Social Awareness Response

You never want to do something so bad that you go from representing your country in front of the world to being hated for a disgraceful reason. In the article “ Role reversal” by Patricia Smith, Oscar Pistorius is in that exact situation. Pistorius is known for his performance in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. He ran track despite having two prosthetic legs to replace the ones that were cut. After the games, he and his country celebrated his performance with plenty of partying and other activities. However, several days later, Pistorius had murdered his girlfriend. Of course he has to go through a court system, like all murder cases, and this time, he happened to have a black judge. This was a really rare occurrence for a black women to be judging  a white man. Around the 1900’s this would be unthinkable, but now it has become a reality. The author wants its readers to know that time has changed so we need to move on with the racial stereotypes and that the judge handled those stereotypes well. Also the author shows that you can go from the top to the bottom in a matter of days so you always have to watch what you do.

The author really does a good job with constructing her writing so that she can prove a point while getting good facts across. For example in the text, the author states, “ Despite the glare of live television and social media, legal experts say Judge Masipa guided the proceedings skillfully and gracefully.” This demonstrated to me and other readers that the author and many other people respected how courageous this judge is. This greater improves my respect for this judge because of the amount of pressure she had to deal with. I’m sure that the author wanted her readers to think the exact thing that i’m thinking. 

There is a reason that everyone always is saying watch what you are doing. This is a perfect example. Oscar Pistorius is the biggest thing in South Africa but one argument ends it all While explaining what happened with him and his girlfriend, the author is teaching a lesson to all of her readers that what he did is a horrible action to preform. The line, “ Pistorius could serve no jail or as much as 15 years behind bars for culpable homicide.” I think that Patricia Smith included that line to scare her readers to prove that you definitely wouldn’t want to murder someone. The author also emphasizes that Pistorius was a highly celebrated star and that one mistake has ruined his career and stripped him of his respect.

Overall, I believe that this is a really powerful article. It demonstrates a huge change in a world that has always been stereotypical. It teaches me that anything can happen so I should watch what I do and fight for anything that people don’t think I can succeed at and work toward that. I know now that I can stand up for people and fight for a change. This article widens my appreciation for Judge Masipa and what she does for a living. So in conclusion, the author did a really great job constructing this piece to get the information in but also at the same time stating her opinion.