I finished watching Season 4 of "Orange Is the New Black" two days after Philando Castile was killed by police. It was the day after the Dallas shootings that took the lives of three police officers. On Netflix, I watched a guard suffocate an inmate, and on Facebook, I watched two men be shot to death. The onscreen drama of Netflix's most popular original series was mirroring a disheartening reality.
The world of Litchfield prison functions as a lens for understanding modern day American power dynamics. While racial tensions devolve into a war for race-based power among prisoners, the darkest oppression in Season 4 is against all of the inmates, through the new regime of guards.
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Piscatella's guards "enforce order" by mocking, insulting, and harassing the women of Litchfield. From instigating fights, to feeling up inmates, to raping and murdering prisoners with little to no repercussions, the guards' behavior is at best juvenile, at worst fatal and always overlooked.
Officer Humphrey forces an inmate to eat a live baby mouse.
In a setting where inmates are stripped of systemic power, these women are at the mercy of those resting higher on the ladder. Guards, the warden, even an economically privileged celebrity prisoner are recognized and respected.
However, without limitation to power, and without a system of checks and balances, the prison's hierarchy spirals out of control. Innocent people end up dead.
Does this narrative sound familiar? If you've been watching the news, it should. The show's relevance to modern day America is no coincidence. OITNB is a haunting portrait of what can happen when power is handled irresponsibly.
As inmates are not taken seriously, they lose the little power they have as prisoners, and guards use this to their advantage. Just as Litchfield women are increasingly treated as less than human, millions of Americans are put in the path of danger because, systemically, their lives don't matter as much.
Skewed American power dynamics have been attacked by the public in the last few weeks. The abuse of power in the police force is morbidly obvious - videos, names-turned-hashtags, and the disrespect of the dead are evidences enough.
But while Black Lives Matter supporters are demanding that police power be checked and balanced, some are pushing for the heightened presence of the police force, the suppression of protest, and an even more disparate power dynamic. As a result, violence and death are flooding news streams and tearing at the fabric of national unity.
In my eyes, this violence is the manifestation of systemic oppression and power in the hands of the irresponsible. It stems from biases we haven't shaken, and an unwillingness to address the internalized "isms" that are literally killing people. The deeper we divide ourselves, giving power to the powerful and stripping it away from the rest, the closer we get to war.
OITNB
is evidence of this. It asks, how many people have to suffer before
power stops being abused? What will it take for a divided community to
unify against an oppressor? As Season 4 ends with an image of a gun
pointed to an officer's head, it's hard to deny the relevance of this show's anarchy.
My question is - who put us in prison, and how do we get out?
