AFGE Leader: Don’t Let Racism Influence Your Vote

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In a new radio ad, AFGE President John Gage urges union members to keep their focus on how eight years of Republican economics have slammed working people while the rich get richer—rather than become divided by divisive issues of race and gender. (Click on the audio clip to hear the entire ad.)


http://www.aflcio.org/upload/afge_audio_10082008.mp3

In the ad, which will air nationwide, Gage says he is “white enough to pick up on the code words of prejudice,” but we cannot let those words sway our vote.

In these economic times, every American worker should be hopping mad. Working families have been left behind like never before. Gender bias, racism, they’re not free. The real issues—Wall Street, health care, jobs, Iraq, gas prices, Social Security—have serious financial consequences for all of us.
Gage says he is optimistic that union members will go beyond the divisive rhetoric and focus on the real issues:

We built the middle class and we’re not giving it up. There are a hundred good reasons for how you vote this year and only one bad reason—prejudice. Let’s talk about the real issues.

In a recent column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Gage said:

Some Americans, while viewing themselves as fair-minded, will subconsciously transfer unresolved issues about race into more comfortable zones like patriotism, experience or values … This election is too important to be decided by leftover biases. It is incumbent upon federal workers, as well as other union members, to help crack through racial barriers within our families, friends and neighborhoods.AFGE represents 600,000 federal and District of Columbia government workers nationwide and overseas.