AFGE National President Everett Kelley called on President Trump’s nominee for general counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, Charlton Allen, to withdraw from consideration in the wake of a news report revealing a history of racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic views.
On the morning of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the news site NOTUS published an article detailing Allen’s concerning record of racist and bigoted conduct and rhetoric – both as an individual and through his role founding and serving as publisher of the Carolina Review while he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Under Allen’s leadership, the Carolina Review ran covers caricaturizing Black Americans as monkeys and painting Jewish students as the devil, amongst dozens of other instances of bigoted articles and think pieces.
“Charlton Allen’s appalling history of bigoted and racist remarks and conduct is inexcusable, disqualifying, and simply put, should be a red line for all of us,” President Kelley said in a statement issued in response to the NOTUS exposé.
“Allen’s complete lack of relevant experience and clear anti-worker record was already concerning enough, but this is beyond the pale. With his history, Allen cannot be trusted to be impartial in his investigations of unfair labor practices and treat complaints from the Black, LGBTQ+, and Jewish communities without bias.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego questioned Allen about the revelations in the NOTUS report during his June 17 confirmation hearing, presenting a blown-up cover of a 1996 issue of the magazine depicting a Jewish candidate for student body president, Aaron Nelson, with devil horns and a pitchfork.
While Allen called it a “mistake” to run the cover, he disputed the notion that it was anti-Semitic – arguing that it was intended to represent the school’s rivals, the Blue Devils.
Sen. Gallego posted about the exchange on X following the hearing.
“I gave him the chance to say plainly that it was antisemitic. He wouldn’t. If you can’t recognize and condemn antisemitism when you see it, you have no business deciding whether someone was discriminated against in the workplace.”
