They called it strategy. We call it a curse. For decades, R.J. Reynolds targeted Black communities with menthol warfare — flooding Jet, Ebony, and Essence with ads, plastering our neighborhoods with billboards, and even trying to launch a cigarette called Uptown in Philadelphia. But what corporations plan, the ancestors interrupt. From billion-dollar settlements to federal fraud convictions, the empire built on smoke was forced to pay.

Over 80% of Black smokers still carry the scar of this blueprint — proof that the fight isn’t over. The record shows the lawsuits. The spirit shows the sentence.

This is Echoes of Hoodoo. Remembering is resistance. Share this story, because every receipt uncovered is another curse broken.