You can't sit with Us

The popular Netflix series, Orange is the New Black has received positive responses. One of the slightly bothering parts of the show was when Piper Kerman, the main character, was first introduced to the women's prison cafeteria. There was a classic scan of all the tables; this scene showed all of the prisoners only sitting with their specific race. All three of the groups (White, African American, and Latinas) are tense and tend not to integrate with each other.

The show displays all three groups of women having conflicts with each other. When the Latina bathroom was flooding, they started using the "Ghetto" or Black bathroom. This caused tensions between the two groups but the leaders of each group Vee and Mendoza finally agree to a fair deal that allowed the Latinas to use their bathroom. 

It appears that each racial group is almost like a gang, or an incredibly close family. All of the women stick together and look to their designated leaders for protection and guidance. For example, when there was a storm and all of the inmates were forced to sleep in the cafeteria, Red (motherly figure for the white women) and her gang was concerned about being attacked by the other women. It's funny how even adult women are still somewhat immature about racial interatctions. Why can't we sit together?