Orange is the New Black (OITNB) is a Netflix original web series created by Jenji Kohan and adapted from the memoir of Piper Kerman, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison (2010), which explores life inside a women’s prison system. The series includes a diverse cast of historically excluded Black, Latina, and transgender actresses. How do they create seemingly groundbreaking media based on the controversial world of prison systems in a time when inequality is perpetuated by institutionalized racism: a time when the likelihood of black women going to prison is 1 in 18, while for the white women it is 1 in 111 (The Sentencing Project). Race is a determining factor in how institutionalized systems in our society affect individuals. Black and Brown women
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You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories. But it’s a hard sell to just go in and try to sell those stories initially. The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point, and it’s relatable for a lot of audiences and a lot of networks looking for a certain demographic. It’s useful. (Gross 2013)
The knowledge and meanings produced by Kohan in OITNB are directly, economically, and ideologically driven by White media that is inherently racist because of its superiority of white women representation over black and brown women. Those who do not fit the image of girl next door are ostracized and robbed of their individuality. Black voices in mainstream media only get a chance to speak when the White person has said it is okay for them to speak. Diversity is what grabbed the audience’s initial attention but producers are actively placing Piper in the forefront and influencing the audience 's
You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories. But it’s a hard sell to just go in and try to sell those stories initially. The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point, and it’s relatable for a lot of audiences and a lot of networks looking for a certain demographic. It’s useful. (Gross 2013)
The knowledge and meanings produced by Kohan in OITNB are directly, economically, and ideologically driven by White media that is inherently racist because of its superiority of white women representation over black and brown women. Those who do not fit the image of girl next door are ostracized and robbed of their individuality. Black voices in mainstream media only get a chance to speak when the White person has said it is okay for them to speak. Diversity is what grabbed the audience’s initial attention but producers are actively placing Piper in the forefront and influencing the audience 's