Academic essay critiquing the show Orange Is The New Black

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Ann Cutaia
Academic Essay
NUI Post-Graduate Admisions
12 April 2014
Racism in Prison, As Seen On TV
In the article, “White Chick Behind Bars,” Yasmin Nair discusses the racism seen in the
hit TV show Orange is the New Black, and sometimes the lack of racism within the fictional
prison system in the show. First, she discusses how sexuality is portrayed differently between
white women and women of color on the TV show. Nair also questions the different types of
autonomies that the white women have versus the women of color. She then critiques the fact
that some of the detrimental issues of race in America’s prison system were left out of the
fictional prison on the show. Yasmin Nair critiques the way the show portrays sexuality between
races, the different autonomies given to the characters based on race, and the absence of critical
race issues that occur in the nonfictional prison system in America.
Media depictions of pure Giving the white woman a purer image on television and in the
media compared to her hyper-sexualized, non-white counterpart is not a new phenomenon. This
is an issue which stems from slavery, “when the lightest blacks—whose skin color was often the
result of rape by white slave masters—were favored over their darker kin because they were
closer in color and appearance to dominant society,” (Dyson, 210). America’s standard of
beauty has always favored white women, while American society has purified these same
women while also placing them on the highest sexual pedestal. Nair justifiably complains about
the fact that the white women in Orange is the New Black are shown with their bras on while
having sex, while the women of color are “starkly eroticized,” (Nair). Kara Keeling supports
Nair’s claims in “’Joining the Lesbians:’ Cinematic Regimes of Black Lesbian Visibility” by

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quoting a Stuart Hall essay, which says, “’the marginality, the stereotypical quality and the
fetishized nature of images of blacks’” is problem-causing, (Keeling, 215). Not only are the
images of black women problematic, but those of white women in the media and in Orange is
the New Black are also controversial, due to the fact that they are shown as the Virgin Mary type
as compared to their eroticized, non-white sisters. The purification of white women as opposed
to women of color is hardly a new concept, but one would think that a progressive show like
Orange is the New Black, which has been groundbreaking for the LGBTQ community, would
know better than to reinforce societal stereotypes regarding race and sex. Furthermore, the black
women during slavery were constructed “as inherently lascivious,” and “their wombs became the
largely unprotected domain of white male desire.” “Their sexuality was harnessed to perpetuate
slavery through procreation,” (Dyson, 214). While the black women during slavery were being
“raped at will” to continue slavery, the white women “defined the norm of beauty for the culture.
[The white women] remained the prized erotic possession to be fought over by black and white
men,” (Dyson, 216). While things have changed very slightly for the better, these horrific ideals
are still being perpetuated, glorified, and instilled into American culture. The bra on the white
woman versus the “starkly eroticized” positions of the women of color in Orange is the New
Black is just another reminder that white women are still sadly the ideal and that American
society has not made the necessary strides to erase the standard of beauty that existed during
slavery (Nair).
Nair then discusses the different “agencies” given to the characters based on race (Nair).
Although Piper, the white main character of Orange is the New Black, is “deluded and
confused,” she is “the only one who can rise above her own needs to consider the larger issues
facing inmates,” (Nair). Nair describes another scene in which Piper is the only inmate to “raise

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pressing issues, like the discontinuation of GED classes and the closing of the running track,” in
spite of the fact that she is the only white woman in the room. She is a minority in the sense that
she is the only white woman in a room full of African Americans, but the scene reminds
audiences even if a white person is a minority in numbers, s/he is still granted majority status
when it comes to agency. The other women, who were all women of color, were more
concerned with not being treated to “doughnuts and coffee... [and] Sriracha,” (Nair). The fact
that the women of color were worried more about the food than the critical issues at hand is
negatively stereotypical in itself. Furthermore, Keeling suggests that the few women of color
with autonomy in media, film, or television “can be effected only violently,” and the violence is
heightened if said woman of color also identifies as lesbian (Keeling, 216). A viewer could only
surmise that white women on TV hold all of the agency, while their non-white counterparts are
either completely non-autonomous or are autonomous with violent repercussions.
Orange is the New Black wrongfully paints prison “as the logical, if slightly flawed,
corrective to society’s problems,” (Nair). The TV show does not illuminate the institutionalized
racism that prison exudes “in order to survive” (Nair). Orange is the New Black ignores the
“Prison Industrial Complex” completely, and fails to recognize the American prison system as a
system that makes money by “recirculating people (mostly of color),” (Nair). The show’s blatant
ignorance of racial issues in prison, such as the fact that “black people are four times more likely
to be arrested for the possession of marijuana than whites,” is incredibly sad due to the missed
opportunity to illuminate the overt racism in America’s prison system. While Piper will go on
with her life, her previous poor decision simply seen as a “bad choice,” the reality of the women
of color in prison is not as forgiving (Nair). The women of color will not get a second chance,

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like the Pipers of the world. They will be recirculated through the “doors” of the prison system
(Nair).
Nair tackles the racial issues in the American prison system as seen on the hit Netflix
series, Orange is the New Black. She critiques the difference between white and non-white
sexuality on the show, the agency given to the characters based on race, and the lack of real
world racial realities of the women of color in the prison system.

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Works Cited
Dyson, Michael Eric. Why I Love Black Women. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003. eBook.
Keeling, Kara. “’Joining the Lesbians’: Cinematic Regimes of Black Lesbian Visibility.”
Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Nair, Yasmin. "White Chick Behind Bars." In These Times: With Liberty and Justice for All....
N.p., 18 Jul 2013. Web. 28 Mar 2014.
<http://inthesetimes.com/article/15311/white_chick_behind_bars>.