双语新闻：美国仍未摆脱种族对立的历史阴影

2014-08-25 16:43:30来源：中新网

　　That document, which insists that all men are equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuitof happiness, would lose much of its power if the society formed in its image contained apermanent group of second-class citizens. And so Jefferson offered separation as the mostviable solution. Blacks would have to leave the US to find true citizenship in a country of theirown.

　　《独立宣言》坚称，人人生来平等，都拥有生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。如果按照它的构想建立的社会却存在永恒的二等公民，那么它的影响力将大大降低。于是，杰斐逊提出分离(separation)是最为可行的解决办法。黑人将不得不离开美国，在自己的国度获得真正的公民权。

　　Perhaps nothing Jefferson ever wrote has caused more outrage and, in some quarters,ridicule among present-day Americans who have come to take a diverse America and blackAmerican citizenship for granted. That these thoughts should come from the author of whathas been called the American creed seems particularly dispiriting to those who hope we will, oneday, “overcome”. Yet in the two centuries since the Notes were published, the doubtsJefferson expressed about the true quality of black American citizenship have hardly beeneliminated.

　　在杰斐逊写下的所有文字中，也许没有哪句话比这一句更引起当今美国人的愤怒——以及部分人的嘲笑——这代人已视多元化的美国和美国黑人的公民权为理所当然。这些想法竟来自“美国信念”的提出者，似乎尤其令那些希望我们——有一天——能“克服”偏见的人感到气馁。然而在《弗吉尼亚笔记》出版后的两百年里，杰斐逊对美国黑人公民权的实质所表达的怀疑从未被根除。

　　This is not to suggest that criminals should not be punished or to argue that law enforcementis anything other than an essential cornerstone of any society based on law. It is to say thatthe “deep rooted prejudices” that Jefferson spoke of have warped this vital social function –and made black people, particularly young black men, presumptive felons outside theboundaries of full citizenship.

　　本文并不是说罪犯不该受到惩罚，或执法不是所有法治社会的重要基石。而是说，杰斐逊所讲的“根深蒂固的偏见”已扭曲了这一重要的社会功能，也让黑人、尤其是年轻黑人被假定为罪犯，将他们隔离在充分享有公民权的边界之外。

　　If you examine the record of police conduct – from instances of brutal treatment of blacks incustody, to stop-and-frisk policies that disrupt the lives of innocent people in blackcommunities, to racial disparities in drug arrests and sentencing – that is surely the conclusionyou must draw.

　　如果你去查警察部门的行为记录——从黑人在羁押期间受虐待，到扰乱黑人群体中无辜民众生活的拦阻搜身(stop-and-frisk)政策，以及在逮捕涉毒人员及判刑方面存在的种族歧视现象——你肯定会得出上述结论。

　　Yet merely to state it is to invite efforts to change the subject. “What about black-on-blackcrime?” “What about the problems with black families?” As if the existence of these problemsjustifies diminishing the rights of an entire community.

　　然而，如果只是单纯地摆事实，有些人就会竭力转换话题。“黑人对黑人的犯罪呢?”“黑人的家庭问题呢?”好像这些问题的存在就能证明削弱一整个群体的权利是合理的。

　　It is as if there is no language to talk about blacks as citizens of a republic in relation to theirgovernment. Witness the response to the peaceful protests in the aftermath of Brown’sdeath – the appalling spectacle of a militarised police force with the look of an invading army,training their weapons on unarmed citizens. Compare this to what happened on the Bundyranch in Utah earlier this year, when white ranchers, many of them armed, protested againstwhat they call the overreaching behaviour of the federal government. The stand-off betweenfederal officials and the ranchers was tranquil by comparison. There was no confrontation.

　　至于身为共和国公民的黑人与其政府之间的关系，好像就无话可谈了。在弗格森镇，黑人少年布朗之死引发了和平抗议，而政府的反应是派出一支形似侵略军的军事化警察部队，他们把武器对准了手无寸铁的平民们。我们将这骇人的景象与今年早些时候发生在犹他州邦迪农场的事件比较一下，当时白人农场主们——其中不少人拿着武器——抗议他们所说的联邦政府的过界行为。相比之下，联邦官员和农场主们的对峙相当平静，双方之间没爆发冲突。

本文关键字: 美国仍未摆脱种族对立的历史阴影