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After a companywide meeting at Condé Nast about diversity on Tuesday, former employees railed against the publishing giant, with some accusing it of racism. Former staffer Shelby Ivey Christie wrote on Twitter, “My time at Vogue, at Condé Nast, was the most challenging + miserable time of my career — The bullying + testing from …
After a companywide meeting at Condé Nast about diversity on Tuesday, former employees railed against the publishing giant, with some accusing it of racism.
Former staffer Shelby Ivey Christie wrote on Twitter, “My time at Vogue, at Condé Nast, was the most challenging + miserable time of my career — The bullying + testing from white counterparts, the completely thankless work, the terrible base pay + the racism was exhausting.”
She said that on one occasion a white exec “on the digital biz team dressed up in a chicken suit, with gold chains, sagging pants + rapped” at the start of a meeting. “HR was present + laughing,” she said. “Myself + other Black employees went to HR. That man was not fired.”
Malcolm Venable, who worked at GQ as an intern, said on Twitter, “I have to say, the people there were not as snobbish, elitist, and lowkey racist as they’ve been portrayed in movies and TV. They were worse.” He said that on one of his first days at the GQ office, editors were standing in a group in a hallway and wouldn’t move out of his way so that he could pass.
He said he thought to himself, “Are they not going to move? I thought, No. That would be weird and cruel.” He added, “Country club is too soft. It’s some ‘Get Out’ s– t,” he said, referring to the 2017 Jordan Peele movie in which subtle racist slights give way to full-blown attacks.
Meanwhile, Zara Rahim, a former publicist for the media behemoth, wrote, “I got a $5k raise for my promotion to a director title and still was paid nearly $50k less than the white woman who had the job before me … And they added diversity responsibilities to my job so I should have been paid for the two jobs I was doing so take this and shove it.” She added, “I was the only woman of color in a leadership role. I’m non-black. I was told in the end I was ‘complaining too much.’ ”
On Monday, Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport resigned after stories of race-related pay discrepancies and a photo of him in brownface circulated.
