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Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigns over brownface photo

Bon Appétit’s longtime Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport resigned Monday evening after a photo surfaced that showed him in brownface. A freelance writer for the Condé Nast-owned foodie magazine on Monday unearthed and posted a 2013 photo, originally posted on Instagram by Rapoport’s wife Simone Shubuck, that shows the couple seemingly in brownface for an apparent Halloween …

Bon Appétit’s longtime Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport resigned Monday evening after a photo surfaced that showed him in brownface.

A freelance writer for the Condé Nast-owned foodie magazine on Monday unearthed and posted a 2013 photo, originally posted on Instagram by Rapoport’s wife Simone Shubuck, that shows the couple seemingly in brownface for an apparent Halloween costume.

The image, which has since been taken down from Shubuck’s account, featured the caption “me and my papi” and the hashtag “boricua,” a synonym for Puerto Rican.

Amid calls to resign by current and former employees, who took to social media, Rapoport posted on his personal Instagram late Monday.

Rapoport, who edited the magazine for nearly 10 years, said that he was stepping down to “reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appétit to get to a better place.”

He apologized for “an extremely ill-conceived Halloween costume 16 years ago” and his “blind spots as an editor,” admitting that he has “not championed an inclusive vision.”

Allegations that the Condé Nast food title discriminates against minorities on pay emerged earlier in the day.

Sohla El-Waylly, a chef and restaurateur who was hired last year as an assistant editor at Bon Appétit, alleged on Instagram that only white editors are paid to appear in videos for the BA Test Kitchen video series. She said she was hired at a salary of $50,000 to “assist white editors with significantly less experience than me.”

“I’ve been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity,” she wrote. “In reality, currently only white editors are paid for their video appearances. None of the people of color have been compensated for their appearances.”

Condé Nast has denied the claim that it only pays white editors for videos.

“As a global media company, Condé Nast is dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace,” a company spokesman said. “We have a zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination and harassment in any forms. Consistent with that, we go to great lengths to ensure that employees are paid fairly, in accordance with their roles and experience, across the entire company. We take the well-being of our employees seriously and prioritize a people-first approach to our culture.”

In another race-related issue, former Bon Appétit staff photographer Alex Lau later in the day voiced his concerns about the workplace culture engendered by Rapoport via Twitter. He wrote that he left the magazine “for multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] co-workers and I constantly pushed for.”

He continued, “when i asked ‘why have we shot food all around the world, but haven’t touched the entire continent of Africa?’, their response: ‘oh you know, the recipes get tricky, and readers probably wouldn’t want to make the food.”

The problem starts at the top of Condé Nast, which owns “Vogue,” “Vanity Fair,” “The New Yorker” and “GQ,” he said, pointing to CEO Roger Lynch and artistic director and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

He added: “this is a conde nast problem. blame roger [sic] moore, blame anna wintour, blame all of the people in conde corporate that you’ve never heard of. they are responsible for creating this culture.”

The backlash against Rapoport and Bon Appetit continued Monday when the magazine posted an article of black-owned restaurants organized by city, which the article said is “one practical, actionable way to stand in solidarity with the black community now, and always.”

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