Let's Talk About Bon Appetit | Real Lawyer Explains Workplace Discrimination & Title VII
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- In which I am a LITTLE mean to Alex Delany. Hi everyone, we need to talk about Bon Appetit. The food mag just started releasing RUclips videos again after a four month hiatus, but have they really solved the racial inequities that led to the departure of crowd favorites like Sohla El-Waylly, Priya Krishna, and Rick Martinez, along with Claire Saffitz and many others who quit in solidarity? How do you even bring a claim if you've been wronged at work? Turns out it's even harder than it seems.
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I mean how many times did the other cooks interrupt Sohla to ask for help? Nobody could temper chocolate without her, and the drinks guy got $26k more than her. WTF.
Nobody could temper chocolate without her!!!!!! Truly unreal
THIS! Whoever they had in the video would always go to Sohla to ask for her input and she'd always offer insight and pushed the other cook to be more innovative, to think at the height of their intelligence, to the point BA had to feature her. And still they didn't compensate for this. UGH!
@@sbarron20 To play devil's advocate, yes they are chefs, but they are also actors (in the loosest of sense). Sohla was never one of the main stars so should she be compensated the same as someone who was a main star? Not saying there is an absolute answer to this but think there is more nuance in this situation than the internet initially opposed (also Adam Rappoport is obv trash so yeah...)
@@deathfire12 How was she "never one of the main stars"? By the time the pandemic hit, she was in just as many, if not more, videos as everyone else in the core group. If you mean she didn't have her own "show"...well that's about the opportunities that she was given, not about her talent.
@@amazingdanna Lots of people were watching for Sohla. That was the charm of the group, everyone had a couple of their own favorites. I couldn't stand Brad and wasn't a fan of Molly either (she's a good person but I didn't think she was particularly talented) so I never understood why they were being pushed so hard.
There's no going back. The magic is gone. Conde Nast refused to budge on paying staff what their worth was and then to add insult to injury, they simply hired different BIPOC. Nothing to see here, it's all shiny and new!
Ugh i think you’re right
It’s so strange! I feel like I should be happy about the new BIPOC chefs and diverse recipes, but something about it feels so off.
One of the original comments on the video said it best: going back feels like there's a dead body on the floor and no one is addressing it.
That’s so disgusting! Literally proving how horrible they were in the first place!
@@TheJoker718 right?!
Especially disgusting how they immediately hired Black culinary artists, setting them up for failure with all this blowout.
Glass cliff
The best defense against workplace discrimination is a strong union. Solidarity forever.
Absolutely
Amen!
@Tamsin Blue even a bad union is better than no union. And the dues aren’t that much, especially considering union workers get paid more and have better benefits than their non-union counterparts.
+
The way people like Sohla were portrayed in those videos, made me think they were just assistants (assistants should still be paid for appearing in videos btw). I didn’t know she had over a decade of experience working in restaurants as she was treated as an assistant. Once I learned how much experience she had vs how she was paid/portrayed, I was horrified.
Now you see her in videos and the amount of insight into different techniques as well as casual dropping interesting facts and useful tips and you’d wonder what BA was smoking but oh it was racism. They were snorting straight racism. Their loss, our gain.
I always wondered why she seemed so uncomfortable and awkward in videos
@@nayOnm620 she was probably thinking “oh god, I gotta teach one of these folk how to temper chocolate again for the millionth time.”
Exactly. I learned this. And when you consider how they continued to treat her, Rick, and Priya, it’s even more disgusting
BA were like my 2nd family during lockdown. This stung like your parents divorcing or finding out your Uncle Adam is a secret racist 🤷🏻♂️
I've always been creeped out by Adam especially the videos where he's cooking with Molly. People kept saying they were like bickering siblings or an old married couple or whatnot, but I just found him condescending to Molly always bringing up how she never went to culinary school and always trying to show her up with his "superior" cooking skills like he was teaching her anything she probably didn't already know from her first hand experiences in the multitude of kitchens shes worked at in the past, he's always pissed me off!
@@gablison I was thinking of this as soon as this stuff came out, adam was always on this elitist high horse about culinary school as if there aren't plenty of totally mediocre chefs who went to culinary school, and a ton of amazing chefs with less access to that formal education. He always reeked but I kinda just thought he was the bad egg
The thing that was so awful about BA's videos is that people would constantly ask Sohla for help when they got stuck. If you watched any videos, you KNEW she was contributing a lot in that kitchen. And of course, the person who was helping everyone else on top of her own work? She's the one who got a shitty salary.
I feel sorry for Gaby, I would love to hear her voice, I feel she was left out and she was a victim there. Maybe we would never know what happened in that place.
Yes!! I wish I had been able to find more info about what happened with her, she’s great
She has a channel! Claire too.
Just look up Gaby's name.
I just commented on another persons video about her. She was so genuine and sweet...I miss her😌
@@Liya_Marie Gaby has a channel now, search for it, "Gaby Melian" and you'll find it.
@@LeejaMiller she has her own channel!! so does claire and sohla!!
Okay but, literally a video of Lizzo making a pancake could buy a car in ad revenue
I mean she did single-handedly blow up the nature's cereal trend. BA missed out, and she dodged a bullet
I'm soo done with BA. They're still messing up. Your insights is really interesting. Thanks for sharing them
Oh, I never, ever had the impression things were "good and pure" at Bon Appetit, and was not surprised when things blew up in the way they did. I've worked at media companies my entire career, and the red flags were there. Particularly whenever Adam Rapoport, or the other upper management, would insist on interjecting themselves into the video content, and things, despite the best efforts of everybody involved, would get really awkward. It raised the question about what other swarmy, coercive behavior was going on, that had more to do with enforcing power structures at the company, than the creation of superior content.
I commented on several videos that included Adam, when they came out initially, that he had such uncomfortable(toxic) energy. The room totally changed when he’d enter. Unsurprisingly, Molly, the pretty white blond woman, was the only one who could give him some “sass” & kinda keep him in check. Needless to say, I couldn’t have been less surprised to find out what a problem he really was. I didn’t expect that they had such disparities in pay/treatment for their BIPOC employees. Very disappointing, I unsubscribed & haven’t looked back
When I first watched the adam-molly videos, i was turned off with molly's attitude. But after hell was raised last year, it totally makes sense now. Some people pointed out that she may have been using her white woman privelege to push back and give adam sas to put him on check.
@@yongski195 Yeah that was my thing, I watched only like two videos of the two of them cooking together and I didn't like Molly's attitude toward him, but I didn't like his attitude toward most things in general. So after the first two videos I saw (the first one I was already turned off, the second I gave them a chance and gave up) I stopped watching videos of them together but then saw Molly being alright with everyone else so I had my suspicions of Rappo. Even slight things with him demanding a core in Claire's Ben & Jerries. He didn't just act superior to BIPOC, it seemed like he was like that to everyone. Then when I read his assistant's post I was like, "I'm not exactly surprised, but I definitely feel worse about you dude."
It was also just baffling because he clearly had no food experience..... it made no sense he would randomly appear in recipe videos, and the other chefs would humor his low quality ideas. And then there was the panel discussion where he mixed up Priya and Sohla's names..... yeah it was pretty clear in advance of this mess that Adam was a problem
Rapo gave off such elitist, toxic vibes every time he was onscreen, so I loved watching Molly roast him.
something that especially bothered me was that chris was one of the people called out by sohla, he's part of the system that caused that discrimination, and they didn't even address it when they started making videos again
Wait what was the issue with Chris?
quote from sohla's interview:
"And Chris Morocco [the director of the Test Kitchen] directly told me he didn’t like how quickly I moved up, so he wanted to make sure this person would never be allowed to develop recipes.” As she puts it, management didn’t want another “Sohla problem.”
@@eumrtn9056 YIKES. Do you have a link perhaps?
@@vl2809 look up sohla chris vulture and it should come up. it's an interview with vulture. I'm not going to link it bc there are some filters that delete comments with links to remove bots
I watched his meatball video after BA started posting again and it was horrible. The whole thing was like he wanted to bring it up and any time he would just stop talking entirely
As someone who out of the BA cast liked Chris and Brad's videos the most, learning about the whole showdown and then their resulting standpoints hurt like hell. Haven't watched a single BA video since learning of the whole thing last year and I kind of regret liking their videos in the first place. BA was like a huge positive thing for me during beginning of quarantine and even before that when I was struggling through my first year of college, and knowing the information we know now kind of makes everything about it ugly if that makes sense.
A lot of EVERYONE mentioned stopped appearing in video, but still would provide work for the magazine. The food journalism industry is just difficult, and I’m guessing they were not in a position to burn too many bridges. I am unsubbed from BA now. And thank you for talking about this! If white people did not talk about these issues as well, it would be for people of color only to discuss these issues. That would be a truly terrible burden, and would basically fall on deaf ears over and over again.
I’ve loved seeing Sohla on Binging with Babish’s channel! Also watching Sohla on BA I would have thought she made 100k minimum salary cause she was in SO many videos
It went a long way to show what a classy guy Andrew is…also Shola got the last laugh doing videos for History Channel.
BA's downfall is so disappointing. it'll take a very very long time for them to get trust back. I feel like now there's space for other culinary creatives to fill that space left by them because I am certainly not coming back to see them anytime soon.
Totally understandable, and agreed
@@LeejaMiller I like food52 they're working with sohla and Rick.
i suggest cooking with alex! he's a solo cook, but a wonderfully eccentric french man who deep dives into cultures, techniques, and food sciences!
@@haldouglas4773 I second Alex he's fantastic also I cannot recommend Refika's Kitchen enough. She's Turkish and I've made 3 of her recipe s and they're fabulous
Trust should never even enter the equation where for profit enterprises are involved, especially large corporations. Trust is for interpersonal relationships, not commercial exchanges.
Holy shit. How am I only just now hearing about this a year after it happened? I am horrified!
It's been months since this video came out, and even longer since I kept up to date with the kitchen channel that captured the internet.
But by the time all of this was coming out, Claire had already technically left BA. She was already branching out, had a cookbook on the way, and either her contract ended or she quit, but technically she wasn't on the books as an employee anymore. She was a freelancer for like 5-10 videos of her series before this broke out. Which was unfortunate, because she no longer had any real bargaining power that Carla or Brad had as the stars of popular shows. I believe all she could do at the time was withhold footage that she hadn't sent off yet.
I can’t really blame Chris and Brad for staying. They had families that they needed to support. And sure Carla is kinda in the same boat but she was also in the process of making a cook book at the time. So she definitely had income that would help her support her family.
How are you not getting more views? Love your stuff already, happy BussyQueen helped me find you.
SAME & you're in my state 🤯 you're the bomb
BussyQueen. I'm dead.
Same! Thanks for discussing law for the every day fan!
Lmao same here. Her Bussy Queen video was what brought me here and I’m glued…
SAMEEE
remember when i think it was Carla asked delany to make a drink for her project and he made a shandy ... beer and lemonade wooow good job delany
Hahaaaa
When I saw the BA relaunch video in October, I felt the exact same way that these three people are being paraded around as tokens of diversity. What was legally prudent for the company and what was the right thing to do were two vastly different responses. There needed to be an apology. RUclips is a social media platform where everything comes down to appearances. I liked Brad Leone's shows and his energy. I can understand that he stayed with BA because he has two small kids to support. But I can't bring myself to watch his new content because there has not been some form of mea culpa from the company.
People somehow blamed Carla? And canceled HER?! just found her RUclips channel where she just did a cooking vid with Sohla, so I'm going with bullshit there!
There were a couple of credible ex-employees of BA who were BIPOC, and said that Carla made an uncomfortable work environment for them. She would post rules when she was the kitchen manger like "these people arent allowed in the test kitchen because they're disruptive" when all the people listed were people of color. It was discussed on the sporkful podcast.
@@Leafeon56 Weird!
@@Leafeon56 the rule was specifically for filming and it was employees that didn't need to be in the kitchen as they were mainly editors not personalities/chefs
@@mikiwilliams4133 the people affected by it were people of color, and if it makes a group uncomfortable, regardless of intent, maybe you should reevaluate. Theres also the question of, she was fine with people hanging out in the kitchen before, so what changed. The BIPOC felt she never care about people in the kitchen until it was BIPOC. And regardless, there are always random people in the background of numerous videos. So why did Carla choose to make that rule.
@@Leafeon56 Sounds like they were loud and disruptive and had bad chemistry with Carla. I'm sure there were other BIPOC whose names weren't on that list.
No one was watching BA for Delaney at all....he gives major “couldn’t get into Harvard or Princeton so I had to thug it out at Trinity in Connecticut”
And I don’t hate Brad for leaving he has kids and might’ve been self conscious about working for himself and trying to do a RUclips
Delaney ate everything on the menu of a place and got views. And even then, we watched those videos for the people he brought on like Claire and Rick. He was just...the frat boy.
And I agree, I can't hate Brad when he has two young kids not even in school/barely starting school now. He has to think of his family before himself for the time being.
@Joshima M yeah one of the poc chefs that left went on a podcast and said "and then there are people like brad who didn't even know racism existed anymore until like last week"
@@jolp9799 can you name the podcast and episode? I would love to check it out!
@@blackroseinbloom i came to BA because delaney's show 'Alex eats it all'. That show was so good, i ended up subsriceb for BA for just watched it.
Regarding the difficulty of proving severe or pervasive harm, I filed a title IX claim against a professor during the pandemic. The investigator told me it was unlikely to go anywhere and that a year before my claim, another student was assaulted *in class*, filed a claim, and received the holding that what happened to her didn't rise to the level of severe or pervasive. The investigator later cleared my professor of any wrongdoing in my case.
Absolutely shocking!!
I always assumed that the pay they received was correlated to the position they held in the magazine/seniority and had little to do with the videos.
(Which is a mistake since imo they at least deserved bonuses for their work).
This whole thing really bummed me out! I loved BA’s content before the truth came out. They did an excellent job making it _seem_ like they were one, big happy family. Meanwhile these incredible talents were being HELLA screwed based on the color of their skin. So. Freaking. Sickening. I wish ALL of the legit *good* people from BA could come together in a new, FAIR company so we could have the gang back together!! Oh well! I just hope those who were wronged are doing well and living their best lives!!
Also, denying us a Lizzo/Carla OR a Megan/Carla video(s) is absolutely CRIMINAL!! Either/both would’ve been GOLD!
This is why I am a very big proponent of asking for a letter of termination from an employer. It proved to be the most valuable thing that I had when I ended up suing said employer, as that single letter, if given to you that is, almost always states the reason for termination! This also prevents them from making up any number of reasons for your dismissal, if you were to bring a lawsuit against them. In my case I sued for what I knew to be the true reason, which was because I was part of the LGBTQAI+ Community, however, the aforementioned employer could not deviate from what was in my letter of termination as to the reason for dismissal which they stated as insubordination.
Also, it helps to still get a letter of termination just for the unforeseeable notion that your empower may try to fight your Unemployment Claim. Which ironically, this former employer that I ended up suing, also tried to fight by claim for unemployment, by lying and saying I stole company property! If not for the letter I requested, I would have been unable to collect my claim, under false pretenses, not to mention that at least the state that this happened in, only ruled that no unemployment benefits would be given at all ONLY IN TERMINATIONS DUE TO THEFT, so the former employer knew what they were doing without the foresight that this letter could be used against them as they were caught off guard when my immediate response to being let go via phone call while working in another state for them, was to immediately ask for a letter of termination. So, if possible if you are ever let go from a position and you feel that you are being let go for some discriminatory reason or even if not, always ask for a letter of termination!
Honest to God, I had no idea what Delaney's job was. In my head I assumed he was like a video editor or camera man who became popular from just being spotted in the background. I had no idea he was involved with any food or drink when he wasn't on camera to make a specific video. I guess that would explain why he never got his own series on the channel.
He had his own series. They took one bit of every item on the menu from restaurants in NYC.
@@tao5231 Like the Try Guys did?
He was one of the first people with a "show" on the youtube channel, if not the first. that wasn't a cooking tutorial.
i came to BA because delaney's show 'Alex eats it all'. That show was so good, i ended up subsriceb for BA for just watched it.
And not to mention a ton of the BA test kitchen staff reported Sohla was one of if not the most talented and had the most credentials of all the cooks in that kitchen… so unfair and gross.
So why did she accept the job of recipe tester? Why even apply??
@@ImAshlynnCarter she applied to be an editor. She was an editor for the publication then they asked her to be on videos without paying her even though she was more talented and took the job because she said she was use to being low balled for jobs. She even said she walked away from negotiations because she found out Delaney was making more than her even after the raise they offered to her. He was making 76k as a drinks editor before the pandemic and she was was only offered a $5000 raise. Also you’re ignoring the part where Sohla was doing work she was not hired for and not compensated for even though the company profited off her labor.
Her solo videos didn’t get as much views but they were also having her make recipes that were narrowly focused on niche recipes even though her expertise was in a variety of styles.
Had they given her a series, or hell, given her credit for the help she gave other chefs those numbers would have gone up. Even in her very few solo videos people loved her.
If any BIPOC had acted the way Claire did in her videos, their ass would have been fired.
Let's be completely real here, she complained more than she cooked!
I feel like if you didn't watch BA there's a couple things that you wouldn't know that are part of why this went down the way it did, including but not limited to:
1) No one watching knew the degree of pay disparity on the channel. Like, I'm sure we all figured that Clare was getting paid more than others bc of the popularity of her show but no one realized that several (POC) people who frequently appeared were doing video in addition to their actual roles and not getting paid for it at all.
2) In the one year Sohla had been with BA she had become incredibly popular. She was frequently pulled into videos to help technically (like literally any time they needed to temper chocolate) and bc the audience and staff obviously liked her. Any video she was in, the comments were primarily positive ones about Sohla or people asking when she was going to get her own series. Only to have her come out and say she had pitched several series and they were all turned down by BA. Like the Lizzo example - it wasn't just discrimination, it was discrimination that showed BA wasn't even in tune with what would be popular on the channel and were making bad business decisions. It was honestly hard to tell if it was extreme racism or racism combined with ignorant arrogance.
I really had no idea what had happened with BA and I really appreciate your break down of the whole situation. I've been following Sohla on a bunch of other RUclips channels and she is a delightful personality and talent that was never treated or utilized appropriately by BA.
So I have been watching your videos for a couple of days now and I realized that I haven't subscribed and you're not as big a channel as you should be so im gonna subscribed and I hope this can be reminder to all the other viewers like me that we have to support our channels that we like so they can keep doing this. Great content. I'm going to continue to binge more videos of yours.
Aw thank you I appreciate that!!
@@LeejaMiller keep up the good work!
“I don’t mean to judge a book by its cover, but…” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Great video! Back in 2017 when Habeas Humor was just an audio podcast, we did a full show (episode 21) all about employment discrimination, EEOC procedures, and reality versus perception of discrimination remedies 😺
I mostly watched Claire and brads videos. I am now subscribed to Claire's youtube but i no longer search for brads. Maybe he felt he had to keep his job to provide for his family, but it wasn't the moral choice. I also follow babishs stuff and though I didnt watch Sohlas old BA videos I've found her to be informative and to have a pleasant stage presence. She seems sweet. I hope the others are doing well.
Brad's response/reaction to this situation was a complete turn off. Her last all appeal and I stopped watching him too.
Love this one, you should definitely comment on more TV shows. Gilmore girls when Rory is arrested? Also please do more of Bailey Sarians vids as some of the police work in these cases is shocking!
Nearly a year after you posted this video, I am an avid follower of those who left BA on their many platforms. And un-subbed from BA as soon as it all came out. And I don't miss it at all. I watched one video with Brad and one video with Chris, and the cringe factor was still there, and I decided my original plan was the best way to go.
Thanks for covering this. You are the only law channel I have found that has covered it. I too loved to watch Bon Appetite. Then the shoe dropped. The brand is toast now. Glad that some who blew the whistle on this found other jobs. My mom was one of the few people to sue the Federal government for discrimination in the workplace and win.
I feel like the McElroy brothers are the perfect example of making mistakes like this and then genuinely bouncing back and gaining trust again
Estimed Tokenism. You're definitely QUALIFIED to talk about this boo!!!!! Definitely subscribed after this video! Oh and BussyQueen brought me to you yesterday!
Excellent questions raised 💅🏼Mother💅🏼I'm pretty sure we fell in love with the people, no the actual test kitchen, so when we find out they haven't been properly paying the people we fell in love with, hiring new ones instead will not bring the magic back :/ And also Yes, you should talk about these things as a white woman, one of the best things we as white people can do is use our privilege and call out racism, question "jokes" or stereotypes etc. Silence doesn't do any good.
I don't know how to trust an ownership with this history. I would have trouble benefiting an employer like this by consuming their content. Maybe if the brand was sold and they announced completely new ownership and management...
Can do a video on Megan the stallion and Tory lanez court case?
Ooooo lemme go take a look 🧐🧐🧐🧐
Please let’s do this!!!
Seeing all the things unfold at BA I am glad that I never latched onto their videos (I mean I like watching culinary videos on youtube but BA style videos just didn't quite fit me well...heinous behind-the-scene issues aside). I am not gonna watch new BA videos, not just because Conde Nast just brushed the issue under the rug but also because, well, the style preference I just mentioned (however unfair that might be to the new talents at BA 😕).
At least Sohla gets to soar after her release from BA 😏😎✨
Okay, I just want to say... I discovered your channel for the first time today and have become addicted. I’m 7 videos in (almost 3 hrs to be exact lol 😂) and find them so interesting and informative! Please keep making more!
Right like they disappeared then returned trying to overcompensate, the energy is just not right. Don't get me wrong I love the new chefs though.
I know I feel bad that they’re the scapegoats, cuz they deserve a platform but it just feels weird
commenting for the algorithm. i love your channel!
Sohla has also been cooking historical recipes now with the history channel! Seeing her do it makes me want to try cooking stinging nettles!
Hey! Christina Che. I worked with her at Fast Company. A lovely human being.
I have seen a few of your videos now and you are seriously amazing at communicating this information to a general audience. Thank you so much for being so informative and helpful!
Did you see the video where the BA team did a panel and Adam Rapoport got Sohla and Priya mixed up, to their faces? Horrifying
Oh holy shit no I did not that’s wild
After the debacle I stopped watching the show. Leeja Miller, your philosophic questions on how to move forward as a fan (or former one in my case) of BA are great. After much thought, I think whatever sits right with the viewer works. If you want to forgive and give the show the chance to redeem itself, go for it. As for me, the BA brand and label are tainted. I would have changed the name of the company. There is a plethora of cooking shows on RUclips. Why should I subject myself to a brand name that rhymes with racism and sexism? What went down at BA is too cringe worthy for me. My brain can't unsee that.
I don't know how to feel and that makes me sad. I had something more eloquent to write but now I can't think. I'm going to go lay down and think more about how I want to proceed later. Thank you for the video. I'll look at the article you linked.
I really think the only chance at redemption they had was to sit down with every person who had issues and say, "okay we messed up, what can we do to help fix it?" and shelled out for the damage they caused. Full compensation for people who didn't feel comfortable staying there, and real improvements in pay for anyone willing to.
The hair trigger reaction for companies in that situation is to go on the defense, but that permanently affects how everyone will see them going forward. They needed to show compassion and change to the minorities they affected, because it seems like far more than the legal trouble, the real kicker was losing their entire viewer base- made up mostly of minority groups with emotional investment in the people they were screwing over. They were so busy evading legal trouble that they fully eliminated any chance of return to normal. Sucks to suck I guess
Literally the same thoughts with Delaney. And then got the little side show of essentially eat the menu at expensive places in New York and let BA pay for it. So annoying.
Personally I don't think BA needs or deserves a redemption arc. BA is a company, not a person. Ultimately their only goal is to do what makes them the most profit, they don't care about their employees more than they have to, and they certainly don't care about you as the viewer past the money you can make them by watching their content. They've shown they have no regard for their POC employees wellbeing, and how they handled getting called out was a disaster. As much as some might have liked their content, it's a company, and there are plenty of those already.
It's reassuring that people like you are slowly but surely taking on that big, dumb, oaf that is "The Law." This video was so informative. You certainly did your research and appealed to people who are interested in BA but not law (like myself), as well as those interested in the law but not BA. Very well researched and well-said all around. I'm glad thoughtful people like you exist and have a seat at the table.
Aw thank you so much!!
I understand that the whole system is the problem but I feel like it's Barret's and other judges jobs to interpret the law fairly. So if the system and precedent clearly aren't fair, then are they just bad judges?
Unfortunately judges are bound by the laws that they are interpreting. Judges don’t write laws, lawmakers do, and judicial activism is generally frowned upon
Watching a beloved thing's dirty laundry get aired is heartbreaking. You believed in them and trusted them. You want them to have a good response to the event, and then they don't. They double down on the thing that made them look bad. And you just have to turn your back on them, because theyve shown themselves to be evil.
I love your videos! Thanks for sharing and bringing insight into this. I naturally fell out of watching BA before quarantine but I'm so saddened to see this was going on behind the scenes :(
Honestly, Sohla deserved way more than they gave her with how often she appeared in other videos to help people do things they couldn't. At least she has a few other shows going for her because honestly...I just really loved her energy & expertise.
Anyways, I've really started getting into your videos recently and just realized you're also in Minneapolis- so today just got cooler for multiple reasons.
Small world!
The whole thing was a terrible disappointment to me....I've not gone back. I do catch Sohla, Gaby, Priya and Carla oh, and Rick here and there. I do miss Molly but I haven't seen anything she's done recently.
Have anyone ever told you you look a bit like Kiernan Shipka? :o Great take on this and well explained. Ever since I heard about this implosion I've purposely avoided the bon appetit videos and watched the other channels with the lovely people who left instead. Bon appetit doesn't need my views and they damn well don't deserve it.
I had to check and make sure I wasn't subscribed to BA 🤣
19:20 IDK. Given higher courts' history of nuking lower and equal-level court precedent (e.x. Brown v Board), saying "it's precedent" doesn't give a higher court (especially the SCOTUS) an "excuse" for evil (in this case, racist) rulings. Even if it's a lower court, this then becomes a matter of the "just following orders" excuse, which doesn't absolve ethical guilt. Saying "it's a system" does not absolve the component individuals of all fault.
At every point, if you choose to participate in a system of hate (ACB wasn't drafted into a position as judge), you are responsible for the acts of hate you are expected to perform. At any point, ACB could have ignored whatever precedent exists (but chose not to), and she could have resigned her post (but chose not to).
I feel like the only way a person could ever become a judge though is if they respect the system. No one's going to appoint someone to a judge position who doesn't respect precedent, because that's literally the underpinning of our entire system. The problem with saying you should just reject precedent if it's evil is that it can go both ways. If we start saying liberal judges should just reject precedent then what's stopping conservative judges from doing the same? So because the people who participate in the system are the ones who respect the system, there's not much change that's going to happen, at least not quickly and without the support of precedent, from within it. Also if a lower court has an activist judge who blatantly goes against precedent it would be relatively easy for the person who lost to appeal to a higher court, which would then likely rule that the lower court's decision wasn't supported and was an abuse of discretion. It's a self-enforcing system. But look I'm all for criticizing it and theorizing about ways to make it better, I'm just a bit cynical about whether reform is even possible.
I'd love to hear you regarding the current Blizzard issue.
You are exactly right we didnt want new poc ... we wanted our favorite people to be paid well.
A part of me wants to believe that Brad stayed because he loves doing It's Alive and is using the money from the company to do it and he also can't branch off to his own channel because BA owns rights to the name of It's Alive. Although, another part of me thinks Brad is one of those people that dismisses racism or just doesn't help or say anything about it when someone comes to them for help
My opinion - the only way you can be forgiven is if you admit you’re wrong and apologize. Publically for this company would be a must. Since they can’t what they’ll do is continue on for a few years, change their name, and hope it all goes away. Will they change? Maybe or maybe they’ll just be harder to catch
Imagine being so committed to white supremacy that you wouldn't be having Lizzo or Megan Thee Stallion in your video when you know that those women would have brought views and therefore money.
lol I just imagined you and legal eagle in a court room lawyering. ^^
Wow, Just finding all this out. You can't go back now.
Wow. Im not a lawyer but from my one business law clas, and just other experience in work and life, this was so illegal in so many ways. I think they hit all of the big antidiscrimination laws, and pure and simple labor laws of paying people for working.
I will say we don't know if the people who stayed in videos were able to get out of their contracts I would be slightly surprised if every employee was in contract negotiations at the same time. Still I do wish they made more of an effort to support their coworkers who were treated unfairly for so long.
If you can, could you touch on the downfall of Buzzfeed?
Dude, Sola and Claire were my favorite ppl on the show and the fact that Sola didn't even get PAID for those videos pisses me off. Now where am I going to watch bomb videos?
I know devastating
@@LeejaMiller I know Claire has a channel but what about Sola?
@@GeeklingNo1 sohla is actually working with binging with babish!! she has her own show there
They got caught with their hand in the jar. And instead of offering a fair share of the cookies, they said that there were none left. While visibly eating more.
Had to keep reminding myself that by BA, Leeja was meaning Bon Appetit for the whole video. Living in the UK, BA to us is British Airways.
Wow, damn
I had no idea this happened! I literally was watching old vids of theirs the past few days.
I believe redemption is possible! For HUMANS. A corporation isn't a person (except legally apparently :/), and it can't grow and learn. If a corporation has been making a heck of a lot of money off of treating people like dirt, that's it. I have no attachment to the corporation anymore, its one job was to pay/treat the people who make content/products I like well. If it failed, it's time for it to disappear, so that new networks, like the ones all the old BA employees are now working with, can try to be better than it ever was.
done with BA - shame on them
They made the older poc leave so that they don't have pay them what they rightfully deserve and got new poc who are also probably paid way less but they were promised high salaries"very soon". What a joke!
I loved the BA videos, especially Andy so i was disappointed he chose not to stand with other minorities being a double minority himself, but I recognize everyone’s situation is different and he could parlay him staying into a higher pay day as one of the few still left. I do think companies should be able to turn it around as long as they actually do but the world is big enough that to have that massive of a fall is hard to overcome in the public’s perception and in PR. People have so many options for gastronomy content. But I fascinated in the how business has changed in regards to viral content. Is video content now a separate entity that needs separate contracts and conditions. Do u pay them a flat fee to put out content or do u do per video viewers? Do BA chefs now need managers and agents just to negotiate Bc it’s beyond the scope of what was a trade magazine ?
Totally!! I think that’s exactly what Claire did a year or two ago, she left and then entered into a new contract for videos specifically because she probably knew how much she was making for BA since her videos were getting like 5 million views each. I’m sure she had to have a manager or a lawyer or someone walking her through the process. Seems like a whole other can of employment law worms 🧐
Glad I watched the full video. Ill be honest I was hesitant because you are white (dont wrry I am too) but I really appreciated your perspective as a lawyer. It is awful these talented employees were basically just “forgotten about” becuz they demanded compensation or stood up for whats right??!?!! It is an absolute capitalistic governing nightmare.
sohla was making 50k?? that's insane to me. I make 45 as a mediocre nonprofit employee. like, how does Thay make sense?
And there’s arbitration. Worker protections in this country are sadly, almost non existent. Especially in red states. Right to work should be outlawed.
If you go to their "comeback video", and look at the "likes"...there is about 1K likes and 60K dislikes. Smh.
I'm learning so much from these videos O_O
I was wondering if the people who left, like Sohla for example could require to have their videos removed from BA’s channel ?
Claire left, I think in one video Brad commented that her videos were very popular if not the most popular.
Amy Coney Barrett didn't just say being called the n word is not a hostile work environment.
she ruled that a black employee in Illinois who was fired was actually fired for a number of other reasons such as his poor performance and a biligerient attitude. She did say the racial epithet was egregious but the racial slur wasn’t enough to constitute a hostile work environment in the context of the other issues.
There is only one way Bon Appetit gets redeemed: everyone that walked out now jointly owns Bon Appetit. It becomes an employee owned company no longer owned by Conde Nast.
Rick and Sohla are on Food52, which is wonderful and they are both so good with really interesting content. It is just so disappointing, I loved BA during the pandemic, like most people here.
always nice to see someone else from minneapolis! amazing work :)
By the way, loved your video! :)
Thank you!!
Thank you for this excellent video!
I think there is a way to go back, but that would essentially have to include reparations on their part and a public apology, which you said their lawyers probably said not to do.
If the risk of litigation is not worth the price of acknowledging BA’s wrong doing, then BA should not have the platform. That’s not leadership.
Ma'am, this was a well written video. Well done!
Thank you!!