History Headscratchers / OrangeIsTheNewBlack

** Because if the kids have any say, they are far more likely to choose the newer, flashier, cool musical, over an older one they might probably have already done before, either at school, or theatre/drama/dance school etc. Kids aren't likely to think 'this musical features all black people, maybe we as an all white school shouldn't do it'. This troper went to summer theatre schools and was involved in a production of Fiddler, when none, or very few of us were Jewish and none of us thought we shouldn't do it because of that.

** Along with RuleOfDrama, the theme of the episode was about how white people silence black people, and one of they ways this happens is by co-opting black music and culture. It was chosen (at least out of universe) precisely ''because'' it's a terrible choice of performance for those little white girls.

* Who in the Sam-hell thought that a school for rich white girls needed to do a production of Dreamgirls?! 90% of all the musicals in the world would have been a better choice, plenty of them with strong female roles, and a good few with strong belting roles for women.

** We see the pre-prison lives of the women who have flashbacks, so we can label them for sure: Red, Miss Claudette, Daya, Aleida, Janae, Pennsatucky, Gloria, Black Cindy, Rosa, Sister Ingalls and Vee are all shown to be either heterosexual or celibate, both outside the prison and inside. Lorna is prison gay, but otherwise heterosexual. Sophia is clearly a lesbian. Nicky was almost certainly a lesbian before coming to prison, although we never see her with a woman. Alex, Tricia and Poussey have only ever been shown with women. Piper is bisexual.

** She might not have been convicted of grand theft auto. She also could have argued that she was put up to it, or they could have decided to overlook her charge because of good behavior. Morello was probably in for stalking, and she still got van duty.

** For someone with a history of obsessive romanic stalking, it's not unlikely that they would go as far as to put a bomb under your fiancée's car. As for how she acquired it, she could have just used google or got it from someone else.

* Maritza was arrested for grand theft auto. Who thought it would be a good idea to put her on van duty?

** Pennssatucky was probably also charged for terrorism related or hate crimes since an attack on an abortion clinic would be politically motivated. Maybe Suzanne was brought up on some sort of human trafficking/child abduction charges?

* Why are so many of the inmates in Federal prisons, when they've committed what should be state-level crimes? Watson, for example, was convicted of armed robbery, which should have gotten her sent to a state prison rather than a Federal institution. Unless Lolly did something else we didn't see, she was apparently convicted of assaulting a police officer, which is also not under Federal jurisdiction. Interestingly enough, murder is also typically a crime that falls under state jurisdiction rather than Federal, except under certain circumstances. Some of the inmates convicted of murder or attempted murder could be placed under federal jurisdiction (Yoga Jones's crime was probably presented as a drug-related offense, Red was probably convicted as an accessory to murder under Federal organized crime laws, I'd be willing to buy that Norma's murder took place in a National Park, which is Federal property and therefore under Federal jurisdiction, Morello likely would have gotten some sort of terrorism-type charge with her attempted murder, since she used an explosive device), but that doesn't explain how, say, Pennsatucky or Suzanne are in a Federal institution rather than a state penitentiary.

** Judging by Daya's pregnancy going from conception in season 1 to birth in season 3, we can assume the first three seasons take maybe ten months. If season 4 is on the same time schedule then probably about thirteen or fourteen months have passed since the beginning of the show so Piper's release (or possibly extension of her time to keep the narrative going) will most likely be a plot point in Season 5 (although it's [possible season 4 took place over a shorter period of time to exemplify how quickly things went to shit). Aside from her we have no idea how long everyone else is in for because they're crimes vary and it's up to the convenience of the plot.

** Judging by Daya's pregnancy going from conception in season 1 to birth in season 3, we can assume the first three seasons take maybe ten months. If season 4 is on the time schedule then probably about thirteen or fourteen months have passed since the beginning of the show so Piper's release (or possibly extension of her time to keep the narrative going) will most likely be a plot point in Season 5 (although it's [possible season 4 took place over a shorter period of time to exemplify how quickly things went to shit). Aside from her we have no idea how long everyone else is in for because they're crimes vary and it's up to the convenience of the plot.

* So exactly how much time does Piper or other notable inmates for that matter have left before they are released? At the beginning of Season 1, Piper's sentence is for 15 months, and I don't remember anybody specifically mentioning how much time each season is supposed to represent (a month, a week?) so at the end of Season 4, does she have a year left? How much time does Red have left? Gloria?

** For someone with a history of obsessive romanic stalking, it's not unlikely that they would go as far as to put a bomb under your fiancée's car. As for how she acquired it, she could have just used google or got it from someone else.

* Lorna Morello does not seem to be particularly techno-savvy. She did not even know what Pinterest was, and did not seem to do online stalking other than through email and Facebook. She does not seem to be particularly into gadgets- and other than the make-up, she does not really MacGyver anything. How in the world did Christopher MacLaren know that it was Lorna Morello who put that homemade explosive under Angela's car? It does not seem like something she would be able to come up with. Or was she found "not guilty" of this particular charge due to that exact same reason, and thus was convicted only of the lesser charges of mail order fraud and perhaps stalking and harassment?

** They are absolutely not allowed to do 80% of the crap that goes on in this show, but they do, because nobody cares. Even if an investigation does reach the court, are a jury going to believe the for profit prison's legal team, or the person who's probably being portrayed by them as a violent thug, thief, drug addict etc, and can't afford to have more than a public defender.

** OP: Fascinating, but the question was are they ''allowed'' to do these things. Will the corporations go the extra mile to defend them if, God forbid, one of these ladies walks and presses charges against the guards for the abuse she suffered while incarcerated. Or would the case just be laughed out of court because no one cares about and ex-con, male or female? Don't guards typically at least get fired for groping female prisoners when they aren't beating them with nightsticks for sneezing wrong?

** Interesting article [[https://rewire.news/article/2016/06/21/prison-overcrowding-problems-orange-new-black-reflect-real-life-crisis/ here]], with some links to articles about real life prisons who are doing the kind of things that the guards at Litchfield are. Terrible.

** We see the pre-prison lives of the women who have flashbacks, so we can label them for sure: Red, Miss Claudette, Daya, Aleida, Janae, Pennsatucky, Gloria, Black Cindy, Rosa, Sister Ingalls and Vee are all shown to be either heterosexual or celibate, both outside the prison and inside. Lorna is prison gay, but otherwise heterosexual. Sophia was bisexual, even before her transition. Nicky was almost certainly a lesbian before coming to prison, although we never see her with a woman. Alex, Tricia and Poussey have only ever been shown with women. Piper is bisexual.

** I can't answer unequivocally, but there's a definite [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment Stanford Prison Experiment]] vibe to it. Hopefully we have some tropers who can answer.

* Given that this is a show very, very loosely based on a person's actual experience, are guards really allowed to act that way to inmates? Using the philosophy of PayEvilUntoEvil as a blatant excuse to abuse the inmates (example, pulling a weapon on them for getting a bit snippy) like those guys from season 4 do. Like, would they get away with it scot-free? I've no doubt that it does happen and it's unjust, to put it mildly, but would the corporations that run the prisons really go so far to to keep these unstable, vicious brutes on as to nurse their dangerous tenancies at worst and turn a blind eye at best instead of finding someone less...sadistic? I mean, one of them is a freakin' war-criminal. An answer from an experienced party (a real prison guard, an ex-con, ect.) would be especially appreciated.

* Given that this is a show very, very loosely based on a person's actual experience, are guards really allowed to act that way to inmates? Using the philosophy of PayEvilUntoEvil as a blatant excuse to abuse the inmates (example, pulling a weapon on them for getting a bit snippy) like those guys from season 4 do. Like, would they get away with it scot-free? I've no doubt that it does happen and it's unjust, to put it mildly, but would the corporations that run the prisons really go so far to to keep these unstable, vicious brutes on as to nurse their dangerous tenancies at worst and turn a blind eye at best instead of finding someone less...sadistic? An answer from an experienced party (a real prison guard, an ex-con, ect.) would be especially appreciated.

** That makes sense, especially given how crowded Max is.