Priya Krishna, Rick Martinez, Molly Baz, and Sohla El-Waylly all announced that they would no longer appear in Bon Appétit videos due to unfair contract negotiations.
What we know:
- Bon Appétit (BA) faced a public reckoning back in June when former editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigned after an old photo of him in brownface surfaced. Almost immediately after, current and former BA employees came forward with stories exposing the publication and their parent company Condé Nast Entertainment (CNE) for racism and discrimination. Most notably, assistant food editor Sohla El-Waylly revealed that non-white were not compensated for video appearances while their white counterparts were.
- Following the social media storm in June, several members of the BA Test Kitchen refused to make video appearances until the issues of racial inequity were addressed. Nearly two months later, the BA YouTube channel has not released a video since this all started. On Thursday morning, Priya Krishna, Rick Martinez, and Sohla El-Waylly announced that they will be leaving BA’s YouTube channel for good. Molly Baz followed on Friday morning, announcing that she will also no longer appear on the channel.
— Molly Baz (@mollybaz) August 7, 2020
- They made their announcements via Twitter and Instagram. Krishna and Martinez revealed that weeks of contract negotiations with CNE amounted to nothing. Martinez said it was clear CNE would not agree to fairly compensating non-white contributors and Krishna even said her new contract “would potentially allow for me to make even less than I do currently.” According to Business Insider’s Rachel Premack, the proposed contracts would result in a pay cut for Martinez and a slight increase for Krishna. They were also guaranteed 10 video appearances a year while some of their white colleagues were guaranteed up to 60.
Martinez said that he is “severing his relationship with the company,” and Krishna, El-Waylly, and Baz will continue contributing to the BA magazine. According to Baz, the magazine is operated entirely separate from CNE.
