I'll Be There for You?

FRIENDS. Everyone's guilty pleasure TV show. The hilarious sitcom is about 6 white New Yorkers, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Ross, Phoebe, and Joey, who go through their daily lives with a few ups and downs. However in the show, there are close to no outside ethnic groups throughout the entire series. And when the 6 friends interfere with different races, they become challenged, feared, or disliked. The main characters of the show are always shown sitting on a huge couch at their favorite coffee shop called Central Perk, making everyone around them seem less important or not good enough for them. But, every time one of the six starts dating an ethnic person, there's conflict among the others.

For example, when Ross starts dating Julie, a Chinese-American, Rachel becomes jealous (since she has feelings for Ross) and is not only rude to her, but she doesn't let her friends hang out with her. In this clip, you see Rachel trying to be friends with Julie, but at the end of the clip, Rachel calls Julie a "manipulative bitch":

Another example would be when Rachel starts dating Paolo, a mysterious Italian man living in their apartment building. Ross absolutely hates Paolo's guts, because he wants to be with Rachel. And once again, when an ethnic character enters the circle of friends, there's conflict and jealousy among the characters. In this clip, Ross starts making fun of Paolo's accent:

Throughout the entire series of Friends, not one minority ever lasts for more than a few episodes. Only one character becomes accepted by the group, Phoebe's husband, Mike, who is a white middle-class, just like the rest of the group. Friends seems to keep that kind of white, middle-class status throughout the series and never has any ethnic character enter the group. The show does reflect racial diversity; however, most fans of the show (including me) seem to not care about that because of the comedic vibes the characters give off. The show is not a huge problem for racial diversity, but it is something to realize and take note of.