Friends’ is a classic American drama that premiered in 1994 and tells the daily story of Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey and Ross, three men and three women who live in New York City as each other’s best friends and live under the same roof.
In this 10-season long series, characters of color rarely appear.
In an interview, Marta Kauffman, co-creator of ‘Friends’, admitted that the film was lacking in “racial diversity” and that she decided to donate $4 million to fund research on black culture as an apology.
Kauffman also said in an online women’s conversation forum that she wishes she had known what she knows now, so she would have made a different decision.
Kauffman says she has always encouraged the hiring of ethnically diverse employees at her company, but she feels she hasn’t done enough, and now she reflects on it from time to time.
Kauffman said in an interview that at first she had a hard time understanding the “harsh and frustrating” criticism of ‘Friends’.
But nearly 20 years after the show ended, Kauffman began to realize the error of his ways. “I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” Kauffman said in an interview, “and it’s not easy to admit and accept that you’ve made mistakes.”
