Beer and Racism: How Beer Became White, Why It Matters, and the Movements to Change It

✍ Scribed by Nathaniel Chapman; David Brunsma

• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 230
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Beer in the United States has always been bound up with race, racism, and the construction of white institutions and identities. Given the very quick rise of craft beer, as well as the myopic scholarly focus on economic and historical trends in the field, there is an urgent need to take stock of the intersectional inequalities that such realities gloss over. This unique book carves a much-needed critical and interdisciplinary path to examine and understand the racial dynamics in the craft beer industry and the popular consumption of beer.

✦ Table of Contents

Front cover
Half-title
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Contents
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Series Editor Preface
1 Brewing Up Race
The whiteness of craft beer in the US
The social object of beer
The quest for answers: racism, whiteness, production, and resistance
Race and the founding of the US
Racial ideology and the boundaries of Americanity: whiteness, white space, and belonging
Production of (beer as) culture
Critical diversity and brewing
Contemporary patterns of beer and brewing: critical demographics
A note on craft
Methodologies
Overview of the book
2 Racism, Brewing, and Drinking in US History
American (beer’s) origin stories and the making of the American (beer)
From myth to reality in early America
‘Punk in drublic’: tavern culture and the foundations of the whiteness of beer
Black tavern owners? The story of Toledo, Ohio
Race, racism, white domination, temperance, and Prohibition
3 The Making of the (White) Craft Beer Industry
Post-Prohibition
Three-tier distribution and the consolidation of power
Wholesale distributors: the (white) face of the three-tier system
Pathways into the industry
4 The Paths to Becoming a Craft Brewer and Craft Beer Consumer
Getting crafty
Becoming a craft brewer in the US or following the white brick road
Homebrewing: the first (white) step
Education and interests: the credentialing and ideology of brewing
Apprentices, volunteers, and restaurant workers (Oh my!)
Becoming a craft beer consumer in the US
The social networks of craft beer
College = craft beer
Access to craft beer scenes and craft beer selections
Affordability of craft beer as a barrier: ‘It’s much cheaper than weed!’
Certain feet were made for walking
5 Exposure, Marketing, and Access: Malt Liquor and the Racialization of Taste
Industry representation
Bourdieu and Brettanomyces: cultural tastes and social location
Cultural consumption: you are what they let you drink
Malt liquor
Advertising malt liquor in the 1970s and 1980s
Hip-Hop and malt liquor
Forty ounce culture
The decline of malt liquor
Racism in marketing
Cultural appropriation
6 Gentrification and the Making of Craft Beer White Spaces
Introduction
Gentrification in three waves
Gentrification, craft beer, and tourism
Space, place, and consumption
Breweries as white spaces
7 #WeAreCraftBeer: Contemporary Movements to Change the Whiteness of Craft Beer
Introduction
How beer became white, why it matters, and the movements to change it
Increasing exposure: bringing the beer to the people
Minority-owned breweries, Fresh Fest, and creating space
New narratives, new stories, and new possibilities for craft beer
Who has the next round?
Appendix A: Respondents to the Semi-Structured Interviews
Appendix B: Interview Protocol
References
Index
Back Cover