Bon Appetit scandal: Here’s what happened

Bon Appetit’s editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport, resigned earlier this year after a 16-year-old picture of him with brownface resurfaced online and drew harsh criticism, coupled with a subsequent claim of discriminatory pay at the Conde Nast-owned U.S. food magazine by a staff editor.

The picture, clicked earlier and posted on the Instagram account of Rapoport’s wife Simone Shubuck in 2013, showed him in brownface makeup with her, according to several media reports. Shubuck’s Instagram account has since been taken private.

“From an extremely ill-conceived Halloween costume 16 years ago to my blind spots as an editor, I’ve not championed an inclusive vision,” Rapoport said in a post on Instagram.

His resignation comes as newsrooms across the United States examine their track records on diversity, inclusion and sensitivity to issues facing people of color in the midst of widespread protests across the country after the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, on May 25.

Reacting to the picture, Bon Appetit editor Sohla El-Waylly took to Instagram and called for Rapoport to step down, saying that only white editors are paid for their video appearances.

“I’ve been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity,” wrote El-Waylly, who joined Bon Appetit less than a year ago and is a regular fixture in the BA Test Kitchen video series. “None of the people of color have been compensated for their appearances.”

Conde Nast said it has a zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination and harassment. “It’s simply not true to say that any employee is not paid for their work.”

The publisher, which also owns Vogue, GQ and the New Yorker, named Amanda Shapiro, an editor for its ‘healthyish’ website, as the acting deputy editor of Bon Appetit.