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ClintSmith_2015-_如何在美国养育黑人下一代_
Growing up, I didn't always understand why my parents made me follow the rules that they did. 在成长的路上,我一直不懂, 为什么爸妈老要我听他们的话。
Like, why did I really have to mow the lawn ? 比如说为什么我一定要去除草？
mow:v.修剪;割;刈;n.麦秆堆;谷堆;鬼脸 lawn:n.草地;草坪;
Why was homework really that important? 写作業有这么重要吗？
Why couldn't I put jelly beans in my oatmeal ? 为什么我不能把雷根糖放进燕麦里？
jelly:n.果冻;胶状物;vi.成胶状;vt.使结冻; oatmeal:n.燕麦粥;燕麦片;
My childhood was abound with questions like this. 我的童年充斥这类疑问。
childhood:n.童年;幼年;孩童时期 abound:vi.富于;充满;
Normal things about being a kid and realizing that sometimes, it was best to listen to my parents even when I didn't exactly understand why. 关于当小孩的种种, 听父母的话准没错,哪怕不知道为什么。
And it's not that they didn't want me to think critically . 不是他们不想让我独立思考。
critically:adv.精密地;危急地;批评性地;用钻研眼光地;
Their parenting always sought to reconcile the tension between having my siblings and I understand the realities of the world, while ensuring that we never accepted the status quo as inevitable . 他们的教育在天平两端拉扯: 一方面要让孩子了解社会现况; 但又不希望我们轻易接受现状。
sought:v.seek(寻求、寻找)的过去式和过去分词形式; reconcile:v.使和谐一致;调和;使配合;使和解;妥协; tension:n.张力;拉伸;矛盾;紧张局势(或关系,状况);v.绷紧; siblings:n.兄;弟;姐;妹;(sibling的复数) ensuring:v.保证;确保;担保(ensure的现在分词); status quo:n.现状;原来的状况; inevitable:adj.必然的,不可避免的;
I came to realize that this, in and of itself, was a very purposeful form of education. 我渐渐了解这种教育本身, 是非常有深度的教育方式。
purposeful:adj.有目的的;有决心的;
One of my favorite educators, Brazilian author and scholar Paulo Freire, speaks quite explicitly about the need for education to be used as a tool for critical awakening and shared humanity . 一位我最爱的教育专家,巴西作家兼学者保罗弗雷勒, 清楚阐明了教育的必要, 作为启发批判性思维、共享人性的工具。
scholar:n.学者;奖学金获得者;聪颖勤奋的学生; explicitly:adv.明确地;明白地; awakening:n.醒悟; v.(使)醒来; adj.唤醒的; humanity:n.人类;人道;仁慈;人文学科;
In his most famous book, " Pedagogy of the Oppressed ," 在他的名作《受压迫者教育学》中,
Pedagogy:n.教育;教育学;教授法; Oppressed:adj.受压制的,受压迫的;v.压迫;折磨(oppress的过去分词);
he states, "No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so." 他说:「一个人如果不懂得尊重他人,就称不上真正的人。」
authentically:adv.真正地,确实地;可靠地;
I've been thinking a lot about this lately, this idea of humanity, and specifically , who in this world is afforded the privilege of being perceived as fully human. 我最近一直在想这句话, 特别是那些有条件、 可以有尊严活着的人。
specifically:adv.特别地;明确地; afforded:vt.给予,提供;买得起; privilege:n.特权;优待;v.给与…特权;特免; perceived:v.注意到;意识到;将…视为;认为;(perceive的过去式和过去分词)
Over the course of the past several months, the world has watched as unarmed black men, and women, have had their lives taken at the hands of police and vigilante . 在过去几个月, 新闻报导手无寸铁的黑人男女 被警察和自以为替天行道的人杀害。
unarmed:adj.不带武器的;非武装的;不使用武器的;徒手的 vigilante:n.义务警员;治安维持会成员;
These events and all that has transpired after them have brought me back to my own childhood and the decisions that my parents made about raising a black boy in America that growing up, I didn't always understand in the way that I do now. 这些事件和后续的发展, 让我想到我的童年, 和我爸妈当时选择的在美国养育黑人小孩的方式。 我小时候不知道他们为什么这样,但我现在终于理解了他们。
transpired:v.公开;为人所知;发生;(植物)水分蒸发;(transpire的过去式和过去分词) in the way:妨碍;挡道;
I think of how hard it must have been, how profoundly unfair it must have felt for them to feel like they had to strip away parts of my childhood just so that I could come home at night. 我可以想像那有多难, 当他们要剥夺我童年的一部份—— 只为了让我每天平安回家。
profoundly:adv.深刻地;深深地;极度地; strip:n.带; v.夺; adj.脱衣舞的;
For example, I think of how one night, when I was around 12 years old, on an overnight field trip to another city, my friends and I bought Super Soakers and turned the hotel parking lot into our own water-filled battle zone. 比如说有一天晚上, 我12岁,在另一个城市旅行。 我和我朋友买了水枪, 然后把饭店停车场变成溼答答的战场。
overnight:adj.夜间的; v.在夜间; n.(美)前一天的晚上; field trip:n.(常指学生进行的)野外考察; parking lot:n.停车场; water-filled:被水充满的;充满水的;
We hid behind cars, running through the darkness that lay between the streetlights , boundless laughter ubiquitous across the pavement . 我们躲在车子后, 在街灯和夜色之间穿梭, 我们的笑声传遍整条大街。
streetlights:n.街灯,路灯; boundless:adj.无限的;无边无际的; ubiquitous:adj.普遍存在的;无所不在的; pavement:n.路面;人行道;石板铺的地面;
But within 10 minutes, my father came outside, grabbed me by my forearm and led me into our room with an unfamiliar grip . 但不到十分钟, 我爸冲出来,抓住我的手臂, 极其反常地把我拖回房间。
grabbed:v.抓住;攫取;抓住,夺得;(grab的过去分词和过去式) forearm:n.前臂;v.预先武装;准备; unfamiliar:adj.不熟悉的;不常见的;没有经验的; grip:n.紧握;柄;支配;握拍方式;拍柄绷带;vt.紧握;夹紧;vi.抓住;
Before I could say anything, tell him how foolish he had made me look in front of my friends, he derided me for being so naive . 我还来不及开口, 怪他让我在同学面前丢脸, 他就骂我怎么这么天真。
derided:vt.嘲笑;嘲弄; naive:adj.天真的,幼稚的;
Looked me in the eye, fear consuming his face, and said, "Son, I'm sorry, but you can't act the same as your white friends. 他看着我的双眼,恐惧爬上他的脸庞, 然后说:「儿子,对不起, 但你不能跟你的白人朋友一样。
consuming:adj.消费的;强烈的;v.消耗(consume的ing形式);
You can't pretend to shoot guns. 你不能假装射击手枪,
You can't run around in the dark. 你不能在暗处乱跑。
run around:n.遁词;借口;
You can't hide behind anything other than your own teeth." 你全身上下可以躲起来的只有牙齿。」
I know now how scared he must have been, how easily I could have fallen into the empty of the night, that some man would mistake this water for a good reason to wash all of this away. 我现在才知道他当时有多害怕、 我离死亡的距离又有多近。 会不会有人把水枪射出的水, 误认为子弹而伤害我。
These are the sorts of messages I've been inundated with my entire life: 这些影响了我往后的行为:
inundated:adj.洪泛的;v.淹没(inundate的过去分词);
Always keep your hands where they can see them, don't move too quickly, take off your hood when the sun goes down. 永远让别人看得见双手、不要走太快、 太阳下山就把帽子拿掉。
My parents raised me and my siblings in an armor of advice, an ocean of alarm bells so someone wouldn't steal the breath from our lungs, so that they wouldn't make a memory of this skin. 我的父母将一条条建议穿在我们身上, 满满的警告就为了让我们活着, 不会为肤色付出惨痛代价,
armor:n.[军]装甲;盔甲;v.为…装甲;
So that we could be kids, not casket or concrete . 继续当他们的孩子,而不是棺材或墓碑。
casket:n.棺材;骨灰盒;小箱;vt.把…装进小箱;入殓; concrete:n.混凝土;adj.混凝土制的;确实的,具体的;vt.用混凝土覆盖
And it's not because they thought it would make us better than anyone else it's simply because they wanted to keep us alive. 这样做不是想让我们过得比别人更好, 单纯只想让我们平安活着。
All of my black friends were raised with the same message, the talk, given to us when we became old enough to be mistaken for a nail ready to be hammered to the ground, when people made our melanin synonymous with something to be feared. 我的黑人朋友都在这种告诫中长大, 当我们长得够大, 当我们自卫的拳头,可能变成被追打的理由, 当我们的肤色,成为别人眼中的恐惧。
mistaken:adj.错误;不正确;被误解的;v.弄错;误解;误会;(mistake的过去分词) hammered:adj.烂醉;v.锤打;反复敲打;猛踢;猛击;(hammer的过去分词和过去式) melanin:n.黑色素; synonymous:adj.同义的;同义词的;同义突变的;
But what does it do to a child to grow up knowing that you cannot simply be a child? 但这对孩子有什么影响？ 当你不能像个普通孩子一样单纯地长大,
That the whims of adolescence are too dangerous for your breath, that you cannot simply be curious , that you are not afforded the luxury of making a mistake, that someone's implicit bias might be the reason you don't wake up in the morning. 青春期的胡思乱想会害死你, 所以不能太好奇; 你没有本钱犯错, 别人的思想有偏差, 可能会害你用生命付出代价。
whims:虚妄;禅病; adolescence:n.青春期; curious:adj.好奇的,有求知欲的;古怪的;爱挑剔的; luxury:n.奢侈,奢华;奢侈品;享受;adj.奢侈的; implicit:adj.含蓄的;暗示的;盲从的; bias:adv.使有偏见;n.偏见;偏心;偏爱;v.使有偏见;使偏向;adj.斜的;[电]偏动的;
But this cannot be what defines us. 但肤色不代表我们的全部。
defines:v.阐明;明确;界定;画出…的线条;描出…的外形(define的第三人称单数)
Because we have parents who raised us to understand that our bodies weren't meant for the backside of a bullet , but for flying kites and jumping rope, and laughing until our stomachs burst . 父母仍然想让我们知道, 我们的身体不是用来当弹靶的, 而应该去放风筝、跳跳绳、开心地笑到肚子抽痛。
backside:n.背部;后方;臀部; bullet:n.子弹;只选某党全部候选人的投票;豆子;vi.射出;迅速行进; burst:v.破裂;爆炸;突破;冲进;n.爆发;点射;释放;(情感的)迸发;
We had teachers who taught us how to raise our hands in class, and not just to signal surrender , and that the only thing we should give up is the idea that we aren't worthy of this world. 上课时,老师教我们的是举手发言, 而不是举手投降。 我们唯一该放弃的, 是「我们不配活着」的这种想法。
surrender:v.投降;(被迫)放弃,交出;n.投降;屈服;屈从;放弃,交出 worthy:adj.值得的; n.杰出人物;
So when we say that black lives matter, it's not because others don't, it's simply because we must affirm that we are worthy of existing without fear, when so many things tell us we are not. 我们说黑人的生命很重要,不代表别的人种不重要, 只是想确认:我们应当无所畏惧地活着。 ——哪怕种种迹象都在否定我们。
affirm:vt.肯定;断言;vi.确认;断言;
I want to live in a world where my son will not be presumed guilty the moment he is born, where a toy in his hand isn't mistaken for anything other than a toy. 我想活在一个 我儿子不会一出生就背着罪恶感的世界。 他手里拿的玩具就是玩具,不会被误认为别的什么东西。
presumed:adj.假定的;推测的;v.假定(presume的过去分词和过去式); guilty:adj.有罪的;内疚的;
And I refuse to accept that we can't build this world into something new, some place where a child's name doesn't have to be written on a t-shirt, or a tombstone , where the value of someone's life 我不相信这种新世界是我们无法达到的。 一定有某个世界,可以让孩子的姓名, 不再被印在T恤或墓碑上给人怀念; 每个人生命的价值
tombstone:n.墓碑;墓石;
isn't determined by anything other than the fact that they had lungs, a place where every single one of us can breathe. 不只是单纯地呼吸、活着, 而是可以活出自我的世界。
determined:adj.决定了的:v.决定;(determine的过去分词和过去式)
Thank you. 谢谢！
(Applause) (掌声)