Adam Rapoport, the editor-in-chief of popular US food magazine Bon Appetit has announced his resignation after a 2003 photograph of him dressed in “brown face” surfaced on social media.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Rapoport said he was stepping down “to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appetit to get to a better place.”
He added: “From an extremely ill-conceived Halloween costume 16 years ago to my blind spots as an editor I’ve not championed an inclusive vision. And ultimately it’s been at the expense of Bon Appetit and its staff as well as our readers. They all deserve better.”
Bon Appetit is widely considered a standout success in legacy publishing house Conde Nast’s attempt to transform into a digital-first company, thanks to its popular YouTube channel and licensing deals.
Prior to Rapoport’s resignation, several prominent staff members spoke out against the photograph and Bon Appetit’s internal culture.
Sohla El-Waylly, a chef and assistant editor, in a series of Instagram stories said that “this is just a symptom of the systematic racism that runs rampant within Conde Nast as a whole.”
She also alleged pay disparities between Bon Appetit’s white and non-white staff, saying: “I am 35 years old and have over 15 years’ professional experience. I was hired as an assistant editor at $50k to assist mostly white editors with significantly less experience than me. I’ve been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity. In reality currently only white editors are paid for their video appearances. None of the people of color have been compensated.”
A Conde Nast representative in a statement to Variety denied El-Waylly’s assertion about pay disparities for video appearances.
Prior to his resignation, several other prominent Bon Appetit staff members, including Christina Chaey, Priya Krishna, Sarah Jampel and Molly Baz, explicitly condemned Rapaport’s actions.
Alex Lau, a former staff photographer for the title, tweeted: “Yes, I left BA for multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of color] coworkers and I constantly pushed for.”
Other staff, including Brad Leone, host of the magazine’s most popular YouTube show It’s Alive, issued a more general statement of support for the title’s BIPOC employees.
Rapoport’s resignation came a few days after James Bennet, editorial page director of the New York Times, resigned following a backlash over the publishing of an opinion piece by US Senator Tom Cotton calling for the use of military force against civilian protesters in the US.
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