We are not a Market: big tobacco and the impact on young people of color

On January 28th, 2007, I watched as many cars with custom paint jobs, body kits, and exhausts pulled into the garage. JDM Theory’s “J’s Gathering”, a local and ever growing import car show event organizer held their annual car meet in San Francisco’s Japantown. Hundreds of cars showed up and even more people including families and kids. All these vehicles have been freshly painted and waxed until the shiny coat reflected the sky. As an advocate for RIDE, I was there early to set up giving me the chance to see the expressions on the owners’ faces as they drove into the garage, each one containing a mix of anxiety, pride, and expectancy.

One of the most obvious things about the import scene was how it was dominated by Asian Americans it is one of the activities in the Bay Area that links together many of the different Asian races. This trend however has been more and more appealing to those that are not Asian causing a large melting pot of ethnicities that hold a common interest in cars.

At J’s Gathering, I saw many Asian Americans, but also a lot of people from different ethnic backgrounds. In my opinion, driving and modifying an import car isn’t an “Asian” thing but more of a hobby that can be shared with people of all color and background.

One of the first things that I noticed though at J’s Gathering was the lack of ventilation, when you have 100 cars that have exhausts and smog emitting engines in the same room it is obvious when there is no oxygen flow. Then there were the people who were smoking in the same room, I was surprised to see that type of inconsideration for other people in the room because obviously we all know, second-hand smoke can cause cancer.

Since JDM Theory, a strong and local import car event organizer has agreed to adopt a tobacco-free sponsorship policy with Project RIDE, a non-profit organization that provides a voice and trains young leaders in the import car scene against the social injustice of big tobacco. By signing the policy “J’s Gathering”, was a place where tobacco venders, products and advertisements cannot be present at the car show. JDM Theory along with Project RIDE is taking a stance against the heavy corporate marketing of tobacco products in the import community.

I was glad to know that I would not have to worry about many of the people at J’s Gathering to be influenced into smoking. Just last year I attended and witnessed one of the biggest car shows in San Francisco and they had a hookah sampling booth and another company that gave away blunt wrappers (blunts: tobacco wrappers used for marijuana use) to participants and youth without checking for I.D. Tobacco companies find new targets every single day and with the amount of resources that they have, they are also able to research how to appeal to these different targets. Just like what the tobacco industry promotes heavily in NASCAR they see the same in this scene, my scene. We’re a new target, the ever growing import car scene who’s predominately young people of color.

Hopefully people in the import scene will not be attracted and fall for the tobacco companies’ advertisements and more events such as JDM Theory’s “J’s Gathering” adopting a tobacco-free policy at their events will be inclined to eliminate all type of tobacco sponsorship, take a stand against smoking and tobacco media influence upon younger generations, and remind people that this a culture and not a market.

Winnie Cheung
Student of San Francisco State University
Project RIDE advocate