{"id":1532718,"date":"2022-06-29T16:04:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T20:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532718"},"modified":"2022-06-29T16:04:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T20:04:31","slug":"friends-creator-pledges-4-million-to-atone-for-lack-of-black-leads-on-the-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/friends-creator-pledges-4-million-to-atone-for-lack-of-black-leads-on-the-series\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Friends\u2019 Creator Pledges $4 Million To Atone For Lack Of Black Leads On The Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffriends-creator-pledges-4-million-to-atone-for-lack-of-black-leads-on-the-series%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1532718&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/television\">Friends<\/a>\u201d co-creator Marta Kauffman is planning to atone for her crime of not having enough <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/diversity\">diversity<\/a> on the hit NBC comedy series, she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,\u201d Kauffman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/tv\/story\/2022-06-29\/friends-diversity-marta-kauffman-brandeis-university\">said<\/a> in a Zoom interview with the publication. \u201cAdmitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It\u2019s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I\u2019m embarrassed that I didn\u2019t know better 25 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFriends\u201d documented the lives of six single people living in New York City. The series, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 until 2004, became a worldwide sensation and is considered one of the most successful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/entertainment\">comedies<\/a> ever made. It boasts 62 Primetime Emmy Awards and a host of other awards and accolades.<\/p>\n<p>While several of the recurring roles included black actors, the six main characters were all white. Kauffman regrets making this casting choice while still saying she\u2019s happy that Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry were all part of the series.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have been insane not to hire those six actors. What can I say? I wish Lisa was black?\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-features\/friends-reunion-cast-reveals-creators-interview-1234959624\/\">told<\/a> The Hollywood Reporter prior to the reunion special airing.<\/p>\n<p>Now Kauffman is pledging $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University. The money will be used for African American students specifically. <\/p>\n<p>The Marta F. Kauffman \u201978 <a href=\"https:\/\/alumni.brandeis.edu\/news\/2022\/06-15-aaas-endowment.html\">Professorship in African and African American Studies<\/a> \u201cwill support a distinguished scholar with a concentration in the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora\u201d and \u201chelp the department to recruit more expert scholars and teachers, map long-term academic and research priorities and provide new opportunities for students to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship,\u201d per the university.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me a long time to begin to understand how I internalized systemic racism,\u201d the alumna told Brandeis. \u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019s perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kauffman said the topic of diversity has been on her mind for some time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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,\u201d Kauffman told the LA Times. \u201cThat was really the moment that I began to examine the ways I had participated. I knew then I needed to course-correct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat makes this truly emotional for me is that I want this connection I didn\u2019t have,\u201d she continued. \u201cI deeply, deeply want this connection with the black community that I didn\u2019t have. Because of \u2018Friends,\u2019 I never attained that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cFriends\u201d co-creator also confirmed that any future projects would include a more diverse cast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel I was finally able to make some difference in the conversation,\u201d Kauffman told the publication. \u201cI have to say, after agreeing to this and when I stopped sweating, it didn\u2019t unburden me, but it lifted me up. But until in my next production I can do it right, it isn\u2019t over. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFriends\u201d co-creator Marta Kauffman is planning to atone for her crime of not having enough diversity on the hit NBC comedy series, she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,\u201d Kauffman said in a Zoom interview with the publication. \u201cAdmitting and accepting guilt is not &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":1532805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}