Copyright 1998 The Washington Post  
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May 17, 1998, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A08

LENGTH: 1372 words

HEADLINE: Tobacco's Ties to Minority Groups Put Their Leaders in a Bind

BYLINE: Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer

BODY:
RJR Nabisco doled out more than $ 800,000 over the past two years to minority-run groups from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the Korean American Liquor Market Association of Santa Clara, Calif. Nearly one in five of RJR's 8,800 tobacco workers are minorities who earn an average of $ 45,000 a year.

At Philip Morris, 37 percent of the work force is minority, and the company last year spent almost $ 24 million doing business with minority-owned companies, much of it on advertising that provides critical revenue for struggling ethnic newspapers and magazines.

"We probably could survive without tobacco ads, but it would be difficult," said Dorothy R. Leavell, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents 215 black-run newspapers.

It is hardly new that tobacco companies make a practice of buying goodwill with generous contributions. But few have come to depend on that money as much as the nation's African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. Whether it means sponsorship of an inner-city youth group or backing for an ethnic festival, cigarette companies have used their millions to make an especially influential mark on minority communities, not only giving to charitable causes but also providing opportunities when many others won't.

For minority lawmakers, this poses a crucial dilemma: How can they preserve the economic benefits their communities reap from the tobacco industry while limiting the devastating health effects of smoking?

That is a central concern of many minorities on Capitol Hill as the Senate begins debate on a tobacco bill this week.

Minority members of Congress say they want smoking-cessation programs that target minority and low-income communities, which bear a disproportionate share of tobacco's health risks. They also want to ensure that money flows to researchers interested in exploring the unique smoking habits and maladies of minority communities. Native Americans and African Americans have the highest smoking rates in the nation, and African Americans are more likely than others to die from smoking-related diseases.

But at the same time, minority lawmakers want to be careful that the myriad social service, arts and other programs that depend on tobacco money do not suddenly lose their support.

"Basically, a lot of groups would have difficulty if all the resources provided by tobacco companies were withdrawn all at once," said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus's working group on tobacco.

It is a balancing act that deeply troubles many minority health advocates who say lawmakers should focus principally on thwarting an industry responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Moreover, they believe many organizations are compromised in the smoking debate because of their long history of accepting money from tobacco companies.

"Implicitly, organizations are saying smoking is alright when they take that money," said Jane Delgado, president of the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Service Organizations. "You cannot talk credibly to Hispanics about cancer or heart disease and be taking those dollars."

Louis W. Sullivan remembers urging minority newspaper publishers and others not to take tobacco money while he was secretary of Health and Human Services. But almost always he was rebuffed, he said, because the groups that received the money said they couldn't afford to live without it.

"Our leaders, who include members of the Black Caucus, should be setting an example for our citizens and for our young people," said Sullivan, who is now president of Morehouse College's medical school. "Their association is really giving the tobacco companies an umbrella of legitimacy I believe they should not be giving them."

Campaign donations flow from the political arms of the nation's tobacco companies to many black members of Congress, including Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), who received $ 11,000 from 1991 to 1996; Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), who received $ 9,000 from 1995 to 1996; and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who received $ 9,500 in that period.

But those contributions are not particularly exceptional. Larger amounts go to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which use the funds to pay for the groups' annual conferences and to support public policy research. In 1995 and 1996, the RJR Nabisco Foundation alone reported giving the two groups $ 187,500, which lawmakers acknowledge as significant contributions.

Still, many say it is simplistic to suggest that the tobacco industry has bought off minority organizations. Moreover, they say it is unrealistic to ask these organizations to sacrifice major financial support without having a viable alternative on tap.

"The U.S. government is hypocritical," said the black newspaper association's Leavell. "If tobacco is causing the kinds of things it is, why don't they make it illegal to use the product? Plus, you sure don't see many organizations taking out anti-smoking ads in our newspapers."

In Congress, Thompson said he has been meeting with members of the Hispanic and Asian Pacific American caucuses to hammer out proposals that would ensure that any new legislation includes ways of protecting or replacing the tobacco money flowing through their communities. The caucuses also want some guarantee that money for anti-smoking efforts is targeted on their communities just as the cigarette makers target their constituents now, whether it is with foreign language billboards or sponsorships of ethnic festivals. The minority caucuses are planning to unveil their recommendations in early June.

"We are not getting into putting the tobacco companies out of business, or getting into whether smoking is good or bad," Thompson said. "We're not beating the drums saying we want a settlement now. But we're saying that we must position the minority community in this country so that it benefits proportionately from a tobacco bill."

Any tobacco bill that makes its way out of Congress is likely to include a new fee that could be as high as $ 1.50 per pack. In internal discussions, minority members of Congress have criticized the proposed levy as "regressive," because it would require the poor to pay as much as people who are more affluent.

To offset that, lawmakers and advocates agree that anti-smoking programs funded with the new tax money should be focused in ways that specifically benefit minorities. For example, they want money to go to minority-run community associations, which they say are best able to design and deliver anti-smoking messages to minority groups.

"Every tax dollar that is raised in the minority community should go back to the minority community," said Jeannette Noltenius, executive director of the Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco.

Advocates and lawmakers also want anti-smoking research money to go to minority-run medical schools to explore such curiosities as why black smokers are three times as likely as whites to smoke menthol cigarettes. Some theorize that the cooling quality of menthol allows smokers to inhale more deeply, enhancing the damage inflicted by cigarettes.

In the Senate, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has taken the lead, pushing for the insertion of minority provisions in the tobacco bill that may be voted on this week.

"Tobacco companies have targeted our minority communities and our minority youngsters for years," he said. "We are now going to make sure that this bill specifically targets some help to the folks the tobacco industry has targeted."

But as the crucial bill makes its way through Congress, some health activists say that too few civil rights organizations, think tanks and civic groups have made their voices heard -- silence they attribute to years of tobacco company largess.

"There is no question that tobacco companies have tried to buy respectability and legitimacy," Sullivan said. "It would certainly be helpful and very appropriate to have clear statements from more civil rights and civic organizations. . . . I would like to see more of that because they do influence people's positions."

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