Unfortunately, historically speaking, in the U.S. it both is and has been.
It is virtually impossible to get into any discussion involving menthol cigarettes in america without also getting into a discussion about the black community they were specifically marketed towards.
Literally:
Tobacco companies offered grants to HBCUs, sponsored hip-hop and jazz music festivals, and supported civil rights institutions including the NAACP. In the 1980s, industry-sponsored vans distributed free cigarette samples in the streets of Houston’s Black neighborhoods. The program would later expand to 50 cities.
“A total of 1.9M samples will be distributed to targeted smokers in 1983,” industry officials wrote in a Kool Market Development Program document. “Sample distribution will be targeted to: housing projects, clubs, community organizations and events where Kool’s Black young adult target congregate.”
An R.J. Reynolds executive actually said: “We don’t smoke that s—t. We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the Black and stupid.”
The reason a targeted menthol/flavored ban is problematic is that since something like 85% of black smokers choose menthols…
…that means this ban gives police ANOTHER free ticket to harass just about any black man, woman, or child/teen they see smoking. They’d likely get away with calling it “probable cause” which is twelve kinds of fucked up.
If they cared about public health they would do one of two things:
1: Ban all cigarettes
2: Use awareness campaigns (THESE ARE PROVEN TO WORK, LOOK AT THE DECLINE OF THE YOUTH SMOKING RATE)
Given the other viable options it is really, really hard to see this as anything other than a racially targeted decision.