Silence to tyranny, personal and national, has become ever present. I mean this quite seriously. We are sheep when it comes to addressing individual limitations.

When you view an impassioned speech that addresses color prejudice, you realize just how timid our culture can be. It’s easier to start a war in a foreign country than to change our own stagnant beliefs. We need to be jolted out of our stupor. We need to awaken to our common humanity.

AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka makes it clear that racism against Obama lies just below the surface of so many people’s minds. Mr. Trumka does not sit on the sidelines. In this speech, he confronts the issue directly. His words provide me with hope that white America may finally put to rest fear of skin color, even if the message is wrapped in the language of the labor movement of another generation.