CL 7/10 – PvF and TMM

PvF

1. The main discourse community that appears to be discussed in the reading are those belonging to the law community. For example, those who write and interpret laws. The editor himself has written books on law and literature, and is clearly knowledgable about this community. This community clearly fits multiple criteria given by Swales in his article. For example, this community writes with a specific genre. All laws written are structured in a very specific way, and this genre allows the other people in this discourse community to understand what the new law is and how it needs to be implemented. The members of this community also speak a similar language. For example, they frequently use terms like “state rights” and “federal rights” and they are well aware of what those concepts mean and how they are implemented. These are terms that people who are not a part of this community would have trouble fully understanding.
2. This discourse community spreads knowledge by writing laws and interpreting laws through case rulings. For example, the 13th and 14th Amendment were written and published, which spreads knowledge about a new rule that is being put into effect. The judges in this community then argued over the interpretations of these amendments and how far they should extend into the lives of citizens. For example, Justice Miller rules that the 13th Amendment was only created in order to abolish slavery in the “Slaughter House Cases”
3. In multiple court cases discussed in the text, the justices were unwilling to provide a broader interpretation of the 13th and 14th Amendments and were reluctant to rule on civil rights violations. This is critical to the foundation of American Jim Crow Laws. The unwillingness of the justices to provide any sort of support for African Americans is what allowed for segregation to continue. I believe that if even a small amount of judges were able to stand up for African American rights then Jim Crow Laws would not have been able to be implemented. The precedents set in cases like the “Slaughter House Cases” and “Plessy v. Ferguson” allowed for the creation of “loopholes” in the 13th and 14th Amendments and allowed for the writers of Jim Crow laws to get away with continuing segregation and the degradation of African American people.