Upfront Article Response

 In the newsmagazine, Upfront, in their more recent issue, there's an article called, "Role Reversal" written by Patricia Smith. The article is about the murder trail of Oscar Pistorius, in which he, allegedly, shot and murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. It also talks about the female, black judge, named Thokozile Matilda Maspia who is presiding over the case.


 The article goes into depth mainly on how it's surprising that Maspia, a South African, black woman, is standing judge over Pistorius, a white man. They make mentions of the previous discrimination towards African Americans and how it's surprising that we've evolved from have Whites having separate bathrooms from other races to now, having a case where a black woman is judging a white man. But they don't just talk about the racial aspect of it. They also actually talk about the case. They mentioned all the drama that was present in the case. For instance, they say that, "The 41-day long trial included all kinds of drama: Pistorius broke down in tears and even vomited during the testimony." They also take notice of all the social media's and television viewer's backlash.


In my opinion, this case is extremely hectic. For example, this case ends up dealing with murder and a racial aspect. Since, the case is mainly about the possible premeditated murder that Pistorius committed. But unintentionally, the case also ties in the surprising fact that a black woman is judging a white man, which is a case that typically isn't usually seen. Though what I find kind of surprising is that they spend most of the article on the racial aspect, which is good, but I think it kind of shocking that these cases would happen, but in reverse. As in we would have an entire white court and only 1 black person, who's typically the one on defense. But no one bats an eye to that. It's a little observation I made during this reading. But I do think this case is highly interesting from both the actual possible verdict of the case and whether or not Pistorius is guilt or not to how a person of color is preceding the c