The legacy of colonialism and commercial tobacco-caused social inequities

There is growing acknowledgment that tobacco-related health disparities and social inequities among racialized groups in the United States are linked to colonialism. Tobacco as a cash crop helped to advance colonial economic and political wealth and control through the exploitation of people of African-descent and Indigenous people and their land for centuries. Few scholars have acknowledged or delineated the historical context of tobacco-related health disparities. This paper provides a brief overview of the history of commercial tobacco-related health disparities in the United States and describes how tobacco-fuel colonialism that began in the early 1600s influenced present-day patterns of the social determinants that are the foundation for health disparities. A discussion of the tobacco historical context helps us to understand generational structured and systemic inequalities and informs the type of public health, social, structural, cultural, and political actions that should be taken to end disparities among historically marginalized groups.