At last week’s Craft Beer Conference, the Brewers Association announced it had launched a diversity initiative. It’s not clear what triggered the initiative – apparently there’s just been a growing sense that the craft beer industry had gotten to the point where it needed to consider diversity – nor what objectives should be.
Diversity is usually thought of as simply a racial issue: Does a company have enough African-American workers. But it’s much more than that. It’s really about culture, part of the course I teach on interpersonal communications (how to win friends and influence people) at Prince George’s Community College. Culture makes it really tricky.
So let’s see if we can unpack this just a bit, and, perhaps, help BA as it moves forward.
Certainly in terms of proprietors and other leaders, it could be argued that the craft brew industry isn’t very diverse. At least that would be the perception of anyone who attended the Craft Beer Conference. I don’t recall seeing anyone “of color” at the meeting. It’s possible I missed them, of course, because there were more than 13,300 people attending.
But I think the issue is much, much broader that simply one of color. At the bottom, it’s about appealing to your market. No one wants to miss out on sales.
But culture is tricky. Here’s an example: People in Asian countries, many African countries and some South American countries tend to be collectivistic: The group is more important than the individual. So, if, for example, you are trying to encourage them to promote entrepreneurship, you won’t get far by saying it can help the individual reach his full potential. That argument is successful in North America, Europe and some other areas where a European-derived culture (think Australia, for instance) is dominant.
But appealing to those in collectivistic countries to encourage entrepreneurship would focus on how it can lift the group or the nation as a whole. Hillary Clinton’s book, It Takes a Village, reflected this mindset.
Back to beer. In an area in which the population is, say, 94% white, of European ancestry, it may not make a whole lot of difference whether a brewpub has a black waiter or a black brewer on its staff. On the other hand, it would be very significant in an area that was, say, 40% black (or only 40% white).
In a nutshell: Brewers should not make the mistake newspapers have made. If your community has a significant minority element, it’s a good idea to have minority staff members, probably in proportion to census figures in your market. An all-white staff sends a loud and clear message to blacks or Asians . . . just as an all-black brewpub staff (or, for that matter, an all-Gay or all-Lesbian staff) sends a loud and clear message: If you’re one of us, you’re welcome. Otherwise, go elsewhere.
BA isn’t really sure what it’s trying to accomplish. It will spend the next year gathering data about diversity, both among craft brew proprietors and among staff.
BA’s initiative will focus on the U.S. market. The 5,000 U.S. craft breweries produce 12.3% of all beer sold in the U.S. BA has said it wants to see craft reach 20% share. How to do that?
One way, we’ve suggested, is simply to make sure your staff reflects the ethnic composition of your potential market – those within a five- or 10-mile radius from your establishment.
That also applies, we think, to the beers being brewed. It may be that European-ancestry Americans like India Pale Ales. But in Rwanda, a beer made from fermented banana juice and sorghum is popular, in Zimbabwe, a beer made from malt, maize, hops and water is popular and in Nigeria, a popular beer is made with sorghum and maize.
In many areas, ethnic restaurants have taken off and are enjoyed not only by those of Indian, or Vietnamese, of Chinese, etc., heritage, but also by those from the broader community.
We think this represents a great opportunity for the craft beer movement. It would make perfect sense for a brewer in an area with, say, a significant Nigerian population, to create a brew based on sorghum and maize – and to make a point of making that known to its local community.
Forty years ago we would not have made such a suggestion. But Americans overall have shown their willingness to be more adventuresome in their eating. If you’re adventuresome in eating, you’ll probably be adventuresome in drinking, too.
It also would make sense to us to see BA work to help African-American, Hispanic, Congolese, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc., entrepreneurs establish craft breweries in their communities in the U.S.
And to export the craft brew movement to areas currently dominated by the Big Three global brewers.
The culture question gets trickier if one is running a brewpub. What’s acceptable in one culture is not acceptable in another. Studies in the U.S., for instance, have found waitstaff gets higher tips when a server puts a hand on a customer’s shoulder. That’s not necessarily the case in other cultures. And even in the U.S. that itself, is tricky: Some customers might think a server is “coming on” to them.
We may tackle that topic – how to train servers to deal with a diverse customer base – in another article.