Offended L.A. Groups Help Snuff Out New Menthol X Cigarettes : Protest: African Americans help get product shelved, saying the package used images linked to Malcolm X and racial pride. Maker denies trying to lure black smokers.

Menthol X, a cigarette brand that allegedly targeted African Americans, will be pulled from stores amid protests that its packaging used images associated with Malcolm X and racial pride to lure buyers from the black community.

The cigarettes have been sold for a year on the East Coast in black, red and green boxes labeled with a large white “X.”

The boxes resemble a poster used to promote Spike Lee’s movie about slain Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, and black, red and green symbolize racial pride to many Africans and African Americans, according to organizers of a protest against the brand.

California groups led the opposition to the cigarettes, even though the cigarettes are not sold here and the manufacturer says there were no plans to do so.

“Our concern was that if the cigarettes took off they might make their way here,” Bruce Allen Jr., a professor at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, said at a news conference Wednesday at the school.

Stowebridge Brook Distributors of Charlestown, Mass., which has been marketing the brand, denied that it was aimed at black smokers but agreed to pull the brand to stem any controversy. “We never meant to offend anyone,” said company owner Christopher F. Duffy.

The removal of Menthol X cigarettes marks the second time a manufacturer has pulled a brand after objections from African Americans. In 1990, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. responded to protests by black groups and criticism from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan by withdrawing Uptown, which the company said was aimed at blacks.

With cigarette consumption falling in the United States, tobacco companies have increasingly directed their marketing at specific groups such as minorities and women.

Nearly 44% of black adults smoke, compared to 37% of whites, according to the Simmons Market Research Bureau. The incidence of lung cancer among blacks is 70 per 100,000, compared to 52 per 100,000 for whites.

Brenda Bell Caffee, coordinator of the California African American Tobacco Education Network, said her group became aware of the cigarette brand last month through a computer bulletin board for African Americans in California.

Caffee said the brand had developed a following among young African Americans in New England.

Duffy said he agreed a few weeks ago to stop selling the brand. Shipments to stores have halted but those remaining on shelves will be sold.

Duffy said the “X” on the package represented the number 10, because he had originally planned to sell the brand in packs of 10 instead of the conventional packs of 20. He said the colors used on the package had no special significance.

“The only reason we used black was that no other brand used it. Green is for menthol, and I don’t know why we chose red,” Duffy said.

Duffy would not say how much his company would lose by discontinuing the brand, but added that “it hasn’t sold that great anyway.”