SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Opava 2020 Bc. Veronika Andrlová SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě Bc. Veronika Andrlová Obor: Angličtina Social Issues in Orange Is the New Black Diplomová práce Opava 2020 Vedoucí diplomové práce doc. PhDr. Michaela Weiss, Ph.D. Abstract This master’s thesis deals with chosen social issues that were portrayed throughout the seven seasons of a Netflix series, Orange Is the New Black. The Netflix series is based on a memoir called Orange Is the New Black: My Year in Women’s Prison and was written by Piper Kerman. The main part of the thesis is dedicated to analysis of four chosen social issues which are white privilege, mass incarceration and immigration in the United States, and the treatment of LGBTQ inmates. These issues are described and portrayed through different characters in the series. Keywords: Orange Is the New Black, racial identity, immigration, women’s prisons, transgender inmates Abstrakt Tato diplomová práce se zabývá vybranými sociálními problémy, které byly vyobrazeny během sedmi sérii seriálu Orange Is the New Black. Tento americký seriál vychází z memoáru Oranžová je nová černá: Můj rok v ženské věznici, který napsala autorka Piper Kermanová. Hlavní pozornost je věnována analýze těmto sociálním problémům, kterými jsou rasová identita, imigrace, hromadné věznění v USA a problémům, kterým čelí členové menšin ve věznicích. Tyto problémy jsou vyobrazeny na osudech různých postav seriálu. Klíčová slova: Orange Is the New Black, rasová identita, imigrace, ženské věznice, transgender vězni Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto práci vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré prameny a literatura, které jsem pro vyhotovení práce využila, řádně cituji a uvádím v seznamu použité literatury a internetových zdrojů. V Opavě dne ……………. ..……………………... Veronika Andrlová I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor doc. PhDr. Michaela Weiss, Ph.D., for her guidance, valuable advices, and patience throughout the process of writing this thesis. Table of contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1 Orange Is the New Black ............................................................................................... 3 2 Characters of the show ................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Piper Elizabeth Chapman ................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Judy King .......................................................................................................................... 10 2.3 Poussey Washington ......................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Janae Watson .................................................................................................................... 13 2.5 Tasha Jefferson ................................................................................................................. 15 3 Racial identity ............................................................................................................. 19 4 Mass incarceration ...................................................................................................... 22 4.1 Women’s prisons .............................................................................................................. 25 4.2 Privatization of prisons ..................................................................................................... 26 5 Immigration in the USA ............................................................................................. 32 5.1 Trump Policies .................................................................................................................. 34 5.2 Immigration Detention centers.......................................................................................... 37 5.1 Maritza Ramos .................................................................................................................. 40 5.2 Blanca Flores .................................................................................................................... 44 5.3 Karla Córdova ................................................................................................................... 46 5.4 Shani Abboud ................................................................................................................... 48 6 The treatment of LGBTQ inmates ............................................................................ 50 6.1 Mistreatment of transgender inmates ................................................................................ 52 6.2 Sophia Burset .................................................................................................................... 54 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 60 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 64 1 Introduction Orange Is the New Black is an American Netflix series that was created by Jenji Kohan and takes place in a women’s prison called Litchfield. The Netflix series is based on a memoir called Orange Is the New Black: My Year in Women’s Prison where the author, Piper Kerman, is describing her experiences with the American prison system. The first season of the series premiered on Netflix, in 2013 and the final season seven was released in 2019. Orange Is the New Black is also considered to be one of the first shows along with House of Cards that started the trend of binge-watching. As mentioned above, this master’s thesis deals with the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. However, it primarily focuses on the chosen social issues that were depicted in the series through its seven seasons. The chosen social issues include white privilege, mass incarceration in the United States, immigration in the United States and the treatment of LGBTQ inmates in the prison system. The thesis also focuses on how these specific issues are portrayed through different characters in the series. The first chapter of the thesis focuses on the life of the author Piper Kerman and what did she do to end up in prison. The chapter also describes her memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in Women’s Prison and briefly describes the Netflix adaptation of a said book. Another focus of the chapter is her experiences with the prison system in the United States and what did she learn from her stay in prison. And lastly, the chapter focuses more thoroughly on the similarities and differences between the memoir and the Netflix adaptation. The second chapter focuses on the issue of white privilege and how that can help certain inmates in the prison system in the United States. The chapter also briefly describes how the producer of the show used the white privilege to her advantage in order to tell stories from the point of view of people of color. The issue of white privilege is described in this thesis through characters from the series that I have chosen where I thought the privilege was more obvious and could be easily spotted and therefore described. The third chapter focuses on racial identity. It describes what identity is and its’ different stages. It also depicts how someone’s identity can change once someone is in a group. It also defines racial groups and how these groups can change people’s identities. The issue of racial identity is portrayed in the series through racial groups that are formed upon the arrival of inmates into prison. 2 The fourth chapter focuses on the big issue of the United States that is mass incarceration. The chapter briefly describes the previous events that lead to mass incarceration. It also describes the women’s prisons and the current issues of privatization of prisons. The fifth chapter depicts the issue of immigration in the United States. The chapter starts with the brief history of immigration in the United States and then describes the policies that are put in place by the Trump administration that are affecting the lives of immigrants in the United States today. This chapter also focuses on detention centers that are part of season seven of the series. The issue of immigration in the series is told through four characters. The last chapter focuses on the treatment of LGBTQ inmates in the prison system in the United States. The focus of this chapter is primarily on the issues that transgender inmates face in prisons and how that issue was portrayed in the series through the character of Sophia Burset. 3 1 Orange Is the New Black Piper Kerman is the author of the popular memoir called Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Woman Prison. The book was first published in 2010 but gained more popularity after it was adapted into Netflix series Orange Is the New Black (OITNB). After the release of the first season of OITNB in 2013, Kerman’s book got on the New York Times bestsellers list. Piper Kerman is an American Caucasian woman who successfully graduated from Smith College so she is not that type of person that anyone would guess would spend a little over a year in prison, but she did. In 1993 Piper was traveling with her then-lover Catherine Cleary Wolters (Nora Jansen in the book) to Asia and Europe wherein one case she carried a suitcase