For the first time ever, Congress is considering legislation that would allow the FDA to regulate tobacco products by banning flavored cigarettes. The measure is intended to discourage young people from smoking by eliminating the more palatable clove- and cinammon flavored cigarettes from the market.

But menthol-flavored brands such as Kool and Salem are exempt from the bill, causing some outcry among anti-smoking advocates, as well as those who are simply seeking fairness in legislation.

The reasons for exempting menthols, some say, is that those brands account for about 25% of America's $70 billion cigarette industry. And because menthol cigarettes are smoked primarily by African Americans, it isn't hard to argue that the bill de-values the lives of black Americans. Nearly 75% of black smokers opt for menthol-flavored brands, while only 25% of white smokers do.

Porter Good, who writes the polemical blog Pirate's Cove, perceives the bill as "pandering to blacks" and accuses it of trying to "legislate morality." "If people want to f*** themselves up by smoking, that is their decision," he writes. "They do it with alcohol, which is a much worse drug."

But if smoking is a morality issue, why can't we hold tobacco companies and the laws that protect them morally accountable? If choosing to smoke is a moral imperative, then isn't providing the opportunity to smoke -- and by extension, become addicted, develop diseases, and harm those around you with second-hand smoke -- also a moral issue?

The question is, who's accountable here? The addicts or the pushers? Moreover, what is this bill saying about race?