Non-fiction Article Reading Response :)

The article "Role Reversal" by Patricia Smith states that, "A black woman judging a white man would  have been unthinkable under apartheid." However, that's exactly what happened during the trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who was found guilty of "culpable homicide" last month. The main judge, a sixty-seven year old black woman named Thokozile Matilda Masipa, became the second black woman in South Africa to become an official judge in 1998. Now she is doing something unimaginable in South Africa during apartheid; a black woman is judging a rich, white man. Although during apartheid this setup would have been unthinkable, it can inspire the people of South Africa to see that things are different now. The claim that the author makes is that things have changed since the time of apartheid for the better. 

Throughout the entire article the author, Patricia Smith, uses many different crafting methods to support her claim. Repeatedly, she refers back to apartheid, a time in South African history when people were racially segregated. She explains that, "It's a situation that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, before the end of apartheid." Apartheid prevented black people living in South Africa from voting, and even socializing with white people. No one even considered the thought of a black person becoming a judge! The article quotes a black woman named Nomavenda Mathiane, a former newspaper colleague, who said, "'Whoever thought that one day a black woman would be standing judge over a white boy?'" She also quotes Margie Orford, a South African novelist who wrote about the trial. She explained that "It was a beautiful little apartheid reversal going on there."  They are two of the many people surprised by this association. How could you not be startled by this sudden change in racial views? Although the author does include the opinion of an many journalists and other people in South Africa, she does not incorporate the opinion of Oscar Pistorius, the man who is being tried. I think the reason she does not include his opinion is because he is the one being judged, so he probably won't have anything good to say about Judge Masipa at all. 

Another technique the author used to promote her claim throughout the article was imagery. She explains that before becoming a judge, Thokozile Matilda Masipa "was once arrested during an anti-apartheid protest and ordered by her white jailers to clean her cells filthy toilet." By adding this in, she conveys to the reader how terribly back South Africans were treated during apartheid, and then uses that to show how amazing it is that a black woman can now judge a white man. The author also explains that during apartheid, blacks were "essentially treated like outsiders on their own land". Outsiders means 'a person who does not belong to a particular group'. The author uses quotes and words like these to emphasize that that this new dynamic within the judiciary in South Africa creates justice for the black South Africans treated unfairly during apartheid. All of the methods Patricia Smith uses to support her claim give the reader an idea of how much things have changed.

To conclude, this article is fairly argumentative. Although the author does not straight out tell the reader her opinion, she uses different crafting methods throughout the article to indicate her claim. While reading this article, I learned a lot about how blacks were viewed during apartheid, and I agree with Patricia Smith that things have definitely changed for the better. The part when she explained how hard Judge Masipa's life was growing up made me realize that even when you're going through tough times, if you push through and keep on trying, you can change the world.