'Friends' cocreator says she's 'embarrassed' by the show's lack of diversity as she announces $4 million donation to African American studies

• "Friends" cocreator Marta Kauffman said that she's "embarrassed" by the show's lack of diversity.
• Kauffman told Los Angeles Times that she didn't get the criticism until recently.

"Friends" cocreator Marta Kauffman admitted that she now feels "embarrassed" about the show's lack of diversity and is donating $4 million to an African and African American studies department in Boston in order to make amends.

For years, the '90s show has been criticized for focusing on straight, white characters in New York, despite the city being highly diverse. The most prominent person of color in the show was Aisha Tyler, who only appeared in nine episodes of the show as Ross' love interest Charlie.

Kauffman told Los Angeles Times that she originally found the criticism "difficult and frustrating" but has changed her mind in the last few years following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer.

"It was after what happened to George Floyd that I began to wrestle with my having bought into systemic racism in ways I was never aware of," Kauffman said. "That was really the moment that I began to examine the ways I had participated. I knew then I needed to course-correct."

Kauffman continued: "I've learned a lot in the last 20 years. 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."

The TV producer said she will pledge $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University, to establish The Marta F. Kauffman '78 Professorship in African and African American Studies. The fund will support a scholar studying Africa and the African diaspora and assist the department to recruit more expert scholars and teachers, as well as provide new opportunities for existing students.

Kauffman said she has received a lot of support since announcing the donation, but she is not finished.

"I feel I was finally able to make some difference in the conversation," Kauffman said. "I want to make sure from now on in every production I do that I am conscious in hiring people of color and actively pursue young writers of color. I want to know I will act differently from now on. And then I will feel unburdened."

This is not the first time Kauffman has addressed the lack of diversity in "Friends."

In 2020, Kauffman said during a panel at the ATX TV Festival that she "didn't do enough" to promote racial diversity in the show.

However, when asked why the issue wasn't addressed during the "Friends" reunion special released last year on HBO Max, Kauffman told LA Times that it wasn't the right forum.

David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow, who played Ross and Phoebe in the show, have also addressed the show's lack of diversity in interviews over the last few years.

Schwimmer told the Guardian in 2020 that he "campaigned for years to have Ross date women of color," whereas Kudrow told the Sunday Times that same year that the show should be looked at as a "time capsule" of the period it was filmed, rather than criticized retroactively.