There Is No Such Thing as a Post-racial Prison

Abstract

This article argues that Orange Is the New Black’s multiculturalist approach to diversity on television is indicative of the show’s inability and unwillingness to critique neoliberalism, and thus to effectively critique the prison industrial complex in the United States. It claims that because the women in prison genre demands a diverse set of characters, the show uses intraracial, class-based conflict to participate in a culture of “color blindness” on screen.