AND DIGNITY
of this season’s more meaningful backstories. Janae (Vicky Jeudy), one of the black inmates, recalls a grade-school field trip to a ritzy Riverdale prep school, where she discovered the striking inequality of the education system.
While visiting the theatre, Janae sees a trio of white students rehearsing for their upcoming staging of Dreamgirls. It’s an initially hilarious setup, but turns heartbreaking as Janae watches white Effie belt out And I am telling you, in an Afro wig. “I know, right?” her clueless tour guide says as tears roll down Janae’s cheeks.
Back in the present, Taystee tells the cameras that the rich and privileged “Judy King can’t speak for the inmates of this prison”.
“Our fight is not with Judy King,” she continues tearfully. “Our fight is with a system that does not give a damn about poor people and brown people and poor brown people. Our fight is with the folks who hold our demands in their hands.”
It’s a shame it takes OITNB so long to get to the point. The good news is that season 5 becomes a beautiful statement – about protest, resistance and finding dignity in a place where the people in power would do anything to take it from you. – The Washington Post
Our fight is not with Judy King, our fight is with a system that does not give a damn about poor people and brown people and poor brown people