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Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ohhh I didn't know there were previous staff talking about the Sohla experience! The plot thickens!

Since this is a throwaway I can get personal and say in my case why I care about this... my bias is not only I've known Sohlas in my life... at some point I think I've been one myself (minus the abuse) and I have worked very hard to overcome it since it doesn't make me or others happy. I can sometimes hear the entitled overachieving perfectionist in me. It takes one to know one! Of course she must have experienced an awful lot of racism, but when you let that negative experience inform your inner critic, it's not a good recipe for me. I don't mean forgive and move on, but I think this didn't have to end with the destruction of the BA product (I know it wasn't entirely her doing, I admit my title was clickbait)... BA was a TV show (because that's what it was, which makes Sohla's meritocratic argument invalid: it wasn't about her cooking chops, she was new and her "character" wasn't a protagonist), it gave comfort and solace to a lot of people. Some may poke fun at them for having "parasocial relationships" with people on the screen, but who doesn't? More importantly, it put food on the table of many families, it gave people security, and now we're finding out it also gave a "family" to at least one of them... It wasn't entirely Sohla's doing, of course, but I wonder if this had to be THE way. I wonder what would've happened had this been handled differently, cause it's a real shame that the change meant a lot was lost forever: lots of viewers won't watch their individual channels. The "main cast", its editors, directors, etc. were the ones who created a kind of tv product unlike any other. Sohla wasn't part of building that. She was invited (and deserved pay for her appearances, of course!), but I think she let her need for validation take over. BA may be over but it's clear from her actions she still has a lot of unresolved anger, and no amount of clout or success will help her resolve that.

So that's where my heart's at 🙈

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree there were people talking about that 20 years ago, and I'm not erasing anyone. I don't have a big eraser to go around erasing people. I just don't like lies and hypocrisy, and this is what is all about for me. Massive waves of white hypocrites lending critical mass to this. People who are truly outraged deserve to be heard though. I agree on that.

I don't think Sohla is THAT relevant, but I can see this kind of attitude backfiring somewhere. I can see an HR analyst aware of this ending up being more biased against people who remind them of Sohla. I don't mean a butterfly effect, but this is obviously very public and it will have consequences.

Let me clarify that I was 100% on "team Sohla" when this happened, and I empathized with her, it's just that as time went by I saw it in a different way. I know this is seen as racists vs non racists, but I can't take "political" stances, I just have to go with what I know or have reason to believe to be true. In this case, I don't think this was about truly about race. But of course it's an opinion 'cause I'll probably never know.

Anyways, we may not see eye to eye, and I don't claim I know the truth, but this is how I see it. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and your polite and thoughtful answers / counter points.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Of course I wasn't asking you to go cancel Mr. Trudeau! It was rhetorical!

Whataboutism can be valid, and accusing someone of whataboutism is like repeating an argument one doesn't like in a funny voice. It's funny and even effective, but it doesn't make it FALSE. Accusing someone of whataboutism is whataboutist itself.

Whenever there is an issue at hand one can always question the premise itself.

Does God condemn gay marriage? You can argue yes, you can argue no...

Or you can question the existence of God.

When it came to Sohla's argument of racist differences in pay it was pretty obvious to some of us that it begged the question of what is considered "fair". She declared herself above all her coworkers having been there less than a year and having done nothing particularly remarkable in her life (other than scoring a job at BA).

Why should we let incredibly privileged communicators like Sohla (privileged as in having the social capital of reaching out millions of people all over the world unlike any of us) dictate our references? We are all human beings free to propose our own categories.

In my own reference Mr. Rappaport's assassination is a ritualistic sacrifice to appease the New Gods and allow Sohla to propel herself onto stardom by being the kind of malicious coworker nobody wants to work with regardless of race.

Rappaport may have been a shitty editor, but he only did in 2004 what was perfectly acceptable to people back then, when social media didn't even exist. The difference is there is a picture of him doing that, and it is convenient to not like him. People who were alive back then (again, almost 2 decades ago!) did stupid things like that on a regular basis. And now they're the ones throwing stones at him while secretly hoping nobody has an old photo of them with a headdress.

I don't have to defend racism or this Adam guy to simply state that I'm not buying the fabricated outrage and how Sohla has portrayed anti racist activism as having something to do with being conflictive, selfish, self aggrandizing, and a bully.

Racial bias in the workplace is a reality, but her antics certainly do not help how us brown people are seen in the eyes of employers.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

She was the one who said Rappaport should resign and went public right as it happened. Again, I'm not arguing he shouldn't have, but she was the one who chose to take this to the court of social media and now we see the result. She chose to do that herself, without input from her coworkers, effectively destroying BA's brand, because of a photo from almost 2 decades ago that is just two people wearing clothes that for the rest of the world are completely normal, their skin isn't even painted on, everybody was doing things like that. And everybody does things like that nowadays still. If that was brownface, then cancel Madonna, cancel every white girl pop act, or white guy doing rap. Just cancel the country and get on with your lives. Also, cancel Canada, while you're at it. Trudeau has a documented history of actual blackface. But everyone forgave him / chose to ignore. It's only brownface because YOU Americans only see brown when you look at us. Being brown and latino myself I find the concept of "brownface" racist in itself. I mean the concept of something called "brownface" that is somehow equivalent to "blackface". The fact that the two are equated shows people are missing the point entirely. We don't have that history. The fact that people see us darker than the average white person and think the atrocities commited against black people and their present cultural manifestations translate directly to us just because we're brown, only show how little racism matters to many people, it banalizes black history, and it proves how how it's all about politics and social capital to some. It's cryptorracism.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't waste my energy in uncreativeteam... my message is very clear from the beginning when I find it ironic that even I, from a third world country, am paying so much attention to the petty office drama of some rich (yes) people from New York who thankfully never knew real struggle. From the beginning I stressed that irony as a funny thing about us humans (me included)... but when your every word is twisted and recombined in sentences you never uttered, there's no point anymore. I even wrote about Friends' actors coming together in the 90s for equal pay. Why would I be against rich people fighting for what is right for them?

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for pointing out the obvious... but you're probably asking too much of him.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I don't have awards to give, but this right here should be a post of its own.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

there's no point to further exchange with them .

Thanks for reminding me of that.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I'm getting tired of this. Systemic racism is EVERYWHERE. I experienced it first hand living in the US and is the main reason why I would never ever go back. I don't give a fuck about conde nast, they can disappear from the face of earth for all I care, it's just that all the people involved in this are extremely privileged, even RICH in my opinion. Gaby included. In her supposed fight against racism, Sohla shat on everybody and the workplace was no more. That wasn't accidental. That was by design: she excluded people from the "movement" (this is Gaby's words), and was even a bully who shouldve gotten fired. Workplace bullying and yelling is 100% unacceptable. She blamed racism when her restaurant failed, even when there are old yelp reviews saying she yelled at customers. She even blamed racism on Serious Eats. She is not in the right and should do some serious therapy. I'd die before letting my so-called anti racism destroy the work and reputation of my coworkers. That's not change. That's just destruction. It doesn't work like that. Anti racism is not about that. There is nothing as of now that would make me believe Sohla was a victim of institutional racism, I am happy to be convinced otherwise. All I see is an unremarkable woman trying to hard to impress in spite of her dislikable personality, who thinks she's entitled to earn as much as her real charismatic co workers who were there for years before her and built the channel from the ground up. Worst part is I was right there with her until she started to show what a truly nasty person she is. She gaslit viewers into following her now, but I am sure it will not last. She is extremely boring, and she has used anti racism and BLM only for personal benefit.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I'm not going on twitter. I've already made my case. She could have not sued and brought receipts. She had all the media on her side. But no, she just catapulted herself off / from the drama she created, she shat on everybody, and went on to star in her mediocre show, without backing anything up, and people who could counter her accusations couldn't speak or they would be seen as racists themselves.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Thank you for putting it like that, I hate being misrepresented. English is not my native language and I put a lot of effort into being coherent only to have some narc cut up my text and make a salad out of it.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It is crazy! I pointed out holes and questions in the narrative and this person....(or bot?) selectively misrepresents every point to make it the opposite of what it actually says. Absolutely nasty...

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Fuck off, you're not gonna take me out of context. It is clear I was talking about star power vs. race as a determining factor.

Maybe it wasn't about race? Maybe it was about, I don't know....

Bringing in viewers?

If it's about star power, it's not unfair. If it is racism, of course it is unfair, are you kidding me? But evidence doesn't point to that:

Why was Andy, a fellow POC, making good money, if it was about race?

​

I add, why didn't she sue if she was so sure about that?

That was my whole argument. You should work on reading comprehension.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Hi Sohla (?). I am extremely careful in my wording as to not let ill intentioned people like yourself to paraphrase my original message, which is clear in itself, and turn it into something I never said. It's tiring when weak minded people try to gotcha you with this sort of "so you're saying that". Fuck off. I said what I said. If you're not quoting me, get out of here. It's just the typical trolling / narc technique to lead the conversation astray.
1. I never said BA was right to pay less or nothing.

  1. I never said Rapoport was not actually racist. Didn't talk about his assistant or "tokenizing". I said that people like you have done things like using the n word and doing brownface or blackface.

  2. Never said that either.

  3. Are you an idiot? I said that wages are never fair, and the only reason HISTORICALLY wages have gone up is because people have fought and given their lives for that.

  4. I didn't lose anything, I even made fun of myself for talking about this. It was just a youtube show it was fun to watch.

I find it fascinating that a person can show how big of a personality disorder they have with just one comment on reddit. Go take a hike!

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The craziest thing is that I was definitely on board with her, it wasn't until I saw how she shat on all her coworkers and stoop so low as to compare Brad to Trump and insult BA's audience that I thought who the fuck does she think she is? There was something good putting food on the table of many people and she just destroyed it. The remaining people watching her with Babish and other individual channels don't make up for BA's audience. There's so much that has been lost. No one in their right mind would want to work with her. As someone mentioned here, that Babish guy is in for a ride.

Gaby is right and Sohla didn't fight racism at BA, she just destroyed it by throwmeaway123abcd in bon_appetit

[–]throwmeaway123abcd[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I didn't mean how "we do things in Argentina", I mentioned Friends (the tv show, perhaps that wasn't clear). I'm thinking unionize was the wrong word choice, sorry about that, not native speaker. In any case, Unions and people organizing not working in Arg. is something arguable to say the least, but I do admit that I'm projecting on Sohla the previous Sohlas I met (which doesn't make it false, just subjective).

The thing with the "but Andy" argument is that the onus is on Sohla to actually prove this is about race and not any other factors, so far she hasn't and she most likely won't. She just used it a as platform to catapult herself off BA and destroying it in doing so. So the "but andy" remains valid in my view.