When Big Tobacco Invoked Eric Garner to Fight a Menthol Cigarette Ban

This reminds me of when Charlie Rangel kept taking money from tobacco and alcohol manufacturers. Ladies from the Abyssinia Baptist Church went around Harlem painting out the signs that advertised these health threats. community members got on the congressman's case about it and demanded that he stop supporting products that cause illness and premature death disproportionately to African Americans. Support of these industries by any community leaders of any ethnicity means that money has changed hands. Community leaders who support raised illness and deaths of their constituents are deeply corrupt and death-loving.

Cigarettes, bad. Fur, bad. Unless it is still on the living animal that owns it.

where are the leftie cries of "cultural appropriation" when you need them? they're warranted in this cynical instance. but i guess we only do cultural appropriation on halloween, and at ethnic diners, and of course in fashion and attire. meanwhile, corporations know that culture in defense of profits is no appropriation.

@NYTimes: If there are any epidemiological data of decent quality on the number of African Americans who die every year from lung cancer, emphysema, COPD, or cardiovascular complications attributable to smoking tobacco, please publish those in a follow up article. And, if you can, ask Mr. Sharpton to comment on those numbers. Flavored cigarettes, especially those with menthol, were specifically created to make it even easier for people (of any race or ethnicity) to pick up the habit, in other words, to get people hooked on nicotine in form of tobacco smoke. Not sure if and how Mr. Sharpton thinks that is desirable.

What do Mr. Sharpton's colleagues at MSNBC have to say about his support and promotion of Big Tobacco's agenda? Any word from Rachael Maddow, Chris Hayes, Joe Scarborough, Joy Reid, or Nicole Wallace? Maybe they should ask him the next time they appear together. By the way, Mr. Sharpton has also fought against health and for the interests of Big Tobacco in Minnesota and California, as well.

When a Maison-Dixon poll revealed that over 70% of residents across all demographics and all boroughs support a ban on the sales of new fur, the fur industry panicked. The luxury fur industry is rooted in European royal power. Edward III's sumptuary laws enforced fur's place as an exclusive status symbol -- one that literally meant access to rare animals, arduous trade routes, a skilled labor force, and power over nature. It is an industry mostly benefiting white Europeans with SAGA Furs and Kopenhagen Furs as the biggest players. The travesty of the fur industry trying to use the black community as cover to maintain their profits, and the cynicism of a man-of-god going to such lengths to defend material luxuries (especially when they are so cruel) is enough to give one pause. The fur industry was already caught on tape just weeks ago, telling supporters to lie to the city council about where they live to manufacture dissent. INTRO 1476 is a ban on the sales of new fur only. The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have already passed similar laws. This is not a ban on wearing fur already purchased, not a ban on secondhand fur, not a sumptuary law - but a law that's rooted in compassion. It's about unveiling the ugly truth of how fur is made, and what 100,000,000 animals per year endure from lifetimes of confinement and languishing to death by anal electrocution. The fur industry will not hesitate to sink to any low to keep money in their pockets.

A friend of mine is a well known African American painter who turned down a solo show at the Whitney because they were accepting money from a tobacco company. The irony is, big tobacco were some of the first companies to support black artists. The Devil is in the details. What Sharpton has done is exactly what he has always done; hang with Trump when it was cool in the nineties and dump him for MSNBC. In other words, exploit every opportunity for his own benefit. How “gangsta” of him.

I am happy that what the tobacco company states would disproportionately affect black citizens as far as access to menthol cigarettes. However our government should be ashamed of its hypocrisy and greed as far as tobacco goes. It’s a proven killer, yet still legal for reasons that boggle my small mind. May a lack of access to more dangerous substances, and an increase in healthier choices plague the black(and all) communities.

Anything for a buck. This reminds me of certain Democratic candidates over time, who”get religion” at election time, visiting black churches and calling everybody “ folks”.

So now, if we speak against status-symbol clothing produced by unnecessary cruelty to animals, we're racists because we're attacking an important part of African-American culture. Are there no limits to the identity/victim group politics? Perhaps not, as so many people and groups are learning how much power they gain from it.

The menthol cigarette market has Black Americans squarely in the cross-hairs. Cigarettes and guns: Two products which, if used according to directions, facilitate death. Either Sharpton gets a hefty envelope for his cynical advocacy here or he is demented; or both.

This is crazy. Al Sharpton can never stoop low enough. In spite of the fact that black people have a higher incidence of high blood pressure and heart disease, he is willing to fight for their right to smoke themselves to death because they prefer menthol cigarettes. Wouldn't it be more sensible to encourage black people to stop smoking instead of falling for the advertising of a killer business? He hasn't learned anything since he first drew attention to himself with the Tawana Brawley case. He will use anything to get himself in the public spotlight.

The subtext of the article should read: We'll kill you one way or the other. Just buy into our plan and we'll make it slower. Cigarettes, legal dope that really does kill

Absolutely obscene.

Where is the FDA in all of this?! They were given the power to regulate cigarettes years ago and have done nothing. At least they could ban added substances and toxins. They do that with medicines; toxins cannot be added to pills, why are they allowed in cigarettes? I know everyone, except smokers, hate cigarettes. Some even hate the people that smoke them. But for the FDA to allow toxins and not regulate additives is appalling.

Shameless, cynical, disingenuous, disgusting -- and, despite this excellent article, nothing we shouldn't be familiar with by now. Remember the 90s and charter schools? Wealthy special interests know that buying off self-anointed "power brokers" is always money well spent and does a dandy job of circumventing activists, politicians and citizens alike. It's corruption, plain and simple, and as always, it starts in our own backyards.

When you ban something, you must be willing to enforce the ban. Which means using police power to arrest someone supplying the good outside of normal channels. Whether pot, menthol cigarettes, or large sodas; we should only ban items we are willing to arrest a violator, which means some risk of confrontation and even death (very rare, but still possible). Eric Garner’s “crime” may have been failure to pay the high city tax/offering “loosies” for sale.

We’re definitely down the rabbit hole here. If African Americans deserve special dispensation for fur and menthol, then do we ignore Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms’ regulations against moonshine in Appalachia?

I frequently listen to Rev Al Sharpton’s program on SiriusXM radio. I won’t be doing that anymore. Siding with a cancer tobacco company over the health of his people is unforgivable.

So, racketeering RJ Reynolds has recruited Al Sharpton in their decades-long campaign to kill their own customers under a guise of racial equality. The tobacco industry is as despicable as ever.

I remember Tawana Brawley and Sharpton using the Black community's ire to further himself. People say Sharpton has changed. Has he?

Is there no end to invidious identity politics? Shame on Reynolds, and particular shame on Mr. Sharpton and his NAN. Souls are for sale, folks. Just name your price.

Can someone please explain to me why governments are trying to ban menthol cigarettes. Why would cigarette companies meet with African American leaders to push their agenda? Not clear on the link here.

Unfortunate to see that selling your principles for the almighty dollar carries across all races.

No surprise here. Pastors cynically pimping off of the coin as supposed 'representatives' of the Black community is an old story. The myth of 'progressive' pastors leading efforts on behalf of the Black community has been woven from a "sanitized" revision of the Civil Rights movement. When the real Montgomery Boycott organizers E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks sought a pastor to be the public face, all 13 refused including MLK. Only after being dennounced as "cowards" by E.D. Nixon did one finally agree. Sharpton began his public career off of a lie of a fake attack that constituted a terrible betrayal and setback to the real fight against racism. Now these opportunists rent their services to "Blackwash" any vile business.

Every time Sharpton appears on my television, I switch the channel. MSNBC for one ought to switch off a man who has been trading on and commercializing civil rights for 50 years for himself first, last and always. This is a perfect example of his prostitution of a historically noble cause.

Supporting any form of pro tobacco is tantamount to murder. Tobacco is the third leading cause of death in the United States. The tobacco industry added addictive elements to cigarettes . I became addicted at the age of 18 and now I have COPD. Those who fight the ban on tobacco products are knowingly causing a sentence of death .