As so many new initiatives emerge in the wine world to address diversity and equity issues one of the most important questions all of us can be asking ourselves is how do we know if we are actually solving and addressing the problems we believe we are working on.

It is very easy to imagine we are addressing a problem when we are instead doing so in ineffective ways, or worse, doing so in ways that actually increase the issue without our realizing it.

As an example, one of the things I am wondering is how increasing education opportunities in the wine industry is resolving the lack of equity we clearly have in wine.

It is possible, for example, that increasing the emphasis on formalized education is actually increasing the barrier to entry by giving underrepresented groups *more* to do before they start working at the same time it keeps us from seeing how the industry itself needs to change.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of learning but if we are trying to improve *equity* within the wine industry shouldn't the emphasis be on *job access* and *advancement opportunities* rather than on telling people they need to learn more before they can start?

This is not to say we shouldn't continue w new education-focused initiatives but instead that we need to ask what issue they are actually addressing, at the same time we ask how to better address equity itself, and start measuring more clearly if the industry is even changing