RESOURCES

Although our community comes together through a shared interest in wine, InWine was built on the foundation of challenging societal standards. The wine industry, as well as spaces to critique, learn and share, have been and continue to be dominated by cisgendered, often heterosexual, white men. InWine aims to create a safe space away from that norm. We support all efforts to dismantle systems of power and bring justice to historically marginalized communities and people. Here are some things we’re thinking about right now.

Racial Justice

Reading Lists

Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers
Since Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012, we have seen a renewed investment from white people in our community who want tools to help gain a foothold in their struggles to understand the ways that racism and white supremacy opperate in their minds, their families, and the larger world. The most recent police killings have renewed the urgency of the struggle in the minds of many white people and we are getting lots of calls and requests for help. This list is designed to meet a broad variety of reader's needs and experiences.

Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List
Check out this reading list from Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective’s Instagram Live event, “Sisters and Siblings in the Struggle: COVID-19 + Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities.

Videos + Podcasts

Intersectional Organizations

They/Them Collective
Anarcho abolitionist collective house based in occupied Piscataway land here for queer, enby, trans, black, brown, and indigenous liberation.

Warriors In The Garden
An NYC collective of non-violent activists dedicated to protecting our community from all forms of systemic oppression

Black Lives Matter – Richmond

SONG – Southerners on New Ground
SONG envisions a sustainable South that embodies the best of its freedom traditions and works towards the transformation of our economic, social, spiritual, and political relationships. We envision a multi-issue southern justice movement that unites us across class, age, race, ability, gender, immigration status, and sexuality; a movement in which LGBTQ people – poor and working class, immigrant, people of color, rural – take our rightful place as leaders shaping our region’s legacy and future. We are committed to restoring a way of being that recognizes our collective humanity and dependence on the Earth.

Richmond For All
Richmond For All is a coalition of individuals and organizations fighting for housing, education, environmental, & racial justice. Y'all means all! Our members are an inspiring body of over 500 organizers, families, workers, advocates, students, and residents fighting to ensure grassroots power citywide. Collectively we organize in defense of public resources, in support of transformed democratic process, and for people-first representation in municipal elections. We strive to be unbought and unbossed.

RTAP – Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project
We build safer, healthier communities by disrupting mass incarceration at its source: police policies and procedures.

Justice RVA
Justice RVA is a multi-cultural group based in RVA towards collective liberation, w/ a focus on ending institutionalized oppression thru intersectionality.

Richmond Community Resources

MAD RVA – Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Fund Richmond
We are a solidarity network of community members and organizations working together in Richmond, Virginia to help each other. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Richmond, or MAD RVA, aims to create a support system in response to COVID-19 and the effects it has had on Richmonders, including supply shortage, job losses and quarantine. We operate collectively and are primarily functioning as a supply delivery for folks who cannot access medicine, food and other vital goods. We have also just launched a mini-grants program and are developing other supports, forming partnerships across community and demanding policy shifts towards equity and social justice while navigating the undetermined timeline of effects on our community.

Richmond Community Bailout Fund
The Richmond Community Bail Fund exists to post bail for everyone in Central Virginia who needs it in order to help them avoid the many immediate and collateral consequences of incarceration. We work toward the abolition of not just cash bail, but pretrial detention and supervision as well.

Richmond Community Fridges
Free food community fridges and pantries open 24/7.

Wine Industry

Issues + Causes

The Court of Master Sommeliers Has a Sexual Harassment Problem | New York Times
”Master sommelier is the most prestigious title in American wine, and those who earn it instantly join the ranks of the highest-paid and most influential members of the profession. Only 155 people have achieved the honor since the 1997 founding of the Americas chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers, the examining body that confers the title on those who survive its grueling, yearslong qualification process. Of those, 131 are men.”

As We Celebrate Juneteenth, a Reflection on the Wine Industry’s Progress and the Work Ahead | VinePair
”On June 2, 2020, countless companies and individuals posted images of black squares on their Instagram accounts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. And the wine industry was no exception, with prominent wineries like Gallo, Gary Farrell, Domaine Roy, and more participating in this movement. One year later, the question is: Have things changed at these companies since then?

A Look at LBGTQIA+ Issues in Wine, and How the Industry Can Solve Them | VinePair
”LGBTQIA+ members of the wine world say the industry still has a long way to go to be more welcoming and inclusive. ‘As long as we have to talk about this, we know there is work to be done.’”

Opportunities

The Veraison Project
Working to create a more equitable wine industry through greater access to wine education, wine certifications, mentoring, and networking for BIPOC.

Oenoverse
Oenoverse [ee-nuh-verse] is an initiative dedicated to building diversity, inclusion, equity, and ownership, within the Virginia wine community. The goal of Oenoverse is to significantly contribute to creating a more inclusive Virginia wine industry through focused outreach efforts that educate and include people from historically excluded and underrepresented communities

The Major Taylor Fellowship
The annual Major Taylor Fellowship, from Domestique Wine in Washington, D.C., is designed to give a person of color a boost toward the top of the wine world. A three-week, stipend-based apprenticeship, the Major Taylor Fellowship will give this year’s recipient the opportunity to spend thirty hours a week at Domestique, learning the ins and outs of wine retail operations. Includes a $3,000 stipend, in addition to covering housing costs.