“Friends” Creator Marta Kauffman Says She Is Embarrassed By The Show’s Lack Of Diversity And Is Donating $4 Million Toward African American Studies Program

June 30, 2022 / Posted by:

When the Friends reunion came out on HBO Max last year, we were once again reminded that the show was whiter than white, despite taking place in one of the most diverse cities in the country. Well, now two of Friends‘ creators Kevin Bright and Marta Kauffman have stood firm with their casting choices. But now Marta wants all Black people to know she’ll be there for them by funding future students at Brandeis University with a $4 million pledge for the African American studies department.

During a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times (via HuffPo), Marta admits she’s never really given much thought to the show’s decision to present an almost all-white version of New York City in the 1990s. Although Friends did eventually include Gabrielle Union and Aisha Tyler in memorable guest appearances, it was a little too late to try and convince audiences that the characters only met two black people in ten years. In New York City. Please. Anyway, Marta has remained proud of her non-melanated metropolis but revealed that the protests which ensued after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 made her see the series and its lack of diversity in a different light. And as a step in the right direction, Marta is donating $4 million to the newly created Marta Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies fund at Brandeis, which is her alma mater.

“It took me a long time to begin to understand how I internalized systemic racism,” she said. “I’ve been working really hard to become an ally, an anti-racist. And this seemed to me to be a way that I could participate in the conversation from a white woman’s perspective.”

The scholarship will “support a distinguished scholar with a concentration in the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora“, which is an honorable gesture. I’ll take what I can get at this point since her co-creator Kevin still doesn’t see anything wrong with the show’s lack of representation and Friends star David Schwimmer doesn’t know that we know his show is merely an inverted version of Living Single. Marta went on:

“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” said Kauffman, now 65. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”

I’m glad Marta decided to make amends with this scholarship as opposed to using that money for a Friends reboot with a diversified cast. Because that would have been a total waste of her money and our time.

Pic: INSTARImages

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