Tuesday, December 20, 2016

“I hate everybody the same, so I’ll never be racist.” Research Update on Hate in Union Elections


I am almost finished assembling a database of union election cases where an employer or union used inflammatory racial appeals.
Yesterday, I came across a case from 1961 that affords me (and maybe you) perspective as to where America stands today on the timeline of race relations. 
This is from the judge who ruled that the employer violated the rights of workers, and interfered with the election, by playing the race card during the company’s anti-union campaign. I now quote:
There are large areas and many localities in this country where those of Anglo-Saxon stock regard themselves as an elite segment of society with the same arrogance and as little reason as Hitler so regarded Nordics. I cannot read into Guthrie’s statement that he would hire a “nigger, cajun, wop or whatnot” an expression of dedication to principles of democracy or fair employment practices. It was, rather, a direct threat that the employees would suffer enforced association with persons of supposedly inferior origins if they accepted the Union and the falsity of the premise does not negate the threat.
The photo is President-elect Trump with Farron Tilly, an avowed white supremacist who, while interviewed at a Fayetteville, NC rally for Trump, said that he blamed the lack of work on immigrants and added, “I hate everybody the same, so I’ll never be racist.”

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