A class action lawsuit has been filed against the four tobacco companies for allegedly engaging in cynical and exploitative marketing targeting black communities. The suit was filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
The suit cites marketing documents from the tobacco companies from the 1950s through the 1990s that made disparaging generalizations about African Americans and suggested working through black churches and youth events to recruit smokers. The suit claims the cigarette companies marketed by racial profiling. Marketing to a specific segment of the population is a normal practice, but the difference is that these companies were knowingly marketing poison.
