Is the soda tax racist? One woman says that she consulted on campaigns with Coca-Cola to get the NAACP to say they were so that the proposed taxes would fail.
Calley Means is a health researcher and author. He claims that Coke donated millions of dollars to the NAACP and Hispanic Federation to fight against proposed taxes on soda and call them “racist” and both civil rights groups complied. They argued that the taxes would disproportionately harm people of color because those are the groups that consume soda and can least afford the added expense. One would think that if those associations had their groups’ best interest at heart, they would help them stop drinking soda. Means says that the donations from Coke bought loyalty from these groups, as in “We (Coke) will give you money. You need to paint opponents of us as racist.”
Means argues that the FDA allows companies to buy access to food guidelines that prevent any expert from cautioning against their products. She says that this is antithetical to a free market. What do you think?
