Where Wine & Equity Intersect

Part One—Introduction

This is the third version of the Wine Industry Equity and Justice Pledge. Always intended to be a living document, this iteration includes and expands on current concerns facing our industry and society surrounding equity, fairness, belonging, social and environmental justice, and the regeneration of natural ecologies. White supremacy, male dominance, and heterosexism play out in specific ways in every sector of our field, creating discrimination and bias towards multiple communities: Black, Indigenous, Brown, Asian and people of Middle Eastern heritage, women, trans, and non-binary genders and the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, migrant workers, people over 40, differently abled, and formerly incarcerated individuals.

We cannot ignore the systemic racial inequities and lack of concern for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and Pacific Islander lives - underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing police murders and violence directed towards BIPOC and AAPI. The American wine industry was built on stolen land with forced and exploited labor. This is true in other countries as well. Wine professionals throughout the world must grapple with how targeted groups and people were harmed as it grew into an international industry. We must acknowledge this history and do our part to right the past wrongs, ensure brave and safe workspaces, amplify the voices of marginalized communities, and create an equitable foundation for the future. It is the right of all who work in the wine industry to thrive and make a livelihood in an empowering environment free of discrimination, assault, bullying, and other harmful behaviors.

This Pledge is an aspirational document that will be accompanied by measures of accountability. People are human and make mistakes. There is grace along this pathway and room for everyone to learn as part of a community that will hold each other accountable. However, significant breaches may result in having your name removed from the pledge.

Why sign this Pledge?

Signing this Pledge is a first step that makes you part of a community where we will hold each other accountable safely and respectfully and contribute to and learn from one another. It shows your commitment to equity, fairness, and fighting discrimination and justice in the wine industry.

Signing the Pledge requires a one-hour review session and a request to provide accountability that lets the public know you are taking meaningful action. As you will be required to go through a review session and asked to provide accountability, the public will know you are taking meaningful action. Adding your name or that of your business will set an example for others, both in and outside the wine industry. There are many pressing issues facing our world right now, and it might seem overwhelming, but in the wine industry, you can have an impact.

We are asking everyone to read all of the sections (below) on what informed this Pledge, carefully.

Defining Shared Vocabulary

What is a workplace?

What is a workplace?

A Workplace, whether physical or virtual includes, but is not limited to an office, restaurant, wine store, wine bar, winery, wine tasting, vineyard, cellar, warehouse, distribution center, vehicles used for work, professional wine events, including seminars and tastings, paid and unpaid internships, educational trips, networking events, charity events, business luncheons and dinners, social media, and all forms of communication that involve professional matters.

What is a safe space?

A Safe Space is a balanced, healthy space where all people feel valued and respected.

Wine is different from other industries because it revolves around an alcoholic beverage that can affect people's behavior. Therefore, it is incumbent on all wine businesses to have policies that:

Educate staff about the warning signs of alcohol abuse, Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), and normalize supportive language around it.
Create an atmosphere where people feel safe and encouraged to express concern for themselves or their colleagues and report any inappropriate or harmful conduct.
Safeguards against alcohol abuse that can lead to violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying, and other forms of abusive behavior.
Mandate actions including but not limited to protecting victims and removing offenders from the workplace.

Takes into account that BlPOC, AAPI, women, LGBTQIA+, migrant workers, immigrants, and other marginalized groups are different from safety for cisgender White men. We call for the creation of brave spaces that ensure physical and emotional well-being for all.

What is a brave workplace?

A brave workplace utilizes privileges and resources to center people, not profits.

Brave spaces give workers room to express dissent without fear of retaliation.
Brave spaces give workers permission to ask and receive support and direction related to their alcohol consumption regardless of where their alcohol consumption lands on the alcohol use disorder (AUD) spectrum.
Brave workplaces are spaces where employers and co-workers dare to speak out against oppressive state-sanctioned violent forces and jurisdiction that violate the humanity of their employees, even (and especially) when their business is at stake, and where employers and co-workers alike speak truth to power and encourage such dialogue in a healthy and safe way between staff and management/employer.
A brave space protects BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, and all marginalized peoples from law enforcement, ICE, and other government disciplinary agencies and limits involvement with them.
A brave space acknowledges and gives room to its workers experiencing grief or personal and collective trauma, allowing time, paid if possible, away from work without repercussions.

What is the abuse of power?

The abuse of power occurs when offenders use their position to control, manipulate, or take advantage of someone with less power.

Prestige, elder status, institutional clout, or financial power does not grant anyone permission to be abusive.
Other examples include:

Quid pro quo - going on wine trips, dinners, invites, employment opportunities, passing exams, introduction opportunities, mentorship, and access to various other resources.
Pressuring or manipulating interns or workers into performing job tasks they are not comfortable with or physically unable to perform.

What is a marginalized group?

A marginalized group is a community that experiences exclusion (social, political, economic) and discrimination due to unequal power relationships.

What is White supremacy?

White supremacy is an ideological belief that White people, and their culture, are superior to non-White people (especially Black people) and their respective cultures. It justifies dominance and violence against non-White people/people of color. From the earliest European settlements White, Christian, heteropatriarchal mores were imposed on and continue to be imposed on marginalized groups, creating the hegemonic culture we have now. How does White supremacy affect the wine industry?

What is racism?

Racism is built on the fallacy that the minor differences (or physical uniqueness) among people across the world are a result of different races within the human race. And, when one of the manufactured “races” uses power it has derived from a majority's existence to discriminate against a minority population group labeled as a different “race.” Systemic Racism is when a group uses its power to enforce discrimination through the policies and practices of their society, lawmaking and policing, and the ability to influence cultural beliefs and values that reinforce discrimination.

Racism can be overt and covert.

Overt racism is unconcealed and observable and includes racial slurs, threats, violence, abuse, and property damage directed towards BIPOC and AAPI.
Covert racism is concealed and implicit and takes form in stereotyping, color-blind racism, tokenism, cultural and religious marginalization, racial microaggressions, and cultural appropriation.

Social Darwinism: the idea that the cause of Indigenous and non-White people dying from disease during the early stages of colonial occupation resulted from genetic superiority or evolution beyond a “dying race.”

How does racism affect the wine industry?

Hiring and promotional practices that exclude and discriminate against BIPOC.

Treating customers differently because of their perceived race.
Racial slurs made by wine professionals.
Accepting overt racism from winemakers, importers, buyers, and other industry professionals and “influencers.”
Choosing to work with, buy from, sell to, and promote only businesses owned and operated by people that look like you and/or share your way of life.
Choosing to only employ people who look like you/look like your customers/share your way of life and/or not actively seeking to hire people who do not look like you/look like your customers/share only your way of life.
Colorism, which serves to determine a person's value, especially in Blackness, but with POC across the board privileges those with a lighter complexion. Those with darker skin and non-European features are paid less, treated more harshly, are more likely to be perceived as angry or hardened, or less knowledgeable.
Tokenism, the symbolic inclusion of one or a small number of BIPOC or AAPI, is a duplicitous tactic to make businesses seem woke instead of making substantial efforts to create inclusion and diversity.
Stereotyping, essentializing, and othering that strips people of their individuality.
Racial microaggressions such as comments and assumptions that BIPOC are not in a position of management, authority, or know about wine.

Cultural appropriation such as exploiting BIPOC cultural signifiers for-profit and branding.

What is anti-Blackness?

Anti-Blackness is a core tenet of a White supremacist society, wherein Black lives are deemed less valuable than those of White people. However, they are valued as property or commodified labor.

Anti-Blackness is embedded in White supremacy due to widespread European imperialism, colonialism, the non-consensual diaspora of millions of indigenous West Africans, capitalism, and the modern prison industrial complex (aka legalized slavery).
The demonization of Blackness in opposition to Whiteness, which continues to this day.
Positing Black people as less than human, and therefore as inherently "slaveable."
Anti-Blackness is a global cultural unifier, and it is crucial to acknowledge and identify how anti-Blackness manifests in communities of color. All POC do not experience racism the same way, and some POC also perpetuate anti-Blackness due to proximity to Whiteness, complicity, or ignorance.

How does anti-Blackness affect the wine industry?

Anti-Blackness in the American wine industry goes back to its origins when White grape growers forced enslaved Black people to work in Virginia's vineyards. Denying this history perpetuates anti-Blackness.

In the wine industry, covert anti-Blackness occurs when a person questions an individual's authority, knowledge, and/or skill level simply because they're Black. Example: A guest or customer is offered assistance by a Black associate and immediately asks for the "actual" buyer, owner, or sommelier.
Many qualified individuals are passed over for top positions because they don't have the right "look," while less competent, more connected White colleagues are allowed to advance.
Black customers are assumed to be bad tippers whose palates only understand sweet wines.
Support for winemakers and/or their importers who make anti-Black statements.
Winemakers who make anti-Black statements, as well as their importers.
Delayed response by wine certifying bodies such as the CMS/WSET/Guildsomm, to make any statements about racism or Black Lives Matter.
The continual use of the term "Master" by the Court of Master Sommeliers and Master of Wine programs.

How does racism directed towards other groups impact the wine industry?

Latinx people, including citizens and non-citizens, are stereotyped as "Illegals" and criminals, creating an atmosphere of mistrust and condescension that dehumanizes workers.

Migrant and other vineyard workers, many who are Latinx and/or Indigenous, are not valued for their potential and given opportunities for advancement.
Jobs performed by Latinx and Indigenous workers such as vineyard work, kitchen work, and janitorial services often pay low wages that do not even meet the basic cost of living.
Lack of healthcare for seasonal workers, many of whom are migrant laborers and Latinx, and/or Indigenous.
Dismissing the history of colonization and the dispossession of Indigenous land for wine growing and other wine business activities.
Stereotyping of Indigenous people as alcoholics.
Stereotypes of Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans as not being able to handle alcohol.
Omitting the exploitation of and contributions made by enslaved BIPOC and Asian Immigrants in the building of California's wine industry.
Glorification of White European history in wine literature, education, production, sales, and service.

What is colonialism?

Colonialism is the subjugation of one group of people by another through political, cultural, and economic control (usually achieved through violent means - i.e., military conquest, genocide, cultural assimilation, etc.)

The idea that a hegemonic group is entitled to land, labor, and resources of marginalized groups.
European missionaries imposed Christianity and actively participated in the genocide of the Indigenous population.

How does/did colonialism affect the wine industry?

The continual occupation of Indigenous land, planting vineyards and profiting off this land.

The idea of "legal land ownership" of stolen land.
The omission of colonization and the dispossession of Indigenous land in wine literature.
European settlers and missionaries spread their agricultural systems, including wine grapes, across the globe, thus depriving Indigenous people of their claims to the land.
The Indian Indenture Act of 1850 created a system that guaranteed free labor to White winemakers.

Chinese immigrants who largely helped build California's wine industry in the latter part of the 19th century were poorly treated and paid, making 33% of the national average.

What is heteropatriarchy?

Heteropatriarchy rests on a gender binary system based on male domination. It is an internalized misogynistic belief that cisgender male dominance is natural and inevitable.

Heteropatriarchy enables all forms of racism, colonialism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of marginalization.
Heteropatriarchy is deeply woven into our society's fabric, creating overwhelming implicit bias--not only by men but also by women and non-binary individuals.

How does heteropatriarchy affect the wine industry?

Not hiring, promoting, or giving equal pay to women and LGBTQIA+ people.

Not accommodating women’s, transgender, and non-binary health issues.
Excluding women, non-binary, transgender, lesbian, gay, or bisexual identified people in professional settings.
Mansplaining, interrupting, usurping, and dismissing non-male knowledge or authority.
Using social occasions where women, non-binary, transgender, lesbian, gay, or bisexual people are not present to foster business relationships and opportunities.
Sidelining women and non-binary individuals who are perceived as too strong, smart, or independent.
Creating a culture of competition and scarcity by pitting non-male individuals against each other as they compete for limited ‘diversity’ positions on a team.
Not using correct pronouns or proper names.
Fetishizing and disrespecting people who do not present as cisgender or heterosexual.
Normalizing homo/transphobic or sexist slurs, jokes, and microaggressions in the wine workplace.
Normalizing hazing rituals/rites of passage/testing boundaries to enforce patriarchal ideals.
Violence (including but not limited to sexual assault, rape, and harassment) against women, non-binary, transgender, lesbian, gay, or bisexual individuals.
Perpetuating power structures based on historical precedents of exclusion (of anyone not cis-gendered, white, and male) including but not limited to access to equipment, education, mentoring, materials, and resources; property rights; and traditionally gendered workplace designations.
Actively or passively body shaming in work or work-adjacent environment.
Creating a culture around knowledge that is exclusionary and shaming.
Disregarding a person’s potential lack of access due to forces of heteropatriarchy.
Judging and hiring women because of their appearance (including attire), not their knowledge or experience.

What is sexual assault?

Sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the victim.

Consent is a clear and unambiguous agreement to engage in a particular activity, expressed outwardly through mutually understandable words or actions.
Consent is reciprocal and free of force.
Minors cannot give consent.
Someone incapacitated due to drugs, alcohol, or other substances use cannot give consent.
What impacts consent?

Force, which can be physical, psychological, or emotional.
Examples include but are not limited to grabbing, touching, manipulation, stalking, exposing oneself, holding someone down, using weapons, verbal threats, peer pressure, blackmail, guilt, and coercion.
Power dynamics that exist in relationships impact consent -- between employee/employer or manager, salesperson/wine purchaser, delivery person/customer, mentor/mentee, teacher or proctor/student.

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment in the workplace is prohibited by law. There are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and a hostile work environment.

Quid pro quo sexual harassment is when a term or condition of employment is contingent upon the acceptance of unwelcome sexual behavior.
A hostile work environment arises when an employee experiences unwelcome physical or verbal harassment based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or body type that is so severe or pervasive as to alter the employee's working conditions or create an abusive work situation.
Sexual harassment’s illegality is only codified under the law in employment settings but is unacceptable in any setting, including mentorship, education, and other work-adjacent and professional environments.

How do sexual harassment and assault manifest in the wine industry?

Derogatory or unwelcome comments about appearance, gender, or sexuality from owners, managers, colleagues, and customers.

Tying tasting appointments/sales to unwanted sexual behavior. Linking mentorship or education to unwanted sexual behavior.
Pressuring colleagues, especially when there is a power imbalance, to engage in unwelcome sexual behavior, normalizing this behavior to the extent that victims are unaware of any wrongdoing.
Pressuring interns and workers to take their clothes off to perform any work related activity.
Continuing to work with/employ wine industry professionals who have perpetrated sexual harassment, assault, or discrimination.
Penalizing workers who have been sexually harassed or assaulted.
Retaliation against people who make complaints about sexual harassment/assault.
Sexually taking advantage of intoxicated people; this is rape.
Using intoxication as an excuse for non-consensual sex; this is rape.

What is ageism?

Ageism is the systemic discrimination of people based on age.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects certain applicants and employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination based on age in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, terms, conditions, or employment privileges.
Ageism recognizes the generalizing assumption that performance issues are related to age and is further defined by the belief that, because a person is over 40, they have less stamina, endurance, capacity, currency, and value to contribute to our industry in all its sectors--from hospitality and retail to distribution, cellar, and vineyard.

How does ageism affect the wine industry?

Ageism significantly affects people over 50, who have a more challenging time finding employment, gaining promotion, or making lateral pivots in the job market.

Ageism is especially problematic in hospitality and retail, where there is a common belief that younger people, regardless of their qualifications, will attract more customers.

Ageism also affects younger people, especially women, who are often not taken seriously or welcomed into informal, hierarchical apprenticeships because of their perceived lack of knowledge. Younger women are often talked down to or not taken seriously.
Women of a perceived childbearing age also face discrimination in hiring and advancement because employers don’t want to provide for maternity leave.
Ageism is often an intersectional problem with BIPOC, women, transgender individuals, and people with disabilities more impacted.

Older workers and customers are made less visible in public spaces.
Not inviting people over 40 to professional/social events that generate business opportunities.
Individuals over 40 are told they are overqualified as an excuse for not wanting to hire someone older.
Ageism intersects with ableism, both centered on promoting only the youngest, most able-bodied people.

What is classism?

Classism is an institutional, cultural, and individual set of practices and beliefs that assign differential value to people according to their socioeconomic status.

It is not just oppressing people because of their lack of financial resources; it’s the assumption of value and ability based on social class.
Classism assumes class immobility and operates to protect the dominant class groups.

How does classism affect the wine industry?

Housing in major wine cities (such as the Bay Area and New York City) is costly, shutting out those who do not have the financial or social capital to live in these locals.

Certifying bodies such as the Court of Master Sommeliers, the Master of Wine Program, and the Wine and Spirits Education Trust are costly and beyond many wines professionals’ financial reach. In addition, criteria for passing are often subjective and based on classist ideals.
People who come from middle and upper-class backgrounds have greater access to capital - financial, social, and cultural - to start businesses and survive during economic downturns.
Resources, education, mentorship, and opportunities are offered to higher-paid and consumer-facing employees.
The expectations of tasting expensive wines and travel to wine regions to advance in the industry place a substantial financial burden on wine industry professionals.

What is ableism?

Ableism is discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical and psychological disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior.

How does ableism affect the wine industry?

Workspaces are not conducive to the physical needs of those with disabilities.

Assumptions made about what people cannot do that may not be true.
Disabilities are seen as disadvantages rather than the perception that those who are differently-abled have unique talents and strengths.
Wine travel is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
Wine production is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
Price books and other written material necessary for wine professionals are not available in braille or non-visual platforms.
While wine industry production and other jobs require physical work, many do not, and we urge businesses to consider ways to create employment opportunities for differently-abled people.

What is mental health?

Mental health includes one’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health and wellness incorporate various health topics relating to a person’s physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social state.

How does mental health affect the wine industry?

Mental health is often not valued as a valid health concern in the workplace. This adversely affects workers’ ability to meet their health needs.

The conditions of the wine industry -- odd hours, late nights, lack of insurance, lack of legal documentation, seasonal/temporary work, strenuous/physical labor, and proximity to alcohol -- create and exacerbate mental health issues.
Easy accessibility of alcohol and drugs, and normalization of the culture surrounding them, enables self-medication of mental health issues.

What is Alcohol Use Disorder? What is addiction?

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. This definition incorporates alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence and can range from mild, moderate and severe. (Alcohol Facts and Statistics. (2020, October). National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

How do alcoholism and addiction affect the wine industry?

Compromises personal and professional judgment. This compromised judgment can exhibit in victimization of vulnerable people.

Normalizes unhealthy/excessive consumption of alcohol.
Normalizes impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use.

Excessive consumption of alcohol in a workplace can lead to encouraging and covering up other abuses in the workplace.

What is bullying?

Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone with power intentionally causes another person injury or discomfort. It occurs in many ways, including threats, manipulation, physical, verbal, and emotional harm, using resources or power to intimidate, gossiping, lying gas lighting.

How does bullying affect the wine industry?

Marginalizing those who speak truth to power.

Workers fear speaking up when they experience or witness discrimination, mistreatment, and abuse.
Abusive social media conduct and/or retaliation based on social media content.
Financial, social, or cultural capital are used to pressure people into not challenging those in power, discourage people from speaking up, or manipulate others for their own purposes.
Causing and perpetuating mental health issues, including but not limited to feelings of isolation, depression, anxiety, alcohol/drug abuse, and suicide.

What is intersectional oppression?

It's not uncommon for people to hold more than one marginalized identity. As humans, we are continually navigating the (often) uncomfortable challenges of those overlapping experiences. Intersectional oppression occurs when different axes of oppression merge, such as race and gender, age and gender, and incarceration history, and race. We commonly see discrimination based on:

Race (furthermore, colorism within race)
Gender (extends to gender presentation/transphobia)
Sexual Orientation
Age
Ability
Beauty
Socioeconomic Status/Class
Immigration Status
Ethnicity
Religion
Culture
Incarceration History
Educational Background
Work History
Body shaming
Neurotypicity & Mental Health

How does intersectional oppression/privilege affect the wine industry?

Urban displacement in major wine centers such as the Bay Area and New York City creates a less diverse workforce as it impacts lower-income people, especially BIPOC.

Women over 40 have a more difficult time finding employment and job advancement.
Lesbians are dismissed and excluded by heterosexual, cisgender men.
Young, White people are hired for positions without having as much experience or competency as other job candidates.

Acknowledging the intersectional systemic and cultural barriers that have contributed to an individual's ongoing oppression is critical; if we're unable to recognize our peers' layered identities, we'll never be able to do the necessary work to fully support them.

What is equity?

Equity is providing the resources marginalized people need to survive and succeed.

Equity is giving workers a say in business operations and a stake in profits.
Equity is fairness in treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people while dismantling the obstacles that have stopped marginalized groups from participating fully.
Equity is recognizing that an individual may need different accommodations to maintain fairness and access.

What is environmental justice?

Environmental Justice is the right of all people and communities to equal protection, a healthy work environment, and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. It recognizes that, due to racism and class discrimination, communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and Indigenous nations communities are the most likely to be disproportionately harmed by toxic chemicals, exposures, economic injustices, and negative land uses, and the least likely to benefit from efforts to improve the environment.

Environmental racism is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on lower-income people and people of color.
Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of the earth, ecological unity, the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from environmental contamination and destruction. It is the movement's response to environmental racism.

Creating and supporting industry workplaces that perpetuate health and eradicate the flow of air, land, and water toxicities to communities downstream, into crop and tap, from animal bodies to human bodies, is crucial.

How does environmental justice impact the wine industry?

The application of common synthetic and systemic chemicals (like the glyphosate in Roundup) harm vineyard workers and downstream communities, often disproportionately Latinx and BIPOC. Those ubiquitous challenges to health outcomes and life expectancy, combined with the public health danger of traceable quantities of systemic herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, are ending up in the customer’s wine glass.
Monoculture, which drains watersheds and boosts fire threats across millions of acres of land under vine, is widely acknowledged to be destructive to healthy ecosystem function.
Acknowledging alcohol’s use as an ongoing tool of genocide and oppression against Indigenous Peoples and that it remains an active challenge in many Indigenous communities is key to our industry’s social address of environmental justice.
Gentrification of encroaching vineyards and wineries deprives local populations of a safe environment and robust watershed, building tension and legal disputes.
Waste and pollution from retail and on-premise businesses can disproportionately
affect lower income and BIPOC neighborhoods in urban areas, perpetuating tension.
Water use at the expense of marginalized communities coupled with wine industry-lobbied agricultural legislation renders limited recourse to such inequities.
Engagement of Ecological Farming that sequesters carbon and reducing the wine industry’s carbon and water footprints are significant steps with multiple benefits to environmental justice.

Create Equity in Wine as an Individual

Create Equity in Wine as a Business