Diversity and Inclusion at Bon Appetit

Sundry Chitchat
21

That would be a solid point if there were not two other women next to him.

22

What is your position on them hiring a woman of color as editor in chief?

I get where you guys are coming from but I am not seeing them saying that one celebrity chef hire has righted all wrongs and they are a progressive company now.

23

This is one of the few places in the world where I can express my honest feelings on this with people that can appreciate my (radical?) views, understand that I’m trying to approach this with nuance, in the thread for food issues (which I am particularly nerdy about). The comment section is just stupidity and my real life friends DGAF about youtube or food issues so HERE WE ARE. :)

Ironically the top youtube comment gets it right:

"Dear BA, since you seem to be confused

Six parts of a good apology:

  1. Expression of regret

  2. Explanation of what went wrong.

  3. Acknowledgment of responsibility.

  4. Declaration of repentance.

  5. Offer of repair.

  6. Request for forgiveness"

2 Likes
24

This is the first video they put up on the channel since. First time they are reaching out to the viewers.

The problem they had is that they showed us like 10 people on a regular basis. Some white, some not. Everyone seemed friendly and we liked all, or most, or whoever you liked and didn’t. And then it turned out the white chefs get paid a shitload more while others aren’t even getting paid for some appearances.

I don’t have an issue with hiring a black woman as editor in chief nor do i have a problem with not hiring a black woman as editor in chief. I think this video completely missed on addressing the issues they had on that channel. It also missed on the spirit of what made it successful in the first place.

25

Your frustration is understandable. As I said they couldn’t have dealt with the whole thing worse if they had tried.

I just hate the idea that when they finally do something so obviously in the right direction we trash them anyway. It’s just incentivizes them to not bother.

26

Thanks, these are good points.

27

They’re bajillionaires they’ll be fine. Don’t worry they’ll continue to try to exploit Youtube for the millions of dollars they make despite the meanies in the comment section.

Coke made the Pacific garbage patch I’m not gonna kiss their ass when they make a commercial advertising 8% less plastic in their lids.

5 Likes
28

Their incentive to bother is to start making money again.

1 Like
29

I just want to see Claire recreate BiFi Rolls:

image

1 Like
30

That looks horrific!

31


it is! So plenty room for improvement!

Come to think of it, she could collaborate with Brad on this; make some fermented Salami for the stuffing.

1 Like
32

Stonk up on these bifi rolls as they are the perfect snack for when you, inevitably, sit down to watch this:

1 Like
33

Can someone give me some cliffs on this whole BA thing? I’ve tried going down the rabbit hole and I ended up with some guy in brownface (which was done in a way that I couldn’t tell he did anything the first couple of times I saw the photo and I’m still not sure I can).

What was BA doing that was so bad? How did everyone find out?

34

They were having their editors also produce videos for their YouTube channel, some of them were paid extra for this extra work and some were kind of expected to help with the videos just because. By some insane coincidence, the people getting paid were white and the people who weren’t were BIPOC.

How did everyone find out?

One of the BIPOC folks, Sohla El-Waylly, decided the brownface picture was the last straw for BA’s editor in chief and publicly called for his resignation and for BA to pay their editors fairly
https://twitter.com/sarahmanavis/status/1270069650060083207
https://twitter.com/sarahmanavis/status/1270071642249707520

This article has some more details

And why not, here’s a bonus compilation of all the times Sohla was just minding her business in the kitchen and got dragged into someone else’s video for free:

1 Like
35

Thanks

36

They also did a really bad job of handling it all once it was public.

37

So, I’ve been reading about this a bit and it all seems pretty egregious. I did, however, find this bit funny:

There is probably some sort of backstory that I haven’t gotten to yet, but even then, this does seem like piling on.

38

halo halo is offensive to begin with

39

oh man my body is ready for when white TV chefs start getting called out for cultural appropriation for cooking ethnic food.

1 Like
40

If they cite their sources then it’s fine but if it’s some Gwenyth Paltrow nothing acting like she invented ghee charging 10x what an immigrant could charge then yes fuck them.