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HeatherCMcGhee_2019W-_种族主义的沉重代价_-
I am a public policy wonk . 我是一个公共政策狂人。
policy:n.政策,方针;保险单; wonk:n.书呆子;刻苦用功的学生;
I investigate data that points to problems in the American economy -- problems like rising household debt , declining wages and benefits, shortfalls in public revenue . 我研究美国经济问题背后的 指向性数据—— 这些问题包括 家庭债务增长, 工资福利缩减, 和公共收入下滑。
investigate:v.调查;研究;审查; economy:n.经济;节约;理财; household:n.家庭;一家人;同住一所(或一套)房子的人;adj.家庭的;家常的;王室的; debt:n.债务;借款;罪过; declining:v.减少;下降;衰弱;谢绝;婉言拒绝;(decline的现在分词) wages:n.[劳经]工资; v.开展(运动等)(wage的第三人称单数形式); shortfalls:不足; revenue:n.收益;营业额;税务署;
And I try to pinpoint solutions to make our economy more prosperous for more people. 我在寻找一些解决办法, 让我们的经济更欣欣向荣, 造福更多的民众。
pinpoint:vt.查明; adj.精确的; n.针尖; prosperous:adj.繁荣的;兴旺的;
I geek out about tax policy and infrastructure investments , and I get really excited by a gracefully designed regulatory regime . 我对税收政策和基础设施投资 非常感兴趣。 一套设计精巧的管理制度
geek:n.做低级滑稽表演的人,反常的人; n.(俚)极客,即智力超群,善于钻研但不懂与人交往的怪才; infrastructure:n.基础设施;公共建设;下部构造; investments:n.[经]投资,投资的财产;投资学;(investment的复数) gracefully:adv.优雅地;温文地; regulatory:adj.管理的;控制的;调整的; regime:n.政权,政体;社会制度;管理体制;
(Laughter) （笑声）
These are the kinds of topics that I was talking about on a public television live call-in show in August of 2016. 这些都是 2016 年 8 月, 我在公共电视台 录制现场来电谈话节目时 所讨论过的话题。
public television:n.大众文化教育电视(由政府、公众以及某些公司赞助); call-in:召集;召来;
I was about halfway through the program when a man called in, identified as Gary from North Carolina and he said ... 节目进行过半时, 我接到了一位男士的来电, 他自称盖里,来自北卡罗来纳州。 他说:
identified:v.确认;认出;找到;发现;说明身份;(identify的过去式和过去分词) Carolina:n.卡罗莱纳州(在美国东南部);
'"I'm a white male, and I'm prejudiced ." “我是一个白人男性, 我对黑人有偏见。”
prejudiced:adj.偏见的;带成见的;偏爱的;偏心的;v.使怀有偏见;(prejudice的过去式)
He then went on to detail his prejudice, talking about black men and gangs and drugs and crime. 接着,他详细地描述了这种偏见, 谈论了黑人群体、帮派、 毒品和犯罪。
gangs:n.帮派(gang的复数);v.成帮结伙;合伙行动(gang的三单形式);
But then he said something that I'll never forget. 然后,他说出了令我 终生难忘的那句话。
He said, "But I want to change. 他说:“但是我想改变。
And I want to know what I can do to become a better American." 我想知道如何成为 一个更好的美国人。”
Now remember, my career is about economic policy, as translated into dollars and cents not personal thoughts and feelings. 提醒你们一下, 我是研究经济政策的, 也就是实实在在的金钱, 不是个人思想或感受。
career:n.职业;事业;生涯;经历; economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的; personal:adj.个人的;身体的;亲自的;n.人事消息栏;人称代名词;
But when I opened my mouth to respond to this man on live television, the most surprising words came out. 但是当我在电视直播节目上 回答这位男士的时候, 一个最令我意外的词吐口而出。
respond:vi.回答;作出反应;承担责任;n.应答;唱和;
I said ... 我回答说:
'"Thank you." “谢谢你。”
I thanked him for admitting his prejudice, for wanting to change and for knowing, somehow , that that would make him a better American. 我感谢他承认自己的偏见, 并且希望改变, 也认识到这会让他成为 更好的美国人。
somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地;
The exchange between Gary and me went viral . 我和盖里的对话 在网络上被疯狂传播,
exchange:n.交换;交流;交易所;兑换;v.交换;交易;兑换; viral:adj.滤过性毒菌引起的;滤过性毒菌的;
It's been viewed over eight million times and inspired waves of social media commentary and news coverage . 获得了超过 800 万的播放量, 引发了社交媒体评论 和新闻报道的热潮。
inspired:adj.受到启发的; v.鼓舞; (inspire的过去分词和过去式) media:n.媒体;媒质(medium的复数);血管中层;浊塞音;中脉; commentary:n.评论;注释;评注;说明; coverage:n.覆盖,覆盖范围;
And I think people were surprised that a black woman would show such compassion for a prejudiced white man, and they were surprised that a white man would admit his bias on national television. 我觉得人们肯定惊讶于 一位黑人女性竟然会 对一位持有偏见的白人男性 表现出同情, 而一位白人男性竟然愿意 在国家电视台上 公然承认自己的偏见。
compassion:n.同情;怜悯; 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;
Not long after Gary and my viral moment, we met in person. 在这段对话发生之后不久, 我和盖里见面了。
He said that he had taken my advice. 他说他听从了我的建议,
He said that my words had been like someone wiped the dust from a window and let the light in. 他说,我的一番话对于他来说, 如同擦亮蒙尘的窗户, 让阳光照了进来。
Over the years, Gary and I have become friends. 这几年里, 我和盖里成为了朋友。
And Gary would tell you that I've taught him a lot about systemic racism in America and public policy. 盖里会告诉你, 我让他了解到许多 存在于美国社会和公共政策里的 系统性种族主义。
systemic:adj.系统的;全身的;体系的; racism:n.种族主义,种族歧视;人种偏见;
But I've learned a lot from Gary, too. 但是盖里也教会我很多。
And the biggest lesson for me has been that Gary's prejudice has caused him to suffer. 对我而言,最大的收获是, 我意识到盖里的偏见 也在折磨着他自己,
Fear, anxiety , isolation. 让他感到恐惧、焦虑,和孤立。
anxiety:n.焦虑;渴望;挂念;令人焦虑的事;
And it's made me rethink many of the economic problems I've been focusing on my entire career. 这也使我重新思考了 在我的整个职业生涯里所研究的 许多经济问题。
rethink:v.重新考虑;再想;n.重新考虑;反思;新想法;
I wondered, is it possible that our society's racism has likewise been backfiring on the very same people set up to benefit from privilege ? 我不禁自问, 我们的社会里所存在的种族主义 是否也同时正在伤害着
likewise:adv.同样地;也; backfiring:vi.放出逆火;预先放火;产生出乎意料及事与愿违的结果;n.逆火,回火; privilege:n.特权;优待;v.给与…特权;特免;
Driven by this question, 这个疑问驱使着我,
I've spent the past few years traveling the country, researching and writing a book. 在过去几年里辗转全国, 一边研究,一边写书。
My conclusion ? 我的结论是什么呢？
conclusion:n.结论;结局;推论;
Racism leads to bad policymaking . 那就是:种族主义催生了糟糕的政策。
policymaking:adj.决策的;制定政策的;n.决策;制定政策;
It's making our economy worse. 它正在伤害着我们的经济,
And not just in ways that disadvantage people of color. 而且损害的不只是有色人种的利益。
disadvantage:n.不利因素;障碍;不便之处;
It turns out it's not a zero sum. 事实证明,它并非一场零和博弈,
Racism is bad for white people, too. 种族主义同样伤害了白人。
Take, for example, 举个例子,
America's underinvestment in our public goods, the things that we all need, that we share in common -- our schools and roads and bridges. 美国对于公共设施的投入不足, 例如,那些被大众所需要、 所共享的设施—— 包括我们的学校、公路和桥梁。
underinvestment:n.投资不足;低度投资;
Our infrastructure gets a D plus from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and we invest less per capita than almost every other advanced nation. 美国土木工程师学会 给我们的公共设施的评级为 D+。 在发达国家中, 我们的人均公共设施投资几乎垫底。
Civil:adj.公民的;民间的;文职的;有礼貌的;根据民法的; per capita:adj.每人的;人均的; advanced:adj.先进的; v.前进; (advance的过去式和过去分词形式)
But it wasn't always this way. 然而,情况并非一贯如此。
I traveled to Montgomery, Alabama , and there, I saw how racism can destroy a public good and the public will to support it. 我去了阿拉巴马州的首府 蒙哥马利市。 在那儿,我见识到 种族主义如何摧毁了 公共福利以及支持它的公共意志。
Alabama:n.阿拉巴马州(美国州名);
In the 1930s and '40s, the United States went on a nationwide building boom of public amenities funded by tax dollars, which in Montgomery, Alabama, included the Oak Park pool, which was the grandest one for miles. 在 20 世纪 30 至 40 年代之间, 美国掀起了一阵以税收为支撑的 其中,阿拉巴马州 蒙哥马利市的橡树公园里 建成了一座方圆几英里内 最大的泳池。
United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) boom:n.繁荣;吊杆;v.激增;繁荣昌盛;轰鸣;轰响;adj.(美)猛涨起来的; amenities:n.生活福利设施;便利设施;舒适;礼仪;(amenity的复数) funded:adj.提供资金的;v.提供资金;积存;提供资金偿付的本息;(fund的过去式); Oak:n.橡树;橡木色;橡木家具;adj.栎树的;栎木制的;
You know, back then, people didn't have air conditioners , and so they spent their hot summer days in a steady rotation of sunning and splashing and then cooling off under a ring of nearby trees. 要知道,在那个时候, 人们的家里没有空调, 所以,在炎热的夏日, 人们到户外晒太阳、游泳, 然后去公园附近的 一圈大树下乘凉。
conditioners:[自]调节器;调料槽;调节剂(conditioner的复数); steady:adj.稳定的; v.使稳定; v.稳定地; n.关系固定的情侣; rotation:n.旋转;循环,轮流; splashing:n.泼洒,喷洒;v.飞溅(splash的ing形式);溅湿; nearby:adj.附近的,邻近的;adv.在附近;prep.在…附近;
It was the meeting place for the town. 那是大伙儿交流聚会的好地方。
meeting place:n.会场;聚集的地方;
Except the Oak Park pool, though it was funded by all of Montgomery citizens, was for whites only. 除了橡树公园里的游泳池, 即便修建它所使用的税金 来自全城的公民, 能使用它的只有白人。
When a federal court finally deemed this unconstitutional , the reaction of the town council was swift . 当联邦政府终于宣布 这种规定违宪后, 市议会随即做出了迅速的反应。
federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地; finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; deemed:v.认为;视为;相信;(deem的过去分词和过去式) unconstitutional:adj.违反宪法的;违反宪法地; reaction:n.反应,感应;反动,复古;反作用; council:n.(市、郡等的)政务委员会;市政(或地方管理)服务机构; swift:n.[鸟]雨燕; adj.飞快的;
Effective January 1, 1959, they decided they would drain the public pool rather than let black families swim, too. 政府决定从 1959 年 1 月 1 日起, 排干公共泳池里的水。 他们宁愿这样做, 也不愿与黑人共享泳池。
Effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象; drain:v.排水;流干;喝光,耗尽;n.排水;下水道,排水管;消耗;
This destruction of public goods was replicated across the country in towns not just in the South. 类似的对公共福利的破坏 不仅在美国南部发生, 也在全国各地上演着。
destruction:n.破坏,毁灭;摧毁; replicated:重复的;
Towns closed their public parks, pools and schools, all in response to desegregation orders, all throughout the 1960s. 各个城市都关闭了公共公园、 游泳池和学校, 来应对取消种族隔离的命令, 这些举措贯穿了整个 60 年代。
in response to:响应;回答;对…有反应; desegregation:n.废止种族歧视; throughout:adv.自始至终,到处;全部;prep.贯穿,遍及;
In Montgomery, they shut down the entire Parks Department for a decade. 在蒙哥马利市, 整个公园管理部门 关闭了长达 10 年。
They closed the recreation centers, they even sold off the animals in the zoo. 政府关闭了所有休闲中心, 甚至变卖了公园里的动物。
recreation:n.娱乐;消遣;娱乐活动;游戏;
Today, you can walk the grounds of Oak Park, as I did, but very few people do. 今天,橡树公园已经变得人迹罕至, 虽然你还是可以 像我一样去那儿走一走。
They never rebuilt the pool. 他们再也没有重建那个游泳池。
Racism has a cost for everyone. 种族主义让所有人都付出了代价。
I remember having that same thought on September 15, 2008, when I learned the breaking news that Lehman Brothers was collapsing . 后来,当我在 2008 年 9 月 15 日 得知雷曼兄弟宣告破产时, 同样的想法萦绕在我的脑中。
collapsing:v.倒塌,坍塌; (collapse的现在分词)
Now Lehman was, like the other financial firms that would go under in the coming days, done in by overexposure to a toxic financial instrument based on something that used to be simple and safe -- a 30-year fixed-rate home loan. 雷曼兄弟以及随后几天里 陆续倒闭的金融公司 是因为过度发放了一种 有毒金融产品, 而它的出现是基于 一种曾经便利安全的产品—— 30 年期固定利率房屋贷款。
financial:adj.金融的;财政的,财务的; overexposure:n.感光过度;[摄]曝光过度; toxic:adj.有毒的;中毒的; instrument:n.仪器;工具;乐器;手段;器械; fixed-rate:固定比率;
But the mortgages at the center and the root of the financial crisis had strange new terms. 而处于金融风暴中心, 也是其根源的房屋贷款 被赋予了奇怪的、新的还款期限。
mortgages:n.抵押贷款; v.[经]抵押(mortgage的三单形式); crisis:n.危机;危险期;决定性时刻;adj.危机的;用于处理危机的;
And they were developed and aggressively marketed for years in black and brown middle-class communities , like the one that I visited when I met a homeowner named Glenn. 这种贷款面世后, 在之后的数年里, 开始面向非裔和拉丁裔 中产阶级群体进行大肆宣传。 我曾拜访过一位叫格伦的房主。
aggressively:adv.侵略地;攻击地;有闯劲地; middle-class:adj.中产阶级的;中层社会的; communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数) homeowner:n.私房屋主;自己拥有住房者;
Glenn had owned a home on a leafy street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland for over a decade. 格伦的家坐落于克利夫兰市 普莱森特山社区的 一条郁郁葱葱的街道上, 他在那儿住了十几年。
leafy:adj.多叶的;叶状的;叶茂盛的; Mount:n.山;坐骑;山峰;衬纸板;v.登上;爬上;攀登;准备; neighborhood:n.附近;地区;街坊;adj.附近的;
But when I met him, he was near foreclosure . 但我见到他时, 他的房屋即将被强制拍卖。
foreclosure:n.丧失抵押品赎回权;
Like nearly all of his neighbors, he'd received a knock on the door from a broker promising to refinance his mortgage. 他的邻居们几乎都 陷入了这样的状况。 一个经纪人敲门而入, 向他们承诺可以进行重新贷款。
broker:n.经纪人,掮客;vi.作为权力经纪人进行谈判;vt.以中间人等身分安排...; refinance:vt.再供…资金;再为…筹钱;
But what the broker didn't tell him was that this was a new kind of mortgage. 但是经纪人却对这种 新房屋贷款的细节三缄其口。
A mortgage with an inflated interest rate, and a balloon payment and a prepayment penalty if he tried to get out of it. 这种贷款的膨胀式利率最终导致了 （因累计还款额积压造成的） 巨额的尾款, 借款人如果想提前终止借贷, 还不得不缴纳预付罚金。
inflated:adj.通货膨胀的; v.膨胀(inflate的过去式和过去分词); prepayment:n.预付款; penalty:n.罚款,罚金;处罚;
Now, the common misperception , then and still today, is that people like Glenn were buying properties they couldn't afford . 大众对此存在一种常见的误解—— 过去如此,现在还是如此—— 即,格伦这些人购买了 他们无法支付的房产。
misperception:n.错误知觉; afford:v.给予,提供;买得起;
That they themselves were risky borrowers . 他们本来就是 一群高风险借贷者。
borrowers:n.[金融]借款人(borrower的复数);剽窃者;
I saw how this stereotype made it harder for policymakers to see the crisis for what it was back when we still had time to stop it. 我明白,这样的刻板印象 使政策制定者们 更加难以洞悉危机的本质, 从而在爆发之前 阻止其进一步恶化。
stereotype:vt.使用铅版;套用老套,使一成不变;n.陈腔滥调,老套;铅版; policymakers:n.决策人;(policymaker的复数)
But that's all it was. 但问题就在于
A stereotype. 这种刻板印象。
The majority of subprime mortgages went to people who had good credit, like Glenn. 大部分次级贷款购买者的 信用等级都不错, 比如,格伦。
majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: subprime:adj.次级的;准最低贷款利率的;
And African Americans and Latinos were three times as likely -- even if they had good credit -- than white people, to get sold these toxic loans. 但是,即便非裔和拉丁裔的 信用等级很好, 他们被推销高风险信贷的概率 仍然是白人的三倍。
Latinos:n.拉丁美洲人(Latino的复数);
The problem wasn't the borrower -- the problem was the loan. 问题不在借贷者—— 问题在于贷款本身。
After the crash, most of the nation's big lenders , from Wells Fargo to Countrywide , would go on to be fined for racial discrimination . 次贷危机过后, 美国的大部分贷款巨头,从富国银行, 到美国国家金融服务公司, 都因涉嫌种族歧视而被罚款。
lenders:n.放款人;出借方(lender的复数); Fargo:n.法戈(美国北达科他州东南部城市); Countrywide:adj.全国范围的;adv.全国性地; racial:adj.种族的;人种的; discrimination:n.歧视;区别,辨别;识别力;
But that realization came too late. 但这样的觉醒已经为时过晚。
realization:n.实现;领悟;
These loans, superprofitable for the lenders but designed to fail for the borrowers, spread out past the confines of black and brown neighborhoods like Glenn's and into the wider, whiter mortgage market. 这些为贷方谋取暴利, 但借方注定无法偿还的贷款, 已经越过像格伦这样的 非裔和拉丁裔族群, 流入了更广大的、面向其他族裔的 房屋贷款市场 。
spread out:冒火;喷火; confines:n.范围;界限;疆界(confine的复数);v.限制;禁闭(confine的三单形式);
All of the nation's big Wall Street firms bet on these loans. 华尔街的巨头们 都在这种贷款上压下重注。
Wall Street:n.华尔街(美国纽约金融中心和证券交易所所在地); bet:n.打赌;赌注;预计;估计;v.下赌注(于);用…打赌;敢说;八成儿;
At its peak , one out of every five mortgages in the country was in this mold , and the crisis, the crisis that my colleagues and I saw coming ... 在巅峰时期, 每 5 笔房屋贷款中 就有 1 笔是次级贷款, 至于危机, 我和同事们所预见的 近在咫尺的危机······
peak:n.高峰; v.达到高峰; adj.最高度的; mold:n.模具;模型;霉菌;类型;v.用可塑材料塑成;浇铸;发霉; colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数);
would go on to cost us all. 将会让所有人都付出代价。
Nineteen trillion in lost wealth . 全国财富损失将高达 19 万亿美元,
trillion:n.[数]万亿;adj.万亿的;num.[数]万亿; wealth:n.财富;大量;富有;
Pensions , home equity , savings . 包括退休金、房屋净值和储蓄。
Pensions:n.[劳经]养老金(pension的复数形式); v.发放退休金(pension的第三人称单数形式); equity:n.公平,公正;衡平法;普通股;抵押资产的净值; savings:n.节省物;节省;节约;储蓄金;存款;(saving的复数)
Eight million jobs vanished . 800 个就业岗位已经消失不见。
vanished:v.消失了;突然消失;消亡;绝迹;(vanish的过去分词和过去式)
A home-ownership rate that has never recovered. 住房拥有率再也没有 恢复到从前的水平。
My years of advocating in vain for homeowners like Glenn left me convinced : we would not have had a financial crisis if it weren't for racism. 数年来,为格伦这样的房主 徒劳无果的奔走 使我最终相信: 若非种族主义, 金融危机就不会发生。
advocating:v.拥护;支持;提倡;(advocate的现在分词) vain:adj.徒劳的;自负的;无结果的;无用的; homeowners:n.私房屋主;自己拥有住房者; convinced:adj.坚信; v.使确信; (convince的过去分词和过去式)
In 2017, I traveled to Mississippi, where a group of auto-factory workers was trying to organize into a union. 2017 年, 我去密西西比州出差, 一群汽车工厂的工人们 正在组织工会。
organize:v.组织;安排;处理;分配;管理;
Now the benefits they were fighting for -- higher pay, better health care coverage, a real pension -- they would have helped everybody at the plant. 他们所争论的各种福利—— 更高的工资,更好的医疗保险, 实实在在的退休金—— 有利于工厂里的每一个人。
health care:n.卫生保健;
But in person after person that I talked to -- white, black, for the union, against the union -- race kept coming up. 但是,同我讨论的 一个又一个工人—— 白人、黑人、支持工会的、 反对工会的—— 种族一次又一次地 被他们提起。
A white man named Joey put it this way. 一个叫乔伊的白人这样总结,
He said, "White workers think I ain't voting yes if the blacks are voting yes. 他说: “白人群体认为,如果黑人投赞成票, 我们就要投反对票。
If the blacks are for it, I'm against it." 黑人同意的,我统统都反对。”
A white man named Chip told me, "The idea is that if you uplift black people, you're downing white people." 一个叫齐普的白人告诉我: “白人的想法是,
Chip:v.削,凿;削成碎片;剥落;碎裂;n.[电子]芯片;筹码;碎片;(食物的)小片;薄片; uplift:vt.提高;抬起;vi.提高;上升;升起;n.举起,抬起;道德的向上;精神的高涨;
It's like the world's got this crab-in-a-barrel mentality . 就好像全世界都陷入了 一种零和心态。
mentality:n.心态;[心理]智力;精神力;头脑作用;
Now, the union vote failed. 结果,工会投票失败。
Wages at the plant are still lower than their unionized peers', and people there still worry about their health care. 工厂支付的工资仍然 低于其他工会的工人, 工人们仍然为医保焦心。
unionized:adj.组织成工会的; v.使…成立联盟;
You know, it's tempting , perhaps, to focus on the prejudiced attitudes of the men and the workers that I heard in Mississippi. 我知道,或许人们更愿意 把目光聚焦在 人与人之间的偏见上, 比如那群密西西比州的 工人对彼此的敌视。
tempting:adj.吸引人的;诱惑人的;v.引诱;(tempt的现在分词); attitudes:n.态度,看法(attitude复数);
But I'm more interested in holding accountable the people who are selling racist ideas for their profit than those who are desperate enough to buy it. 但是我更愿意归咎于 那些通过贩卖种族主义而获利的人, 而不是那些绝望到 不得不信奉这种想法的人。
accountable:adj.有责任的;有解释义务的;可解释的; racist:n.种族主义者;种族主义的; profit:n.利润;利益;v.获利;有益; desperate:adj.不顾一切的;令人绝望的;极度渴望的;
My travels also took me to places where I saw, however, that it doesn't have to be this way. 然而我走访过的其他一些地方 也让我看到,种族之间的关系 不必如针尖对麦芒。
I went to Maine , the whitest state in the nation, the oldest, where there are more deaths every year than births, and I went to this dying mill town called Lewiston that is being revitalized by new people -- mostly African, mostly Muslim, immigrants and refugees . 我去了全国白人比率最高的缅因州。 也是人口老化最严重的州, 每年的死亡人口比出生人口还多。 我去了刘易斯顿市, 一个正在凋零的工业城, 因为新来人口而焕发了生机—— 大部分是黑人和穆斯林, 还有一些外国移民和难民。
Maine:n.缅因州(美国州名); mill:n.磨坊;工厂;磨粉机;面粉厂;v.磨成粉; revitalized:v.复兴,复活;恢复(revitalize的过去分词形式); immigrants:n.移民(immigrant的复数); refugees:n.避难者;逃亡者;难民;(refugee的复数)
There, I met a woman named Cecile, whose parents had been part of the last wave of new people to come to Lewiston. 在那儿,我遇见了一位女士, 名叫塞西尔, 她的父母是最后一波搬到刘易斯顿市的新移民。
These are French-Canadian millworkers at the turn of the century. 他们是世纪之初来到这里的 法裔加拿大工人。
Cecile is retired, but she had found a new purpose in life, by organizing Congolese refugees to join with the white retirees at the Franco Heritage Center. 虽然塞西尔退休了, 但她找到了新的人生目标。 她在佛朗哥文化遗产中心 组织刚果难民和 白人退休人员的联谊活动。
organizing:v.组织;安排;处理;分配;管理;(organize的现在分词) retirees:n.退休人员(retiree的复数); Franco:adj.[交]运费准免的;免费的; Heritage:n.遗产;传统;继承物;继承权;
(Laughter) （笑声）
These men and women from the Congo were helping these retirees remember the French that they hadn't spoken since their childhoods . 这些来自刚果的移民 在帮助当地退休人员, 鼓励他们说从幼年时期 就不再说的法语。
childhoods:n.童年时期;幼年时代;
And together, these two communities helped each other feel at home . 两个群体其乐融融,亲如一家。
feel at home:在家中般轻松自在;感觉自在;
You know, for all the political talk about the newcomers being a drain on the town, a bipartisan think tank found that the local refugee community there created 40 million dollars in tax revenue, and 130 million in income. 尽管,许多政治言论都强调 新移民会榨干一个城市。 一个两党派智库的研究表明, 当地的难民群体 创造了四千万美元的税收, 和一亿三千万美元的收入。
newcomers:n.新来的人(newcomer的复数); bipartisan:adj.两党连立的;代表两党的; think tank:智囊团、思想库; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体;
And I talked to the town administrator , who was boasting about the fact that Lewiston was building a new school, when all the rest of towns like theirs in Maine was closing them. 当地的行政官 非常自豪地告诉我, 刘易斯顿市正在 建设一所新学校, 而与此同时, 缅因州的其他城市, 正在关闭学校。
administrator:n.管理人;行政官; boasting:v.吹嘘,夸耀(boast的ing形式);n.吹嘘; all the rest:其他所有相关信息;
You know, it costs us so much to remain divided. 分裂的代价是如此之大。
This zero-sum thinking, that's what's good for one group has to come at the expense of another, it's what's gotten us into this mess . 这种认为“一群人的收益 将是另一群人的损失”的零和思维, 就是让我们陷入困境的元凶。
zero-sum:adj.零和的; at the expense of:以…为代价;由…支付费用; mess:n.混乱;餐厅;杂乱;肮脏;v.使不整洁;弄脏;弄乱;随地便溺;
I believe it's time to reject that old paradigm and realize that our fates are linked. 我们应该立即摒弃这种 过时的思维模式, 承认我们的命运彼此息息相关。
reject:v.排斥;拒收;拒绝接受;不予考虑;n.废品;次品;不合格者;被剔除者; paradigm:n.范例;词形变化表;
An injury to one is an injury to all. 陷一人于不义, 就是陷整体于不义。
injury:n.伤害,损害;受伤处;
You know, we have a choice. 选择就摆在你我面前。
Our nation was founded on a belief in a hierarchy of human value. 我们的国家建立于 一系列人类价值的等级制度之上。
hierarchy:n.层级;等级制度;
But we are about to be a country with no racial majority. 所谓的多数和少数种族之分 即将成为历史。
are about to:眼看就要;即将;正要;行将;
So we can keep pretending like we're not all on the same team. 我们可以继续 一叶障目,彼此离间。
We can keep sabotaging our success and hamstringing our own players. 我们可以继续挑唆内部矛盾, 亲手葬送自己的前程。
sabotaging:v.蓄意破坏;刻意阻碍;妨碍;捣乱(sabotage的现在分词) hamstringing:n.腘绳肌腱;大肌腱;v.妨碍;使不能正常工作(或行动);
Or we can let the proximity of so much difference reveal our common humanity . 又或者,我们可以借助 多元文化的彼此靠近, 展现出共同的人性。
proximity:n.接近,[数]邻近;接近;接近度,距离;亲近; reveal:v.显示;透露;揭露;泄露;n.揭露;暴露;门侧,窗侧; humanity:n.人类;人道;仁慈;人文学科;
And we can finally invest in our greatest asset . 最终,我们得以赋能于 这个国家最伟大的财富。
asset:n.资产;优点;有用的东西;有利条件;财产;有价值的人或物;
Our people. 我们的人民。
All of our people. 全部的人民。
Thank you. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）