democrat he met then said “Brothers and sisters, we can't tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of folks out there just like that woman. A lot of them are good union people; they just can't get past this idea that there's something wrong with voting for a black man.”
The Nation
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