People love to act like Friends committed some crime by not meeting today’s diversity expectations. In this Fray Shot, I break down why that argument falls apart the second you look at reality.
From the creator’s public regret to the cast commentary to the long list of Black characters who were actually on the show, we walk through the whole thing with logic, humor, and a little eye-rolling.
Tap FOLLOW if you want more Fray Shots, and if you like this one, hit that 5-star rating — it helps a ton.
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Exactly is is becoming an anti racist 'cause I thought the bar
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was pretty simple. Just don't be racist or people
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scared to enjoy anything without running it through a political
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filter 1st and that leads to more finger pointing mostly at
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the wrong people. It's called Find the White
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Person, Fire away all these shows.
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Welcome to Stay in the Fray podcast.
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I'm your host, Ryan. This is where headlines get hit
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hard, hypocracy gets shredded, and the absurd are laughed at.
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If you want comfort, this isn't your place.
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If you want blunt and unfiltered, I'm your guy.
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Join me in the Fray, all you. Need to do is just listen up.
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All right, guys, I'm going to do a fun one.
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Well, it's I mean, it's kind of fun, but if you like the show
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friends, you'll like this episode.
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And you can get annoyed with me about I tried to find the a lot
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of the videos of the recent ones, I saw these people going,
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they're going after friends, They're still going after
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friends. I thought that was just a little
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fad. And it's not because I take
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these people seriously, but it just kind of keeps popping up.
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And every time it does, I, I, I don't know, I shake my head.
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I just don't. I mean, are you people serious?
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I mean, are we really going to go back and do this?
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If you're going to do it, I'm going to do it.
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So this is arguably one of the greatest comedy sitcoms of all
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time. It's not art.
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You can't even debate it with me.
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A lot of people say Seinfeld. Fair enough.
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I get it. But it's one of them.
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It's my favorite overall. I mean, I love scrubs and I love
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science. I love, I love all of them.
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But friends, I can still watch it.
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I mean, I throw it on at night still to relax, to laugh, shut
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my brain off a little bit before bed.
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It's comfort food, television. So I was asked the same question
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when this bullshit comes up. Why this show?
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Why now? What's the point of going back
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and attacking something that brought people joy and still
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does? But fine, let's pretend just for
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a second that I'm taking this criticism seriously.
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I'm not. But let's ask the questions
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anyway. Is there actually any validity
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to the claim that friends lacked diversity in some sort of
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immoral or offensive way? Let's start kind of starts with
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Friends Co creator Marta Kaufman.
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She's said I don't know how recently, not that long ago,
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that she regrets the lack of diversity on the show.
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She's embarrassed. She's said she didn't do enough.
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She talked about becoming an anti racist and even pledged
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$4 to fund African and African American studies.
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Good for her, but I have to pause.
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What exactly is is becoming an anti racist 'cause I thought the
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bar was pretty simple. Just don't be racist.
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Why are we pretending that writing a show about people who
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look like you, live like you, and share your experience is
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some kind of moral failure? Marta, come on.
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She wrote about 6 white friends in Uptown Manhattan, something
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she actually knew, something she lived.
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Why is that bad? Would people rather she write
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about what it's like to be black in New York when that wasn't her
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experience at all? Usually when people try to do
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that, they get dragged for it. Also, this idea that
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authenticity is now offensive is just so strange to me.
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And you've got Adam. Well, if you remember, he played
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Eddie in Season 2. So very early on of the show he
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was Chandler's temporary roommate.
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Really funny. I like Adam, I think he's great.
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And and that character was really funny.
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But he was also quoted saying recently that the show had an
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insane lack of diversity and then it was unrealistic for New
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York City. Here's where it gets funny.
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Adam Goldberg is Jewish, Puerto Rican, and he was cast on the
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show season 2 recurring role. So let me give this straight.
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The show adds diversity by casting him and then somehow
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becomes proof that the show wasn't diverse enough in Adam's
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eyes? Is it really that unrealistic by
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the I mean to have six friends who hang out all the time that
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look the same, that look similar in New York City?
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I mean, it's not like the show was 37 people and not every
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single one of them was blonde hair and blue eyed.
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Come on. I hate to break it to you, but
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most friend groups don't look like a census spreadsheet.
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Now Aisha Tyler, she played Charlie Wheeler, a scientist by
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the way, a serious character, long art.
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She dated Ross, she dated Joey. She wasn't just a background
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extra. And she also has criticized the
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show for lack of diversity. People are allowed to have their
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opinions, that's fine. But let's also be honest.
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Aisha benefited from the show. She cashed those checks, she got
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exposure. She ended up hosting Whose Line
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Is It Anyway after Drew Carey left.
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She's done a lot. Doesn't make her a villain, just
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makes the outrage feel a little thin.
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How about Twenta Brunson one more?
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I'll just give you one more here.
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Brunson is also called out Friends for the same thing.
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She's talented, no argument, but she wasn't even alive when the
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show started. This isn't lived outrage, This
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is inherited outrage. It is fashionable now to be mad
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at things that people used to love.
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Now let's deal with the myth itself that Friends didn't.
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Not only was lack of diversity, but they didn't have barely any
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black characters. That is false, objectively
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false. I've got receipts already talked
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about Aisha. She played a scientist with a
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major storyline about Gabrielle Union played Kristen Lang who
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multiple episodes, maybe one or two, not many, but she was in a
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love triangle with Ross and Joey.
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They seem to always do that and that was that was a great
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episode when they both tried to date her.
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Here we have Rhonda the museum worker.
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She was fantastic as well. Worked with Ross and Joey at the
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museum. Season one, Phil Lewis, He was
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an authority figure. He was Chandler's boss in later
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season's recurring role, and he went on to have a major show,
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The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, on Disney Channel.
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How about Cal, who played Nick the boxer in one of the
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episodes? The whole plot centered around
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him beating out Joey, who is his acting teacher for a role.
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I think it was all my children. Either way, this guy was the
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director and Joey lied about being able to dance.
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The director left him there to teach the crew of everybody at
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the musical number. Another funny scene.
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Here we go. Here's a double where there's a
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double shot. Taj Mallory and Janet Hubert.
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How about these two Disney Legend Taj?
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Plus, there are other black kids in that same scene.
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And yes, Aunt Viv herself from Fresh Prince of Bel Air, this
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guy was great. Mornings here singer.
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Iconic moment in the show when he's saying mornings here across
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the way. Rachel hated it, Joey loved it.
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Simple but fantastic character. Fireman that wouldn't let Phoebe
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throw away her smoke alarm or a fire alarm entire scene.
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Good looking dude, good for him, but another one of Chandler's
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bosses and this was in season 1. Also another authority figure
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early in the show, Craig Robinson, famous actor and a
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lot, I think it was in a lot of the Seth Rogen stuff and a lot
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of Kevin Smith stuff. But you've seen him before.
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Pretty big time actor. And he was there.
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That whole scene was built around him and he made it funny.
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Ross's divorce attorney, that was hilarious.
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Professional character, a lawyer, competent, and he was
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judging RAW. It was so funny.
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Vegas security guard entire episode this guy appeared and
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then the couch store employee from the famous Pivot episode
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where Ross breaks his couch trying to get it upstairs.
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And she played Nurse Laverne from Scrubs also and she was
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iconic in that. Last but not least, the brown
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birds girl, another hilarious child character when Ross tried
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to sell the brown bird cookies after injuring accidentally one
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of the other girls. And those are just the ones I I
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remembered off the top of my head if once.
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Once I dug in and and looked further, I counted at least 25
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more before I got bored looking for all the fucking pictures for
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you people. You get the point.
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These are receipts. They weren't invisible, they
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just weren't the leads. And that's the real complaint,
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isn't it? Not that they weren't there, but
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that the show wasn't about them. So now let's talk about the
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hypocrisy. Let's play a quick game right
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now and have my guys rapid fire. It's called Find the white
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person, Fire away all these shows.
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I'm still looking for a white person in all of those show
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posters. Didn't see one and nobody gives
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a shit, including me. Nobody demands white
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representation on any of those great shows nobody asks for
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apologies. It'd be calls these shows
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exclusionary because they were shows about specific communities
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and that was perfectly fine. There is literally a channel
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called Black Entertainment Television.
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BET totally fine, no issue for me at all.
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Just imagine though, we've all thought this if someone tried
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launching WET. It's funny enough that it spells
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out WET for some reason, but Can you imagine white entertainment
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television? For a group that talks non-stop
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about inclusion, entertainment seems to get very isolated when
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it's convenient for them. Is this how they would have
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preferred Friends look? Now apply that to all the shows
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I just showed you. It's forced.
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It's silly from any angle. Just to be crystal clear again,
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I don't care. I never did.
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I never watched TV counting races.
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I never watched Fresh Prince wondering where all the white
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people were. I never watched Friends
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wondering where the black people were.
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I just watched the shows. What sucks is that now because
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of all this bullshit, I sometimes catch myself kind of
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analysing these types of things that I never used to analyze.
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And that's the real damage. Not Friends, not comedy, not
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sitcoms from the 90's. The damage is turning everything
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into a moral audit instead of something you're allowed to
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enjoy after a long day. And now look where we've gone
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with it. It it's not just re litigating
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old shows, it's this constant force reengineering of
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everything of example, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, a white
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girl with a mermaid girl with red hair.
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But now she had to be black for the movie.
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That's fine, but let's be honest, that wasn't about
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storytelling. It was about checking a box.
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And fuck, now you got productions of Jesus Christ
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Superstars where Jesus is suddenly a black woman.
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At some point you stop asking, does this make any sense?
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And you start asking, what are we even doing anymore?
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And don't even get me started on the cultural appropriation.
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I've talked about it before, but I mean, just the idea that a
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little white girl can't drag dresses Pocahontas for
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Halloween, that's the message we're sending.
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We're going to go with that instead of celebrating
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differences, honoring Native Americans, we're supposed to be
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afraid of those differences. Apparently somehow that's
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supposed to bring people together.
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Because all I see with it is more division, more walking on
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egg shells, more people scared to enjoy anything without
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running it through a political filter 1st.
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And that leads to more finger pointing mostly at the wrong
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people. So no, I do not think Friends is
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racist and lacks diversity. I think this whole conversation
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is fucking stupid. However, I like talking about
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friends. If anyone who feels a little
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uncomfortable or embarrassed after watching this episode,
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good, move forward. I just wanted it on record that
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I rolled my eyes hard at this whole thing.
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And like I said, any chance to talk about friends I'll take.
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So give me your thoughts. Am I wrong about this?
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Anyone still think after watching this and seeing my
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receipts, you think it lacked diversity?
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You think that there was intent there or that or or even if
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there was, it wasn't intent that it.
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I mean, by the way, let's just toss another one out there.
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A very important character in Season 2 was Julie, and she was
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Asian. I didn't go through all the
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other races because it doesn't seem to be those people who have
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a problem with it. Shoot me some comments, let me
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know like subscribe, hit the bell, do all the stuff that I
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always say that everybody always says or shoot down some on any
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platform. Just toss me some of your
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favorite Friends stuff. I I don't care.
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I love it, I love it. I love that show.
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So don't hesitate. Shoot me your favorite scene and
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we can kind of reminisce about that show.
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So I wanted to get that out there.
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Hope you enjoyed it. Keep watching Friends on the
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reruns still on like 3 channels and I will see you next time.
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Love you guys, all you. Had to do is just listen up.