The MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center opened “Same Game, Different Smokers” to the public on July 7 and continues until August 24. The groundbreaking exhibit is an exploration of the troubling relationship the tobacco industry has had with the Black community over the last 400+ years.
With tobacco use being a major contributor to the three leading causes of death among African Americans, young entrepreneur, Blakk Tatted, made it his mission change the debilitating relationship between the community and tobacco products.
Nearly half a million people die every year from complications from smoking. About a tenth of them never put a cigarette to their lips – they die from exposure to second-hand smoke. Death from tobacco is, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the leading cause of preventable death. But too many people, enticed by advertising, think that smoking is so “cool” that they embrace it. And the tobacco industry spent more than $9 billion on smoking advertising, or about a million dollars an hour.