Marta Kaufman is a highly successful television writer and the mastermind behind the hit show Friends of the ’90s, and she recently announced that she was embarrassed that she failed to cast African Americans on the show as part of its main cast.
She is now donating $4 million to create the Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professor of African and American Studies at Brandeis University. Kaufman told the Los Angeles Times that while the show was airing, it was heavily criticized for not having any regular African-Americans on the cast, and she is now very critical of herself in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.
She says she wrestled with herself
“After what happened to George Floyd, I started wrestling with my purchase of systemic racism in ways I wasn’t aware of before,” Kaufman said. “That was the moment I started examining the routes I participated in. I knew then that I needed a course correction.”
Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It hurts to look at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago
Only a few episodes feature African Americans
After 10 seasons, there were only a few actors who represented the African-American community, but only supporting roles, actors such as Lauren Tom, Gabriel Union, Mark Consuelos and Craig Robinson were a small part and it was Aisha Tyler who appeared the most, but only In 9 out of 236 episodes for the duration of the series.
The program will study the African American diaspora
The program I contributed to is said to “support an outstanding scholar with a focus on the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora. The endowment will also assist the department in recruiting more expert scholars and educators, map long-term academic and research priorities and provide new opportunities for students to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship.”
I’ve learned a lot in 20 years
“I’ve learned a lot in the past 20 years,” Kaufman claimed. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It hurts to look at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”
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