Definitions

Description text goes hereA 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:

1. Educate staff about the warning signs of alcohol abuse, Alcohol Use Disorder

(AUD), and normalize supportive language around it. 

2. Create an atmosphere where people feel safe and encouraged to express

concern for themselves or their colleagues and report any inappropriate or

harmful conduct. 

3. Safeguards against alcohol abuse that can lead to violence, sexual assault,

sexual harassment, bullying, and other forms of abusive behavior.

4. 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.scription text goes here

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.

A marginalized group is a community that experiences exclusion (social, political,

economic) and discrimination due to unequal power relationships.

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.”

 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.

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.

 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.

Ableism is discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical and

psychological disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

 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.