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[Maiden Voyage]

Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport Resigns Following Allegations of Racist Culture [Updated]

A 2013 photo of Rapoport in brownface, which resurfaced on Twitter, is one of multiple incidents of racism surrounding the food publication, sparking a wide call for his resignation

www.eater.com

Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport has resigned his position after several Bon Appetit staff members and freelance contributors publicly called for his resignation on Monday, alleging that a racist culture permeated throughout the brand.

Among the allegations from current staffers came from editor Sohla El-Waylly, who posted in her Instagram stories that she has been used in front of the camera “as a display of diversity,” but, unlike white employees, has never been compensated for on-camera appearances. In a statement to Variety, Conde Nast denied that people of color appeared in videos unpaid, but several other BA staffers replied in solidarity, some noting they would refuse to appear in any future videos until BIPOC staffers received equal pay and compensation for video work.

The callouts came after food and drinks writer Tammie Teclemariam unearthed a 2013 Instagram photo, originally posted by Rapoport’s wife Simone Shubuck, that shows the couple seemingly in brownface. The image, which has since been taken down from Shubuck’s Instagram account (but was up as of this morning) featured the caption “me and my papi” and the hashtag “boricua.”

When the photo surfaced on social media this morning, BA’s own staffers and contributors were quick to speak out publicly. “As a BA contributor, I can’t stay silent on this,” tweeted star food writer Priya Krishna. This is fucked up plain and simple. It erases the work the BIPOC on staff have long been doing, behind the scenes. I plan to do everything in my power to hold the EIC, and systems that hold up actions like this, accountable.”

BA’s research director Joseph Hernandez tweeted, “I’m likely courting internal reprimand, but I’m appalled and insulted by the EIC’s choice to embrace brownface in the photo making the rounds. I’ve spent my career celebrating Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and POC voices in food, and this feels like an erasure of that work.”

He added, “It also feels like an erasure of the hard work done by those on staff who are doing the behind-the-scenes, silent labor of educating and advocating for progressive change.”

The photo:


More in the article itself. Mostly current/former staffers speaking out against the culture there.

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Editing with the timeline of events, courtesy of u/bloodypolarbear on the BA sub-Reddit:

Pre-May 31. There are some grumblings about whitewashed recipes and lack of representation of BIPOC at BA.

May 31- In reaction to nationwide George Floyd/BLM protests Adam Rapoport writes this article, "Food Has Always Been Political"

June 2: Food writer Korsa Wilson tweets about Rapoport's article: "this is so fucking empty. I personally know Black women & women of color who were gaslit, fired and their ideas used by y'all"

June 6: Puerto Rican food columnist, Illyanna Maisonet tweets screenshots of a text conversation with Rapoport in which he tries to justify not taking her Puerto Rican recipe pitches.

June 8: Food and drink writer Tammie Teclemariam tweets "I do not know why Adam Rapoport simply doesn’t write about Puerto Rican food for Bon Apetit himself!" with a photo from his wife's instagram of the two of them in brownface as Puerto Rican gangster types. The photo was posted in 2013 and is a TBT apparently to a Halloween party 16 years ago.

And then later that day:

Sohla posts on her instagram stories calling out Rapoport's brownface and demanding his resignation. She also reveals that she only makes $50k from BA and unlike white presenters is paid nothing on top of that for her video appearances. Sohla posts this after Rapoport had called a zoom meeting to apologize to BA staff, and Sohla was disappointed with the apology and directly asked him to resign. "It just made me really angry because he just he doesn't understand what he did and the way that they continually treat the people of color on staff," El-Waylly said.

Former BA photographer posts a twitter thread about various issues of racism and poor representation he had while he worked there. Including amongst other tidbits that BA editorial didn't want to cover African food because "the recipes get tricky, and readers probably wouldn't want to make the food"

Former BA contributor and sole black person in this photo, Hawa Hassan posts her extreme displeasure with BA on her instagram story and reveals that she was paid just $400 per video for the two videos she presented for BA.

 

[oagboghi2]

Wearing a hat and necklace is brownface?

 

[Coolwhhip]

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Wearing a hat and necklace is brownface?

White people pretending to be Puerto Rican.

The caption and the hashtag are “me and my papi” and “boricua.” Do note that this is also after employees complained about the work environment at BA. There was a story published prior to the Insta photo.

 

[GymWolf]

Lol poor guy...

 

[Deleted member 17706]

"Food has always been political"

Fucking hell...

 

[Deleted member 8095]

I’m big into BA and felt the resignation was justified. Not necessarily because of the photo, which is bad but we’ve all made mistakes, but because certain people weren’t being paid for their video contributions while others were. Some of the best content creators on there are POC and they deserve equal pay.