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THREAD: The Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling (MJF) is now open for donations and more. The MJF will fund scholarship awards for people of color within the brewing and distilling industries or those who wish to join our industries.
Thanks to all of you for the huge outpouring of interest, well-wishes and offers of help and support. It is now time for us all to step up. Donation link is at http://WWW.TheMJF.Org . So let’s do this.
I have a confession to make. And it is a “confession”, because until now I saw a clear problem and took no concrete action to fix it:
In 31 years of professional brewing, , I have not had one single Black person apply for a job in the brewing departments I have run. Not one.
In 31 years of professional brewing, , I have not had one single Black person apply for a job in the brewing departments I have run. Not one.
I have had only a few American BIPOC applicants altogether, ever. We have been proud to hang the flags of 12 nations in our brewing hall, representing the home countries of our diverse brewing/packaging team. I have sent wonderful people from other nations to brewing school.
And yet, no American people of color.
Why? A very good and very complex question. One we cannot answer here. Suffice to say that it has been estimated that 0.6% of people working in American craft beer production are black; if we look at all BIPOC, the number remains tiny.
Why? A very good and very complex question. One we cannot answer here. Suffice to say that it has been estimated that 0.6% of people working in American craft beer production are black; if we look at all BIPOC, the number remains tiny.
And large international breweries may do a little better still. But brewing and distilling, the great grain-based beverage traditions, do not look anything like America. This is a thing within our power to change. Please help us make the change we all want to see.
If we are striving for diversity and inclusion, why is our namesake an Englishman, then? That is a fair question. Michael James Jackson (1942 - 2007) was the world’s greatest beer and whisky writer. His books have sold more than 3 million copies in 18 languages.
His work essentially launched the American craft beer movement. And his work and writings laid the structural foundations for much of the craft beer world and modern whisky scholarship. In his early career, Michael Jackson edited publications that championed civil rights.
Later, Michael personally championed me; I did not get here all by myself. When people questioned my credentials, Michael personally stood them all down. Michael was not a person of color, and he was English, but he was also actively and profoundly anti-racist.
And we have “new” champions too. Under the MJF, the brewing scholarship is the Sir Geoff Palmer Scholarship Award for Brewing. Sir Geoff, 80, born in Jamaica, is a Professor Emeritus of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. In 1989 he became the first black professor in Scotland.
In 1998 the American Society of Brewing Chemists honored him with the Award of Distinction, considered the “Nobel Prize of Brewing”. Sir Geoff is also one of the most prominent civil rights author/activists in the UK. We are proud to have this brewing superstar with us.
Other champions went before us. The Nathan Green Scholarship Award for Distilling is named for Nathan “Nearest” Green (1820 - 1890?), born enslaved, who taught Jack Daniels how to make Tennessee whiskey. Today he is properly credited as Jack Daniels’ first master distiller.
The MJF and its seed funding grows out of the original Michael Jackson Fund scholarship program under the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF). As AIWF wraps up, we will continue its legacy and we thank them. We also thank The Partridge Invitational Scholarship Foundation.
This is a tough time financially for almost all brewers and distillers. But this work needs to start, and I hope my fellow brewers, our friends in the distilling industry, and our education leaders will join in this effort. Our website is now open at http://www.themjf.org .
Brewing and distilling are, in the end, all about togetherness. We could all use a lot more togetherness right now, that’s for sure. But we cannot have togetherness without inclusion and balance. Black people invented brewing. Brown people invented distilling. We all belong here.
When brewing and distilling finally look like America itself, we will all wonder what took us so long, and we’ll all be a lot happier and prouder about “this thing of ours”. Let’s go and become the people we think we see in the mirror. http://www.themjf.org
