Race in Orange is the New Black

Themes from both Omi and Winant’s “Racial Formation” and Lipstiz’s “Popular Culture: This Ain’t No Sideshow” are present in the new Netflix television series “Orange is the New Black.”  The show follows the protagonist Piper through her ups and downs of prison life as an upper middle class white woman.  Throughout the show, racial categorization becomes a prominent element.  In prison, the inmates have self-segregated themselves into three primary groups based on race (Black, Latino, and White). There is no room for movement within these groups and they don’t necessarily all get along.  A forth group comprises the “left-over” inmates.  Each group has it’s own culture.  In an online article “‘Orange Is the New Black,’ and How We Talk About Race and Identity” by T.F. Charlton, she describes a scene that examines how these prison subcultures see each other.

“In the white inmates’ section of the cafeteria, Lorna explains what she “know[s]” about “Hispanics”: “They live like 20 people to one apartment, they have more kids than even the Irish … they’re dirty, they’re greasy, and they’re taking our jobs.” At one of the Latina tables, a debate concludes with observations that Black people are “smelly, stupid, and lazy, but they ain’t got different bones”—”Except in their pants.” Meanwhile, at the Black table, Taystee and Poussey parody the mindset that embodies “white people politics,” deftly skewering white upper-class dilettantism (yoga, sushi, documentaries, and veganism), sexual repression (“quiet sex every night at 9:00″), and affluence (“Did you hear that piece on NPR about hedge funds?”).

This show relates to Omi’s and Winant’s ideas of eliminating the racial binaries.  Just like on the census, there appears to be only a few “box-like” groups that the woman can identify as.  Furthermore, each group has “otherized” the other inmates.  Their ideas of each other are based on preconceived notions not on individual actions.  There are no multiracial inmates nor would there be room for them to fit into one of these racial groups.

In the last episode, the inmates put together a Christmas pageant.  This exemplifies Lipsitz’s notion of theater as a common cultural event amongst a community.  As an audience we have seen the back-story of these women, and here they come together and work together to create a piece of collective art.  This is different than most modern theatrical events as the women are not strangers paying to see a theatrical production.  It is not a commodity but a product of collective memories.