Pretty much everything about “systemic racism” and “institutionalized racism” in the United States is a lie, a way to guilt normal, middle-class people into handing money and power to whoever is telling it (Democrats and liberals).
To get a sense of just how absurd it gets, the Washington Post on Wednesday reported on President Joe Biden’s expected proposal to ban cigarette companies from using menthol in their product because black people have a preference for those types of cigarettes, and using them is exacerbating health problems in that population.
The report said that anti-smoking advocates “became more optimistic about a possible federal ban in recent months amid President Biden’s repeated vows to reduce health disparities made glaringly obvious by the coronavirus pandemic, and efforts by the Black Lives Matter movement to focus on institutionalized racism.”
Wait a second. If black people are choosing to smoke cigarettes that disproportionately affect the black population, wouldn’t that mean that they themselves are perpetuating “institutionalized racism”?
Of course not. That wouldn’t make sense. But it never makes sense.
It’s not even as though black people have proven to be more susceptible to the allure of cigarettes than white people. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the percentage of black people and white people who say they smoke is nearly identical. For black people, it’s 14.9%. For white people, it’s 15.5%.
There is evidence that smoking is more harmful to black people, but that’s not institutional. It’s biological or cultural. Black people, for whatever reason, inhale more deeply than white people, according to a 2013 study by two professors at the University of Pennsylvania. Nicotine is also metabolized differently in black people. The study suggests that the toxic tar also found in cigarettes is absorbed by black smokers (on average) at a more potent level.
Again, that’s biological, though I suspect Democrats any day now will start saying that scientific facts are racist.
“Institutionalized racism” is a lie. But if someone proves me wrong, I want black smokers to apologize for perpetuating it by choosing menthols.
