I’m not frustrated with helping Claire and people on camera. That’s not it. What frustrates me is that we have this image of being this really diverse team and this really inclusive “club” or whatever, but there’s not real equity there. There’s some people who get huge, huge amounts for their appearances on camera. And then the people of color, we’re either paid nothing—such as myself and Gaby and Christina, we’ve never been paid for video—or very nominal amounts, like $200.
They kind of treat us like side characters to pull in in the name of diversity. Like they have Christina come in when [Chris] Morocco is making Korean short ribs … They have this circular logic that the people they choose to put in a show and give a lucrative contract to are the people who have a lot of followers, but the people who ended up with a lot of followers are the people who got the show, you know what I mean? Like they never gave us a chance.
Sohla El-Waylly in an interview with The Sporkful, “A Reckoning At Bon Appetit”