Tracy Brown, curator of “Same Game Different Smokers” (Photo/Los Angeles Sentinel)
By Karen Stokes
In May, the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention & Poverty Network (WTPPN) and the Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network will host “Same Game Different Smokers,” an exhibit exploring the longstanding exploitation of the Black Community by the tobacco industry for over 400 years.
“The Same Game Different Smokers exhibit explores the roots of tobacco when it first came to America and when slaves were brought to America and goes through that troubling history up to when African Americans were targeted with menthol. Even some of the same tactics are being used now to promote e cigarettes on kids,” said Edgar Mendez, coordinator of the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention & Poverty Network (WTPPN).
The exhibit is a collection of archival ads and images illustrate the complex connection between increased demand for commercialized tobacco, the transatlantic slave trade, racialized advertising, targeted ad placement.
Tracy Brown, the curator created the exhibit sponsored by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. It was originally displayed at the San Francisco Public Library.
Tobacco companies have targeted e cigarettes to youth (Photo/Black Womens Health)
“I am a visual artist and artivist so social practice is the foundation of my work.” she said. “I wanted to make the historical reality of the tobacco industry targeting the Black community undeniably clear through the use of the tobacco industry’s own historical documents and their very well-produced commercial art.”
According to saving black lives.org, each year, more than 72,000 African Americans are diagnosed with a tobacco-related illness and more than 45,000 die from a tobacco-induced disease. 85% of all African American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes compared to 29% of White smokers. Menthol cigarettes increase addiction and make it harder to quit. More than 70% of African American smokers want to quit, and more than 60% made a quit attempt in the previous year. However, African American smokers are less likely than White smokers to successfully quit smoking.
“There’s a history of using any means possible to get people hooked on their products,” Mendez said. “Back in the day giving cigarettes to kids or giving tobacco to slaves to keep them working or soldiers to keep them alert but then when you look at the 1970s when tobacco companies used to go into Black neighborhoods with the ‘Kool’ van and give out free packs of cigarettes, sponsoring events like the ‘Kool’ Jazz Festival and even the promoting menthol in Black magazines and billboards. We consider it targeting the Black community.”
In recent times, the Nicotine Addiction industry has worked hard to create the next generation of smokers… shamelessly using social media and a plethora of flavors to addict children. This is merely a page taken from Big Tobacco’s proverbial playbook as it has used menthol flavoring and strategic ad placement to attract and addict African Americans of all ages for more than 50 years.
“In Wisconsin 87% of Black smokers smoke menthol compared to 41% of white smokers. Menthol is designed to give that cooling effect. It makes them less harsh, it makes them easier to inhale, and harder to quit,” said Mendez. “There’s not the same support for the African American community to quit.”
“My ultimate goal is to save my community from being further murdered by an industry that cares nothing about us. My ultimate goal is to educate our most resilient populations to help them understand how not to continue to be targeted,” Brown said.
The exhibit launches on May 8 through the end of June at the Washington Park Library.