Letter to the Editor
On Sunday, June 19, I will join thousands of Milwaukeeans to celebrate Juneteenth, a day commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States on that day in 1865.
And while the legacy of slavery still fuels racist attitudes and actions there are also many other historic injustices that continue to devastate African American communities. One of those is the targeting of black communities by tobacco companies.
For decades, tobacco companies have specifically targeted African American and other minorities by using aggressive marketing campaigns, free tobacco giveaways, and heavy point-of-sale advertising tactics that helped to establish menthol as the cigarettes of choice in those communities.
These targeting practices, which continue largely unabated to this day, have had devastating impacts on African Americans across the nation, including in Wisconsin, where 27 percent of blacks smoke.
That’s more than double the state average and directly correlates to tobacco related illnesses being the number one killer of African Americans both here and nationally.
That’s why the Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network (WAATPN) works to educate the community on the harms of tobacco use.
The network also conducts environmental scans of retail establishments to document the latest marketing practices of tobacco companies.
Unless we stand up against this injustice, and make others aware of it as well, the targeting is likely to continue, and our next generation could be Big Tobacco’s next victims.
Sincerely,
Christal West
WAATPN
