Smoking is an addiction that’s very hard to beat. That is not news to any of the 70% of African-American smokers who have tried – and failed – to break the habit.
Now, the Local Health Equity Action Team (LHEAT) in Sedgwick County has joined with the national “We Want to Quit” Campaign for a targeted campaign to help Black Sedgwick County residents who are trying to quit.
Both federally and locally, a higher percentage of African-Americans are smokers than Americans in nearly any other ethnic group. A 2015 health district survey found 33% of African-Americans and 33% of American Indians smoked, compared with 17% of Whites, 9% of Asians and 5% of Latinos.
The National “We Want to Quit” Campaign guides cessation treatment programs but it also challenges the “overtly racist rhetoric that tobacco companies have promoted for decades,” something a lot of Black Americans aren’t aware of. By doing so, they hope the campaign can help members and coalitions from the community step-up and advocate in a way that can make an impact on smoking among Wichita’s Black residents.
The History of African Americans and Big Tobacco
Internal documents from RJ Reynolds, the maker of Salem, Vintage and Camel cigarettes, detail how the company created special displays to corner stores in Black neighborhoods and made an effort to push menthols by making them cheaper than other cigarettes. According to a 1988 company document, 70% of Black smokers were choosing menthols at the time. Today, more than 90% of Black smokers choose menthols.
The problem is menthol smokers hold the product in longer with the cooling effect of menthol tricking the body, making it easier to breathe the tobacco in deeper and hold for longer, which brings nicotine into the bloodstream
To quote Dr. Philip Gardiner, co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, “Menthol makes the poison go down smoother.”
Tobacco companies were also among the first to feature Black models in ads and to hire Black executives at a time when segregation was the law of the land in much of the United States.
Tobacco companies also funded scholarships for Black students and made donations to the NAACP, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Black leadership groups for decades. Older Americans remember the popular Kool Jazz Concert series and tobacco companies handing out cigarettes in the community.
It was an intentional targeting strategy, and it worked.
Watch the Community Voice website and print publication for more info on the “We Want to Quit” effort in the weeks and months ahead. Beyond the history of Big Tobacco, the campaign will focus on:
Menthol as a social justice issue, The stress of racism, and on engaging the African-American community on addressing this major health related problem.
