Bon Appétit Editor Adam Rapoport Resigns Over Brownface Scandal
Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport is leaving the publication in a scandal. The editor is facing pressure from readers and people of color after a photo of him in brownface to be Puerto Rican for Halloween resurfaced.
An old social media post is haunting Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport.
Rapoport was part of what appears to be a couples costume of a Puerto Rican couple. The editor wore makeup to make his skin darker in the photo that has been circulating on social media. The addition of the pencil-thin goatee and necklace are attempting to highlight a stereotypical dress in the Puerto Rican community.
After the photo went viral, editors from Bon Appétit’s test kitchen came out against Rapoport’s behavior.
According to various people at Bon Appétit, creators of color were making significantly less than their white counterparts. Sohla El-Waylly is one of the editors who appears in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen YouTube videos and claims that only white editors were paid for those videos.
“I’ve been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity,” she wrote in her Instagram stories. “None of the people of color were compensated.”
El-Waylly, one of the most beloved Test Kitchen personalities, is also being paid a very small salary, everything considered.
New York City is notorious for being an expensive city to live in. According to Glassdoor, the average base-pay salary for an assistant video editor in New York City is more than $59,000. Fans are angered to know that El-Waylly was paid so little considering all of the work she did for Bon Appétit.
Since El-Waylly came forward with her accusations, others have followed suit.
Editors and readers of the magazine launched a social media campaign to highlight the racial disparities in Bon Appétit. There are accusations that some creators of color were paid $400 per video while white counterparts made considerably more money.
In the case of El-Waylly, the assistant editor was often on camera on her own as well as guiding less experienced white colleagues through their videos. Readers of the magazine are demanding fair compensation for El-Waylly and editors are demanding fair titles for their work.
Rapoport posted an apology on Instagram.
In the apology, Rapoport acknowledged his blind spots in hiring and paying the creators of color. However, people are not feeling pity for the editor. Comments on the post are calling on Bon Appétit to take Rapoport’s salary and use it to pay the creators of color.
Rapoport also apologized for the brownface costume acknowledging that he has not been fighting for an inclusive environment. The power of social media is being hailed as the driving force for Paraport’s resignation from the magazine within hours of extreme pressure from editors and readers.
