Big Tobacco vs. Black Folks: Guess Who’s Still Winning?

By Jennifer Porter Gore | Word In Black(WIB) – Cigarette smoking has plunged more than 70% among Americans since a landmark 1965 surgeon general’s report linked tobacco use to cancer. But last week, the nation’s top doctor issued a report that found that people of color, people with low incomes, and members of the LGBT community still have disproportionately high smoking rates. Despite decades of strict anti-tobacco-related laws and a historic lawsuit intended to punish the tobacco industry, disparate smoking rates in marginalized communities have increased since 2000, the report finds. Authored by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the report calls out Big Tobacco as a key driver of the disparities, pointing to decades of aggressive, highly specific marketing aimed at those communities. Socially and economically marginalized groups “have been subjected to decades of inequitable treatment and manipulative tactics that impact tobacco-related health consequences,” according to the report. It also noted that smoking is a significant factor in disparate health outcomes between white people and people of color.Anti-smoking advocates welcomed the report.Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association, said in a statement that Murthy’s findings show the tobacco industry harmed vulnerable people and communities through “the use of tobacco, exposure...