"Lemme Hold a Kool"

 "Lemme hold a Kool" is an expression that I have heard regularly for more than the last 50 years. I first heard it in high school. It was always said by a young black male who was without a cigarette to feed his habit. People were wasting their time asking me for a cigarette, I have never smoked.

The other day on the television I saw Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, doing a commercial about the need to ban menthol cigarettes. She called for a ban in the name of racial equity. A woman who runs a city filled with homeless people and criminals is worried about menthol cigarettes.  In Los Angeles, there's a better chance that you will be robbed going to buy cigarettes than you will die from menthol cigarettes. 

This is all a racist program of hypocrisy. They want to ban menthol cigarettes because they are favored by blacks. I believe that the estimate is that about 80% of menthol cigarettes are smoked by blacks. "Lemme hold a Kool." 

While the "racial equity" crowd calls for relief for blacks from menthol cigarettes, they are apparently okay with Marlboros and Camels killing white people. Just to be fair, a couple of times I have been asked "Spot me a Cowboy Killer." I am assuming that would be a Marlboro.

Three hundred million Americans and I are just a little confused about this whole 'racial equity" thing. If you want to ban cigarettes favored by blacks, shouldn't you also ban cigarettes favored by whites? Wouldn't that be "equity"? Or is it just okay for white folks to die from smoking non-menthol cigarettes?

Why are the people who want to ban tobacco okay with marijuana? Don't smoke Kools, get a little weed instead. At least you can smoke a menthol cigarette and still get up on time the next morning. Not to mention, no one ever smoked a couple of Kools and had to go fill up at the donut shop. 

Why stop at smoking? The rates of diabetes for blacks and Hispanics are higher than those for whites. Are they going to ban orange and grape soda because they are favored by blacks? How about all of those Hispanic fruit drinks? Are they going to ban beans and rice to hold down diabetes among Hispanics? Do we need "diet" tortillas? Will Karen Bass ban those baskets of chips at Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles? Where does it all end?

I spent more than six years at the Waffle House and then more than twenty years at a pancake house. I have watched all races and ethnic groups eat meals. Here are a few observations. In 1975 I was sent to Jacksonville, Florida to train a manager at a Waffle House. The restaurant was located at the Golfair Blvd. exit on I-95. It was in a predominantly black neighborhood. On my first day there, I saw something that had never seen before. I was checking coffee cups for stains to see if we needed to soak them in bleach to remove the stains. Instead, I found something that I had never seen before. In a lot of cups, there was sugar residue in the bottom of the cups. Neither the 180-degree rinse water or the high pressure of the wash and rinse water could get all of the sugar out of the cups. I had to go buy a brush system that we had to use to preclean the sugar from the cups BEFORE washing them. Customers put more sugar in their coffee than the coffee could dissolve. 

At the same Waffle House, I had several customers ask why we didn't have grape soda. I called Coke and had them add grape to our soft drink selection. In a week, it was outselling Coca-Cola. I tasted the grape soda. It made the Coca-Cola feel like a diet drink. Just before I left there weeks later, we had to remove the grape soda because it was not a franchise approved item. Maybe I should claim that we removed the grape soda in the name of "racial equity".

At both the Waffle House and the pancake house, I watched as blacks emptied a 12 oz bottle of syrup onto a waffle or a stack of pancakes. They liked it sweet. Next time you are at a grocery store, check a syrup bottle for the number of carbs in a 12 oz portion. Spoiler Alert: Depending on the brand, it is between 280 and 320 grams of carbohydrates. That doesn't include the waffle or pancakes. At Bojangles, we had a woman who wanted ten (10) packs of sugar put into her 16 oz cup of coffee. We needed a blender to stir that cup of coffee.

What's next? A ban on malt liquor? Purchase limits at donut shops? Will you have to be over 18 to buy syrup? Will Col. Sanders be on the FBI's Most Wanted List? No more "Take Home a Sack Full" at Krystal?

We are told that "racial equity" means equal outcomes for all races. Life is still a mathematical equation. Equal outcomes require equal inputs. You cannot reap where you have not sown. You cannot legislate equity because you cannot legislate human efforts. 

Why not put all of this effort into stopping crimes?