Tobacco is immensely destructive to the health of people who smoke or inhale secondhand smoke, causing more preventable deaths annually in the United States than AIDS, accidents and homicides combined.
The harmful and manipulative tactics of the tobacco industry (also known as “Big Tobacco”) have led far too many people to experience the burden of tobacco-related mortality. The Black community has carried the greatest burden of these tactics compared to all other racial or ethnic groups in the United States. Marin County is not shielded from this — we are not immune to the influences that Big Tobacco has on our local Black community and we need to do something about it.
The companies making up Big Tobacco use various manipulative tactics that focus targeting on Black inner-city youth and adults with lower incomes. The companies have done this in many ways, including recruiting celebrities and successful, well-educated Black leaders to use and endorse the use of cigarettes — menthol being the most common.
Another sneaky tactic they employed was handing out free cigarettes to anyone and everyone they could at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation events and within Black communities.
They were one of the first industries to include Black people in their commercials, which made them appeal to more consumers of color and appear publicly as progressive business owners. In addition, people of color were hired to work in high power positions within their companies in order to assist with the targeted marketing. The fact of the matter is that the tactics utilized to addict this population to Big Tobacco’s cancer-causing products have been extremely manipulative and deceitful.
Tobacco companies have always found ways to successfully market their products to the Black community, especially within poorer communities. They use keywords and phrases such as “stress reliever” and “take a breath of fresh air.” These phrases are important in understanding the effects they had, because throughout history, Black Americans have had to deal with enormous amounts of stress due to redlining and discrimination.
Big Tobacco companies took advantage of people by playing to their struggles and making them think their products would help them relieve the stress of being Black in America.
In the year 2000, more than 80% of Black smokers were smoking menthol products. Researchers have found menthol cigarettes to be significantly more addicting and having increased health risks, making this a clear equity problem.
One million signatures were submitted on Nov. 24 in a push to overturn California’s comprehensive tobacco flavor ban signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom which included menthol. The tobacco companies behind this action include Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and affiliates. These are large companies that rely on the revenue of menthol sales. The results are not specific to these states. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention even states that menthol products are given more shelf space in retail outlets in Black and other minority neighborhoods, nationwide.
Full and comprehensive policies that limit the exposure and access to these addictive and harmful products are needed and should be implemented where they have not been already.
Seven of 12 jurisdictions in Marin County have strong policies regarding secondhand smoking practices in multi-unit residences and homes. Marin City is the county community with the highest percentage of Black residents. Damian Morgan, a resident, has stated that the smell of cigarette smoke from the inside of his residence forces him to often close his windows.
Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, it is imperative that we view the harmful effects of tobacco as a pressing issue right now and advocate for strong policies that protect every community in Marin County. Black adults are dying from tobacco-related illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and stroke at an extremely high disproportional rate.
This is an equity issue. There needs to be changes made to protect our Black American communities from the targeting by tobacco corporations.
Let’s advocate for full flavor bans that include menthol, 100% smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing and decreased advertisement allotments on storefronts promoting these and other harmful products. Keep all of our communities, historically and newly targeted, safe from the effects of tobacco. Please visit MarinHHS.org/tobacco-prevention-services for more information.
Keadan Bradley is part of the Redwood High School Class of 2021. She is a member of the Youth Advisory Council for Marin Healthy Youth Partnerships.
