Exposure, Marketing, and Access: Malt Liquor and the Racialization of Taste

Abstract

This chapter investigates how the lack of diversity and representation in the craft beer 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 interview data, the issue of representation 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.