Thread: Boy, I'm Tired of Boycotts by Latinos

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... navarrette
Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Navarrette: Boy, I'm tired of boycotts by Latinos
RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.
The San Diego Union Tribune

Latino activist Enrique Morones' heart is in the right place, but there are times when I wonder where his head is.
Morones has been a guest on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," and I get the feeling that he'd like to be invited back. If so, the San Diego native has come up with a odd way to get on the host's good side: He recently fired off a letter to CNN President Jonathan Klein demanding the network take Dobbs off the air for constantly "slamming Latinos."

We disagree. Dobbs is a darling of the cultural right, the anti-globalization movement and the nativist fringe, but he has a beef with illegal immigrants, not U.S.-born Latinos or those here legally.

And yet Morones, a Mexican-American with a genuine love and affinity for Mexico, sure has a beef with Dobbs. The activist thinks Dobbs - through his recurring feature, "Broken Borders" - is fueling the xenophobic mood in this country. You know, where everyone seems convinced taco trucks and Spanish-language billboards and Mexican laborers standing on street corners are signs of the apocalypse.

Morones insists CNN's credibility is at stake. He even manages - somewhat artfully - to make his case with a backhanded compliment for the cable network by referring to its archrival.

"If you're looking at Fox News, you already know that those guys are way out there, that they're extremists. But CNN is a serious network seen all over the world, and, up until Lou Dobbs, it was a respected network," he told me.

"If they're going to continue with Lou Dobbs, then I think we need to boycott the advertisers that advertise on that show and on CNN, but especially on the Lou Dobbs show."

There it is. I knew, sooner or later, we'd get around to the b-word. You've just heard the extent of the Mexican-American political vocabulary for resolving conflict: boycott, boycott, boycott.

Of course, the idea is not unique to Mexican-Americans. It's an American thing. In fact, it's a pre-American thing. You could say the boycott in the United States goes all the way back to Dec. 16, 1773, when about 200 colonial American "insurgents" boarded three British ships and dumped crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

Yet many Mexican-Americans seem to have an emotional bond with boycotts - an effective tool to bring about change when all else fails. And much of that can be explained with three letters: U-F-W.

It was 1965 when Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers launched the first of three separate boycotts aimed at table grape growers. The second boycott, in 1973, was expanded to include lettuce growers and Gallo wine. The third, which began in 1984 and lasted 16 years, sought to bring attention to alleged use of dangerous pesticides by growers.

Now the UFW is at again. It's going after its old adversary, E.&J. Gallo Winery, for better pay and benefits for about 85 Gallo employees and 200 seasonal workers hired through labor contractors. The union hopes to partner with liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and spread its message far and wide.

I'm so tired of this routine. Times change, and if you don't change with them and find new ways to achieve objectives, you become outdated and obsolete. That's not how UFW wants to be remembered.

So, if it's all the same to my fellow Mexican-Americans, I think I'll boycott the boycotts.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union Tribune. E-mail: ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com

This is the same op-ed writer who wrote, a couple of months ago, that we ought to start requiring all American children to take Spanish and then we could become a bilingual country!!

Hmmm, Maybe I should Advertise on CNN to show my support for Dobbs??

That sounds like an excellent idea. If it weren't for Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly to a lesser extent, we would NEVER get our message out there.

I'm a little surprised that this Navarette is defending Lou Dobbs. I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Winston-Salem Journal where that other article appeared really laying it on about this bilingual malarkey and they never published it. When I contacted the editorial staff about it, they SWORE they never got my letter. SURE!

BOYCOTT? I hadn't noticed any. In California they were suppose to be boycotting buying gasoline on Monday's. I still see the same number of Latinos buying gas on Monday's. Yep that one worked!

And here I have been waiting, lying awake at nights, developing ulcers, stockpiling food and ammo, converting my cash into gold, waiting for the social collapse that the weight of these boycotts would bring upon us.
(Of course if ya believe that I would like to interest ya in a bridge too)

Let them boycott all they like. It harms NOTHING and keeps them busy wasting their time and energy. They lack of any effects by their boycotts merely demonstrates their impotence.

Another boycott by hispanics.

Here's a rather amusing read on boycotts.


http://www.hispanic.cc/national_hispanic_boycott.htm


Arizona Law and Education Center Plan National Hispanic Boycott

Anti Hispanic Sentiments Spreading Across America,

Sponsored by Arizona Law and Education Center

National Boycott of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and its Sponsors

Arizona Boycott 200 General Motors

Bill O'Reilly, Tammy Bruce, Rush Limbaugh ...they spout hatred and venom daily...



This section still in draft form and is being formatted for publication May 29. The following are just thoughts to myself.

Bill O'Reilly, Tammy Bruce, Rush Limbaugh spout hatred and venom daily....I think if the boycott is made permanent and not just a specific day and directed at the companies and services that advertise on Fox News, CNN, and conservative radio talk shows, they can be defeated by costing them revenue and it was proven in the days of the civil rights for Blacks in the deep south, the Bus boycott....specific stores that support racist groups. We should also seek support from the NAACP. Banded together even Anglos who are disgusted and horrified at blatant racism being brought back under the guise of illegal immigration! Asking Hispanic day labors to miss work, not buy anything in the long run is ineffective and it is hard to get commitments but a specific boycott of specific businesses targeted for advertising with these racist bigoted radio and television stations would be much more effective. We need to drive their sponsors away. Then they will face two choices: continue their racist propaganda and face bankruptcy and having no revenue. I truly think this will bring the racist bigot hypocrites like Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh to the place they cannot profit from their hatemongering racist venom they preach by pretending it is "patriotism and not racism but illegal immigration." This is a ruse used by the right wing racists in our society and they have fooled even many Hispanic conservative voters in this state to go along with them as exampled in proposition 200. It's very easy too ask people to sacrifice by missing work....not buying but for those who are not rich and well off this is going too fail. Unless we target specific businesses and specific radio and television networks, Fox News and CNN and many of these radio commentators on the "AM" stations that daily spout hatred and racism daily disguised as patriotism, we will have less of a chance of changing anything. Racists hide their racism. In the old days they did not hide it as much as they do today, they only changed the name from Klansmen to conservative right wing Republicans. I am truly an advocate for the boycott but truly think it will fail if we do not make it specific. We need the NAACP. Together we can bring racist radio stations and television networks to their collective knees. They operate on greed and advertising and without advertisers they will miss their one driving force: their greed!



What we are going to do: Rent a stadium and invite all Hispanics to an evening of boycott messages and entertainment.



Solicit Hispanic business sponsors and use funds to bring in national Hispanic entertainers to help fill the stadium.



Our message, boycott General Motors trucks and cars. Buy Ford instead. and so forth........



Would we have an impact. Absolutely!



For more information go to Arizona Boycott 200.

Driver's License Curtailed as Identification in Utah
Virginia Gov. Warner Signs Immigrant Aid Limits

Here's some more.



http://www.hispanic.cc/arizona_hispanic_boycott_200.htm





Sponsored by:

Arizona Law and Education Center

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, plans to return to Arizona and the other southern border states for the entire month of October.



Newton's Third Law of Motion:

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction



The ALEC Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 of General Motors will begin and be conducted the entire month of October



A press conference will be held mid September

GOLIAD (By Edward Hegstrom, Houston Chronicle) June 21, 2005 - Invoking the history of the Texas Revolution, about 150 residents of this historic town gathered Monday to prepare for patrols to stop the flow of illegal immigrants through the region.

The audience, many in cowboy hats, listened quietly for about an hour as leaders of the Arizona Minutemen explained how they organized a patrol along their own border in April. Read the article.

ALEC Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 "Follow the Money"

Xenophobia: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.





Follow the Money


If you want to show support for Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 sponsored by the Arizona Law and Education Center, add your name or organization:

1. ALEC

2. National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies

3. COMPAS

4. Inmigrante Sin Fronteras






Information will be updated through www.Hispanic.cc and you can contact us at: Stop200@Hispanic.cc




Jon Garrido Editorials


Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200



CNN Boycott

Planning now underway.



Coming in July

Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200



Rusty Childress

Auto Mall



Buick

HISPANIC NEWS
2223 W. Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85015



At the height of hypocrisy, Childress is leader of the Arizona anti Hispanic movement but still promotes automobile sales to the very same Hispanics who he believes should not be in Arizona.


MESA, Ariz. (By Jon Garrido, Hispanic News) April 24, 2005 - Rep. Russell Pearce, Arizona State Legislator, District 18, after reading Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 in Hispanic News, wrote a response published in Phxnews.com on April 22 directed to me. What follows are my thoughts of Pearce's writing and more so of the hatred of Hispanics Pearce expounds daily using twisted half truths as a Arizona legislator.



Pearce read a draft of Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200. The draft is now final and is provided below.



Mr. Pearce, you extensively quote America's founding fathers of the United States. I too honor them and could invoke their writings but suffice to say the most important action taken by American founding fathers was to frame the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights with the basic premise that differentiates the United States from all other countries: the tenet is the writ of habeas corpus, the keystone for the rule of law.



Mr. Pearce, this single tenet puts America above all other democracies in the world; however, you choose to use the "rule of law" to alienate. I choose to use the "rule of law," as it was intended by our American fathers, to protect the rights of all.



To even provide a safe haven for immigrants especially children who where born in the United States. You and others like you filled with hate refer to these children as: anchor babies.



The undocumented cross over illegally but one has to ask why do these immigrants have to enter the United States illegally?



You and others in your mind set, use the mantra "illegal" as nothing more than a "red herring." People in your mind set, choose to do all in your power using half-truths in the daily rhetoric of hate to hinder any form of immigration: legal or undocumented. The underlying reason you choose to keep immigrants out of the United States is - fear. The numbers of Hispanics now in the United States is increasing at such a dramatic rate that the sheer numbers are terrifying for you and your kind, for the increased population means that life as you know it, living behind walls of hate, will some day coming tumbling down or rather be torn down.



Your life as you know it will change just as it was inevitable, salsa would replace ketchup.



To you and those like you, this is intolerable. Simply put, there are just too many Mexicans all over the place and they do not honor self imposed reservations such as South Phoenix. The borders have come tumbling down and Hispanics are found even in affluent north Scottsdale.



No one likes change but change is inevitable. Change should be embraced and not feared. Nothing done such as the Minutemen will change anything.



The greatest element you can not change is - time itself. With each passing day, the United States becomes more and more Hispanic or as you would loathe, with each passing desert night.



According to the United States Census Bureau, in the year 2097, 50% of the entire population in the United States will be Hispanic.



Texas has already reached this milestone. Arizona now at 30%, will reach the 50% milestone in 2020.



There are some; however, who are astutely embracing this increase. Some United States companies see the surge in consumers and are moving actively to capture market share of this ever increasing market.



On April 14, 2005, the General Motors Corporation launched a new national marketing campaign, General Motors' Sueño Latino. G.M. wants to add a twist to the sales come-on, "What can we do to put you in this car today?" It wants to deliver it en Español.

Fueled by the financial clout of the growing Hispanic population, G.M. is holding recruiting events around the country, seeking bilingual Latino sales people to pitch General Motors vehicles to their own community.

On May 17, 2005, GM launched a new national marketing campaign, praising Hispanic Heroes.

Needless to say, a national boycott of General Motors will not be well received by G.M.'s chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner. The new National Hispanic marketing campaign is to focus on the major crucial issue of G.M.'s falling domestic market share. G.M. lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter and was down to 25.7 percent, compared with 33 percent a decade ago. G.M. has reported five consecutive years of losses in Europe and the China market, once hot, is cooling off. Buyers are looking beyond Detroit. The company's home market is seen as more critical than ever.

Rick Wagoner is under the gun to come up with a bold plan to restore profitability and one sure way is capture market share from the Hispanic consumer market in the United States.



Having a General Motors dealership in Phoenix, Arizona instrumental in fathering Proposition 200 and daily inciting anti Hispanic sentiment is at a polar position to G.M.'s new Hispanic marketing campaign. (Letter now being drafted to Rick Wagoner asking G.M. to end its business relationship with Childress Buick or face a national boycott of all G.M. cars and trucks.)



With so much anti-Hispanic rhetoric particularly on national programs such as Lou Dobbs Tonight, it is hard to reach beyond hate and focus on new market opportunities. New markets and their diversity bring many more advantages to a country that wants to sustain and grow an increased economic base. Just look at China. From poverty and diverting from its former Leninist system to capitalism, China is becoming an economic giant and thus a world power as China looms as the world's next leading auto exporter.



The analogy of China and its population increasing at a exponential rate is being played out each day in the United States as Hispanic population growth is the prime economic stimulus of increasing GNP by adding new markets.



Globalization miraculously is now found within our own USA borders. Instead of former models selling to consumers all over the world, consumers are moving to the United States. The economic model is too good to be true but not the right kind of stuff for Lou Dobbs Tonight.



As to the Hispanic martyrs who do the nightly pilgrimage to defend Hispanics in the lion's den as raw meat, a much better model is to boycott CNN's sponsors of Lou Dobbs Tonight. Some of these sponsors are America's golden corporations and Hispanics USA as well Latin Americans are prime market populations but first, General Motors.



As for "illegal" becoming the rallying mantra of Lou Dobbs and other hate Hispanic mongers, it does not matter if it is legal or illegal, Hispanic growth is not wanted. Remember, we have brown eyes and brown skin.



The easy solution to curtail illegal entry is to provide a visa and social security card to anyone wanting to enter the United States at each port of entry. This will allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and live like all other Americans.



This is the easiest and safest way of securing our borders for the United States government will know where all visa holders will live and work.



There is precedent for this. Anyone in the United States, including undocumented, now have access by application to IRS ID Numbers providing for federal taxes to be paid. These numbers are used extensively by undocumented who choose to live in the United States as all other Americans.



As the Hispanic population increases, we are presently out-gunned in voting. Such is the paradox we find ourselves in with representatives in the majority at the Arizona State Legislature who are out of sync with all Arizonians. Yes, they represent others of their mind set but this too in time will change. A day will come when the majority of Arizona legislators will be Hispanic. An American Hispanic governor will happen first.



The Republican majority promotes legislation that perpetuates their stranglehold on 30% of the population of Arizona.



What comes to mind is South Africa.

In the 1940's, the Afrikaner National Party (A.K.A. Arizona State Legislature Republicans) holding a sizeable majority in the legislature invented an Apartheid policy highly effective of achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites.

All of this changed in 1990 when leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela was freed from Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl, South Africa after 27 years which was the beginning of the end of Apartheid.

In Arizona, we may not have the political power needed to win at the Arizona State Legislature but this too in time will change just as was done in South Africa. To counter current anti-Hispanic actions felt by nearly all Arizona Hispanics, both native born to recent immigrants, the significant purchasing power of Arizona Hispanics will be re-directed to prevent purchases of products and services from businesses who endorse and support Prop 200 and other anti Hispanic actions.

To spear head a boycott in Arizona, a new non profit organization is being formed. The Arizona Law and Education Center (ALEC) this month reserved its name with the Arizona Corporation Commission. Within the next two month, ALEC will be incorporated as a non profit in Arizona and will subsequently submit its application to the United States Internal Revenue Service for approval as a tax exempt non profit corporation.

The purpose of ALEC will be to represent American Hispanics in need of advocacy, legal services, economic development, housing, health, public policy, immigration, citizenship and educating all Americans on the contributions of Hispanics.

Its first primary mission will be to organize Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 against Prop 200 by targeting the founding fathers of Prop 200: Rusty Childress and Russell Pearce.

Prop 200

Proposition 200 requires Arizonans to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and to provide proof they are legal residents when applying for certain state benefits. State employees who fail to report undocumented immigrants face a possible $750 fine and four months in jail.

The proponents

Prop 200 anti-illegal immigration crusader is Rusty Childress, owner of Childress Buick, a General Motors dealership at 2223 East Camelback Road in Phoenix, Arizona. Interesting side bar: At the first meeting of East Valley LULAC on February 17, 2004, Rusty Childress attended the meeting and sat quietly in the back listening to discussions of agenda items. We did not know who he was until after the meeting.

In The Arizona Republic, Anti-Hispanic Russell Pearce said businesses that cater to Spanish speakers are engaged in "corporate corruption" and are "after money."

The comments seemed to disparage Childress, who joined with Pearce to promote the Protect Arizona Now ballot initiative that was supposed to cut undocumented immigrants off the state's welfare rolls.

Childress offers Spanish information on his Web site, and even at the height of the Protect Arizona Now campaign, had a big banner outside his dealership on West Camelback Road that read, "Se habla Español."

The second phase will target West Mesa, home to District 18 (where I live), the legislators' district who was prime mover in organizing Prop 200 and who continues to sponsor anti Arizona Hispanic State legislation. District 18's legislators are: Russell K. Pearce, Mark Anderson, and Karen Johnson.

Mesa's District 18's businesses will be required to sign an agreement stating Prop 200 is anti Hispanic. Any business not signing will be identified as an advocate of Prop 200 and will be boycotted.

Downtown Mesa along Main Street is where phase two will begin. There are several large car and truck dealerships that sell to Hispanics. In addition, Mesa is gearing up to open the $100 million arts center Spring 2006. The boycott is being organized to begin late 2005 and the Mesa arts center and the surrounding businesses will be the primary focus area of the boycott.

The third phase will be initiated upon any anti-Arizona Hispanic state legislation proposed.

Districts whose representatives propose such legislation will be targeted.

Any other anti Hispanic activity such as the border Minuteman Project (or similar type project) will initiate a state wide business boycott targeting major employers or major service centers such as Sky Harbor Airport to achieve maximum adverse impact.

Another thought is we hold a state wide December month long business boycott. December is the highest sales volume month of the year. Again, only those businesses who refuse to sign the Stop Prop 200 agreement will be boycotted.

The effect

Eventually all state legislators will come to know if they propose anti-Hispanic legislation, it will result in a boycott of businesses in their home district.

A state wide program will be also be conducted to educate the effect of Prop 200 on its impact on all Arizona Hispanics and the divisive climate now being generated throughout Arizona.

To counter this anti-Hispanic current felt by nearly all Hispanics both native born to recent immigrants, Arizona will be educated on the significant purchasing power of Arizona Hispanics. Trying to hold back the Hispanic surge is similar to the little Dutch boy who foolishly tried to hold back the surge of the Atlantic Ocean by placing his finger in the dike preventing it from breaking. 226 House Republican Little "Dutch Boys" Try to Hold Back Hispanic Flood.

The Hispanic Strategy

We may not presently have the power at the ballot box but we certainly have the power of purchasing or rather not purchasing that will have an adverse negative impact on those businesses that support the efforts of Prop 200 advocates.

By not purchasing from businesses who support Prop 200, it is our goal to have these businesses withdraw their support for legislators who continue to advocate hate legislation.

Arizona has a burgeoning Hispanic population, which surged in the 1990s and now represents nearly 30 percent of Arizona's total and increases by one percent each year. Before 2025, Hispanics will be the majority in Arizona.

Hispanic buying power was estimated at $686 billion in 2004, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. It is expected to hit $923 billion by 2009. Arizona ranks No. 7, with $20.9 billion in purchasing power.



Sales of new cars and trucks make up approximately 10% of the $20.9 billion in purchasing power. Auto dealers in Mesa and along Camelback Road are estimated to sell $300 million annually. Our goal will be to reduce sales by 30% (30% of Arizona's population is Hispanic increasing by 1% per year) reducing by $90,000,000 total car and truck sales. The loss of sales to Hispanics will have an adverse impact on those that continue to promote anti Hispanic legislation.



We will begin with car and truck dealerships in Mesa and on West Camelback Road but we are encouraged from others in other Arizona communities. The boycott will spread to all legislative districts whose representatives sponsor anti-Hispanic legislation.



Why General Motors?



A pillar of Corporate America and at times a friend to the Hispanic community, G.M. wrote the book on "market share."



No market is more important to G.M. than the United States, where big sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, along with returns from car loans, have driven profitability. But G.M.'s North American automotive operations reported a $1.1 billion net loss in the quarter in contrast to a $401 million profit a year earlier. Competition from Asian rivals like Toyota have weakened the grip of G.M. and the Ford Motor Company on the S.U.V. market.



G.M.'s market share in the United States fell to 25.4 percent, from 26.7 percent a year ago.



G.M. is vulnerable and clearly views its only increasing market being the Hispanic market. Witness Sueño Latino, the new national campaign to increase market share by directing its efforts to the Hispanic market.



Rusty Childress Buick will be an albatross around G.M.'s neck the moment a CNN television crew comes to the weekend boycott of Rusty Childress Buick. Back at corporate headquarters, the letter sent by the Arizona Law and Education Center will be found and a telephone will ring in Arizona asking for a meeting to stop Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200.



The Hispanic Goal



Arizona Hispanic Boycott 200 phases 1 and 2 will continue until Rusty Childress Buick looses its General Motors dealership and Russell K. Pearce resigns from the state legislature.



Hispanic Supporters



On March 3, 2004, East Valley LULAC approved to support the Arizona Law and Education Center in a state wide boycott of Arizona businesses who support Prop 200 beginning with Prop 200 anti-illegal immigration crusader: Rusty Childress. East Valley LULAC is the first Hispanic organization to sign on and will help in Mesa (where Prop 200 began) to coordinate the boycott in Mesa.



Jon Garrido, President



Stop200@Hispanic.cc

Arizona Law and Education Center (ALEC)

East Valley LULAC

I think their boycott threat is just plain malarkey. They send the biggest portion of their money back to Mexico. That's part, a small part for sure, of why we have as many problems as we do with these people. They come to our country, steal jobs from American workers and then send their money back to Mexico rather than contributing to the economy of the country who is paying them.

I think that, if they decide to boycott, there would be plenty of American people who would boycott anything that was made in Mexico such as textiles, furniture, cars, etc. Now, THAT might have an impact.