The editor of popular food magazine Bon Appetit resigned after furore over a racially insensitive photo featuring him.
The photo shows Adam Rapoport dressed in a Puerto Rican costume. He is seen wearing a large, heavy chain, a do-rag and a baseball cap.
As soon as the photo surfaced on social media, it created controversy. Staffers at the magazine criticised Rapoport after the photo, of him and his wife, circulated on Twitter. In the screenshot, his wife tagged the photo “boricua,” a reference to Puerto Ricans, and called Rapoport “papi”.
In an Instagram post, Rapoport said he was stepping down as editor “to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being.” He said the photo was of an “extremely ill-conceived” Halloween costume 16 years ago. He acknowledged “blind spots” as an editor and said the magazine’s staff and readers deserved better leadership.
The issue comes at a wrong time for Conde Nast-owned magazine which has been trying to tap into the anti-racial protests, saying recently that it will be highlighting more black-owned food businesses and “tackling more of the racial and political issues at the core of the food world.”
This comes days after the Philadelphia Inquirer’s senior vice president and executive editor Stan Wischnowski stepped down. His resignation came after an uproar over the ‘Buildings Matter, Too’ headline lamenting damage to businesses amid turbulent protests over death of George Floyd. The protesters damaged buildings and other things while denouncing police brutality against people of colour.
The Inquirer had apologised for a “horribly wrong” decision to use the headline on a column last week about looting and vandalism on the margins of protests.
In its apology piece, The Inquirer that the headline “offensively riffed” on the Black Lives Matter movement. It called the error unacceptable.