Dan Harkins, Owner & CEO
Mike Bowers, President & COO
Bryan Laurel, Marketing Director

 

To Whom It May Concern:

It has come to my attention that anti-Latino and the anti-immigrant ousted former Senator Russell Pearce has been gloating about the boycott against the Phoenix New Times.

The hypocrisy and bigotry of Russell Pearce cannot be ignored and I implore you to disassociate yourselves from the politician  many Latinos view as a racist due to his support for restrictionist and protectionist laws regarding SB 1070 and his support for “Operation Wetback.”  I have personally confronted Pearce at a political debate/forum, and have asked him not to use such demeaning and derogatory words like “Wetback” but he believes it is a good idea even though I told him this term takes us back to a pre Civil Rights era.

It is my understanding Dan Harkins expanded the theatre chain from five locations in the Phoenix area to the current 30 locations in 5 states – Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Southern California.  4 of those 5 states have high Latino population – particularly here in the Phoenix area.

Hispanic buying power nationwide today is $1 trillion, larger than the economies of all but 14 countries in the world. (2010 DATOS/Selig/U.S. Census) And according to Latino FOX News: Hispanics represent $40 billion of purchasing power in Arizona, a state where Latinos have been buffeted by the effects of harsh laws targeting undocumented immigrants. (2012 DATOS)

I believe you are aware of how much money Latinos spend in watching movies at the theater in the Phoenix area,  and we cannot turn a blind eye to what appears to be your alignment with a known bigot like Pearce.

I personally frequent your theater at the Harkins / Scottsdale 101, however, if your corporation will not disassociate itself from

a known bigot like Pearce, I am afraid I will have to boycott Harkins and spend my money at AMC Theaters.  I will also tell my friends to do so in like manner.

I encourage you to treat racist politicians like kryptonite.

Regards,

 

DeeDee Garcia Blase
Moviegoer

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Independent voter centrist moderate swing vote, Latina matriarch political movement. Tags for this post: AMC Theaters, Dan Harkins, Harkins Theater, pearce a well known racist in arizona, Russell Pearce operation wetback. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.