Adam Rapoport's assistant of nearly 3 years gives an up close view of the fallen EIC — and how Bon Appétit failed its staffers of color

Among these employees was Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, the only Black woman on staff at the magazine and the assistant to Bon Apptit's editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, who resigned on Monday.
Walker-Hartshorn said Rapoport repeatedly denied requests for a raise, most recently on June 4. She said she makes $35,300 before overtime, and had not received a pay raise during her time at Bon Apptit.
"I am the only Black woman on his staff," Walker-Hartshorn said. "He treats me like the help."
A representative from Cond Nast says the company is "listening and are taking seriously the concerns raised by our Bon Apptit team members."
Interviews with Walker-Hartshorn and more than a dozen other current and former employees show the issues at Bon Apptit go beyond Rapoport. Read the full investigation here.
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On June 4, Ryan Walker-Hartshorn sat on the phone with Bon Apptit's editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport. She had worked as Rapoport's assistant for two years and nine months and had repeatedly asked for a raise.

"I thought this conversation might be different this time," Walker-Hartshorn said in a recent interview. The May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis had changed the conversation in media and at Cond Nast specifically, which owns Bon Apptit's.

Her boss, now-ousted Bon Apptit's editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport wrote that "food is inherently political," in a May 31 newsletter. Cond Nast had just donated $1 million to racial-justice organizations amid global protests. And Rapoport, who had been checking in on Walker-Hartshorn throughout the demonstrations, was aware she had been unable to pay rent for three months.

However, Rapoport again denied a pay raise for the only Black woman on the magazine's staff.

Walker-Hartshorn earns just $35,300 before overtime, and had not received a pay raise during her time at Bon Apptit. Aside from her official editorial duties, she said Rapoport had asked her to clean his golf clubs, fetched his son's passport, and taught his wife how to use Google Calendar.

During a nearly half-hour phone call with Rapoport on June 4, Walker-Hartshorn laid out her reasoning for a raise or, failing that, a two-week vacation.

Instead, Walker-Hartshorn says, Rapoport told her, "Well, maybe you should consider that this is not the right job for you."

"I am the only Black woman on his staff," Walker-Hartshorn said. "He treats me like the help."

On Monday, Rapoport announced his resignation following a furious outcry over recent allegations of racism put forth by several people who had worked with Bon Apptit.

The anger stemmed in part from a photo of Rapoport that circulated on Twitter on Monday, showing him dressed in a Halloween costume intended to be stereotypically Puerto Rican. Many called his costume "brownface," which Rapoport denies. In text messages to Business Insider, he said: "On the record: I was not wearing makeup or face coloring of any sort in that photograph." (Rapoport keeps a framed copy of this photo in a drawer of his desk, according to Walker-Hartshorn.)

A representative from Cond Nast says the company is "listening and are taking seriously the concerns raised by our Bon Apptit team members." To that effect, the representative said the company was "accelerating" its Diversity and Inclusion report, to publish this summer, and a pay-equity analysis, to publish at the end of 2020.

"As a global media company, Cond Nast is dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace," the representative wrote. "We have a zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination and harassment in all forms."

Interviews with 14 current and former employees show the issues at Bon Apptit go beyond Rapoport. These employees told Business Insider that the problem runs to the core of the institution: Bon Apptit does not provide nonwhite employees the same opportunities on the brand's video side that white employees enjoy, that it excludes nonwhite employees from social and professional groups, and that it regularly misrepresents or does not represent stories from nonwhite backgrounds.

Read the full story here.

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