Industry representation

We have seen that exposure to beer, access to jobs in the beer and restaurant industries, access to a craft beer scene, and homebrewing, all undergirded by the fundamental power of social networks, are the most common pathways to becoming a brewer and a consumer. These social structures are classed, gendered, and raced, leading to a fundamental lack of diversity. We want to look more closely at how the lack of diversity and representation in the industry has led to the systematic exclusion of black people from beer consumption. One way to do this is to focus on the use of racially targeted marketing to sell cheaper products of lesser quality to communities of color; malt liquor is a critical case. Another way is to interrogate the ways in which the contemporary craft beer industry has appropriated black culture and iconography to sell beer to white people.

The issue of representation, both socially and culturally, is of key importance in looking at the marketing of beer. According to our interview data, the issue of representation— at all levels of production, distribution, and consumption— is a major barrier in preventing black, other minority, and female participation in craft beer and its cultures. Given this reality, it is not surprising at all that most significant efforts to diversify the beer industry have mostly been led by consumers. As Patricia contends:

This lack of diversity mirrors the structure of other industries as well. A point that Tony questions, asking: