Orange Is The New Black Analysis

The third critical book review for this class takes a look at “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander published in 2012 by the New York Press. This book analyzes the problem with the incarceration system in the United States today that unfairly affects the African American community. This incarceration system is continuing to separate families, strip men of their freedom, and effectually make them into second class citizens upon release from prison as “free” men. She even describes that those who are convicted of these crimes are “relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence” (Pg. 4). Michelle Alexander is not only a published author but is also an active Civil Rights activist all while currently employed as an associate professor of law at Ohio State University. It is a very interesting read that coincides with where our class discussions have recently been. It argues that we as a country have not ended racial discrimination but just transformed it into a new type of caste system. It is an eye opening book that created an uncomfortable feeling while reading due to my level of ignorance on this topic prior to taking this class. I believe that this book will serve as an important narrative into fixing the race problems in this country because it brings to light what needs to be fixed. If any progress is made it will be because of books like this that expose the problems but starting to fix them will be the next step.

Racism in the United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that “[w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” using the criminal justice system and colorblind rhetoric. (Alexander 2). The result is a population of Black and Latino men who face barriers and deprivation of rights as did Blacks during the Jim Crow era. Therefore, mass incarceration has become the new Jim Crow.

Though most citizens in the United States would agree that the prison system in the U.S. needs to be amended, do they see the prison system as a way to enforce the racial caste system? At first Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, did not see the prison systems as racially motivated until doing further research. After researching the issue, Alexander found the prison system was a way to oppress African Americans and wrote the novel The New Jim Crow. The New Jim Crow follows the history of the racial caste system and in the novel Alexander comes to the conclusion that the mass incarceration of African American is the New Jim Crow, or in other words a new system of black oppression. Though some might try to refute the idea of mass incarceration of African Americans, Alexander offers a well thought out argument with substantial evidence and data to compellingly link Jim Crow and mass incarceration and proves that it is an issue that should be on the radar of all U.S. citizens.

Orange is the new black is a Netflix original series about the functional ability of a woman's prison in upstate New York. Integrity, power, and privilege all work together to create many of the situations that arise. Litchfield prison is made up of white male officers, and different racial groups that are clearly divided. For each race, loosely made up of: blacks, latinos, whites, “others”, and a group of older women known as “the golden girls”, there is a sector of living. Blacks in one block, with a bathroom only for them, whites in another, etc. Conflict theory and symbolic interactionism are both excellent theories to examine this series by. Conflict theory, a multi-part theory about both race and gender, is applicable to Orange Is The New Black because of the degrading treatment of the women and the denial of their basic feminine needs. Symbolic interactionism can be applied to most situations that occur in the show. Through these theories social interactions in Orange Is The New Black can be looked at and better understood.

In the book, OITNB, freedom takes a new toll on the main character, Piper. As she is young and in love, experiencing true freedom for the first time she makes decisions which unfold into many mistakes. She learns the harsh

It is clear that Pipers stay in the facilities taught her a lot and changed her, however in good ways. She learned that she was not alone inside and outside of prison due to her family and friends who helped and supported her financially or just with kind words. Piper even learned to forgive others, about faith, and was even given hope by friends. She witnessed the horrible things that many women encompass constantly, such as the lack of resources available to these women. Therefore she has devoted some of her time and apart of her life to helping others whose life too has been impacted by the prison system.

This is the story of Piper Kerman, and how her personal story from being in prison relates to that of other female offenders. Kerman came from a well educated family, who were mostly doctors, lawyers, or teachers.“Much to the skepticism of my father and grandfather,” she writes, Kerman had majored in theater (Kerman, p. 4), and graduated from Smith College in New England. After college, her classmates and friends were going off to their graduate school programs or new jobs. Kerman, however, decided to stay in Massachusetts. She felt unmotivated pursuing a career in theater, and did not have an interest in truly continuing on with her education. Furthermore, she also felt that she did not have a “meaningful career” (Kerman, p. 4). Kerman

From the very start of “Orange is the New Black”, creator Jenji Kohan has made it clear that gender identity and sexuality will feel like a normality in this series. Viewers are to forget what gender inequality is and see these characters as everyday people. Kohan breaks the rules of traditional “male gaze” and phallocentric cinema. These characters are not your typical females. Kohan flips the switch by setting this series in a women’s correctional facility. Up until the last few centuries, female characters in film and television have been portrayed in a softer light. They are supposed to be pretty and clean the house and take the kids to school. Those days are over. We are now spectators to characters such as Olivia Pope from the series

Orange Is the New Black is a Netflix series based off of Pieper Kerman’s memoir, Orange is The New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. The show revolves around Piper, a woman from New York who is sentenced to 15 months in prison in an upstate New York penitentiary. She was convicted due to transporting drug money in a suitcase for her former girlfriend, Alex. In prison, she is reunited with Alex and their relationship begins to be reevaluated by the both of them. Throughout the series, each character’s back story is told through flashbacks to explain how they wound up in prison or to further develop their backstory. Not only does the show explore Piper’s life in prison as well as the other inmates, it also depicts the corruption of the U.S

For this week’s homework assignment, I decided to watch the episode of Adam Ruins Everything: Prisons and give a response. I really enjoyed this episode, and it has even prompted me to watch more of Adam Ruins Everything. I found this episode to be very blunt, but scripted in such a way that it was simple for people of privilege, like myself, to connect to and empathize with. The way that the episode centered around a white female who was naive and held many of the same beliefs about the prison system as most privileged people, is reminiscent of Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of Oz. Although, instead of finding out that Oz is a fake, Emily finds out that our prison system is deeply flawed and even corrupt. We learn through Emily, Adam, and

In Orange is the New Black there is a lot of representation of queer characters. Most of the main characters are queer or have been in some sort of relationship. Basically in every episode there is some form of queer relationship. The character that I am going to be focusing on is Piper Chapman. She is one of the main characters and most of the plot lines are based around her.

I was nervous before reading Orange is the New Black because I have never read a book where the setting is prison showcasing the bleak life of an inmate. The reason I decided to read this book is because I have never watched the TV-series that everyone is obsessed with, and I wanted to learn the true story behind the famous show before I decided to watch or not watch the series. The show based on a book is written by an actual convict, about her actual time in prison. Piper Kerman is a drug smuggler who was caught trying to smuggle heroine into the United States from Belgium, is an actual real person, who wrote a book about her actual real life.

The artifact I have chosen to analyze is the following scene from the show “Orange is the New Black” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtAaXM1GAgw). This scene displays an interaction between two prisoners and friends, Poussey and Taystee. Poussey is furious with Taystee for ending up back in prison after being released. Taystee attempts to explain herself by claiming that prison is easier than attempting to live a normal life after prison. Poussey smacks Taystee and angrily states that her mom passed away while she was in prison and she wasn’t there to say goodbye so Taystee has no reason for walking back into prison “because freedom was inconvenient.” To this Taystee responds by sincerely claiming that life after prison is “some kind of joke”; in the real world she doesn’t have anywhere to stay, she owes the prison money that she doesn’t have, and everyone she knows is “poor, in jail, or gone”. At least in prison she knows “where to be and what rules to follow”, has a bed, and gets dinners. I argue that this scene portrays the many ways in which America’s criminal justice system negatively affects the average African-American significantly more than it does the average white person.

Piper Kerman is a Smith College graduate who is serving thirteen months in prison, from 2004 to 2005, for a drug trafficking and money laundering crime she committed nearly ten years before. For most of her entire stay Piper is placed in a minimum-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut. I am from Avon, Connecticut so because her story was so close to home it immediately struck me as interesting. Her experience is eye opening, and as the book progresses you can see a slight transformation from a “normal” person to a hardened convict. Pipers book, Orange is the New Black, gives insight into the realities of women’s minimum-security prisons in the United States and how the criminal justice system works

The Netflix original series, Orange Is the New Black takes a “consumerist approach to sexuality,” by repetitively featuring sexual relations among inmates as a way to attract viewers. (Schwan) Orange Is the New Black neglects to explore emotional attachment beyond a need to fulfill sexual needs and minimize loneliness while in prison. Bisexual female characters, if given the opportunity, often leave their female partner for a relationship with a male, downgrading the realism of an actual bisexual lifestyle. Although lesbian activity is presented throughout, only women with this body type are presented in a highly sexualized male gaze viewpoint. (TrierBieniek) The sexual relations presented display an “objectifying, exploitative portrayal of lesbian sexuality.” (Schwan) Although, Orange Is the New Black’s cast is exceptionally diverse, the show only films sex scenes between slender inmates. Ultimately, the show presents LGBTQ characters in a non-threatening light, but features bisexuality as a temporary sexual encounter of convenience.