Share May 05, 2021, 12:18 PM Newport and other menthol cigarette makers market their products to African Americans. (Photo: Stanford University archive of tobacco advertising) Detroiters have mixed feelings on the federal government's plan to ban menthol cigarettes in an effort to protect Black smokers, 85 percent of whom currently go for the smooth, minty flavor that masks the harshness of tobacco. The ban proposed by the Food and Drug Administration follows a successful legal challenge by the San Francisco-based African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, which ...