So, I'm afraid. Right now, on this stage, I feel fear. In my life, I ain't met many people that will readily admit when they are afraid. And I think that's because deep down, they know how easy it spreads. See, fear is like a disease. When it moves, it moves like wildfire. But what happens when, even in the face of that fear, you do what you've got to do? That's called courage. And just like fear, courage is contagious.
没错,我很害怕。 现在, 在舞台上。 我感到恐惧, 生活中,其实我并没有遇到过很多 敢于真正表达自己的恐惧的人。 大概是因为 他们很明白恐惧可以传染。 看到了吧,恐惧就像疾病。 它可以像烈火一样侵蚀移动。 但是在这种情况下, 即使面临着恐惧, 你会做你该做的事情吗? 这就是勇气了。 也像恐惧一样, 勇气也可以传染。
See, I'm from East St. Louis, Illinois. That's a small city across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. I have lived in and around St. Louis my entire life. When Michael Brown, Jr., an ordinary teenager, was gunned down by police in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri -- another suburb, but north of St. Louis -- I remember thinking, he ain't the first, and he won't be the last young kid to lose his life to law enforcement.
我来自伊利诺斯州的东圣路易斯。 是个小地方, 在密苏里州圣路易斯的密西西比河对岸。 我一生都住在圣路易斯及其附近。 当这个普通的少年, Michael Brown, Jr, 2014年在密苏里的弗得森被警察枪杀—— 弗得森是圣路易斯的北边的另一个市郊—— 我不禁思考, 他并不是第一个, 也不会是最后一个在强制执法 面前失去生命的年轻孩子。
But see, his death was different. When Mike was killed, I remember the powers that be trying to use fear as a weapon. The police response to a community in mourning was to use force to impose fear: fear of militarized police, imprisonment, fines. The media even tried to make us afraid of each other by the way they spun the story. And all of these things have worked in the past. But like I said, this time it was different.
但是他的死亡很不同。 我记得Mike被杀时, 我记得有权力的人想要把恐惧当成武器。 警察对这个在哀悼的群体的回答, 就是利用权力施与恐惧: 对警察, 监禁, 惩罚的恐惧。 媒体通过宣传这个故事 想让我们都彼此害怕。 这些事情都在以前发生过并且很管用。 但就像我说的,时代变了。
Michael Brown's death and the subsequent treatment of the community led to a string of protests in and around Ferguson and St. Louis. When I got out to those protests about the fourth or fifth day, it was not out of courage; it was out of guilt. See, I'm black. I don't know if y'all noticed that.
Michael的死亡和之后对待我们群体的态度 是弗得森和圣路易斯抗议的导火索。 当我第四、五天去参加这些抗议时, 已不再是出于勇气; 而是出于罪恶感。 我是黑人。 不知道你们注意到了没有。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But I couldn't sit in St. Louis, minutes away from Ferguson, and not go see. So I got off my ass to go check it out.
但我不能安静的呆在距弗得森 只有几分钟车程的圣路易斯, 而不动身前往。 所以我起身前往。
When I got out there, I found something surprising. I found anger; there was a lot of that. But what I found more of was love. People with love for themselves. Love for their community. And it was beautiful -- until the police showed up. Then a new emotion was interjected into the conversation: fear.
我到达的时候, 我看到一些让我吃惊的东西。 我看到了愤怒,很多愤怒。 但是更多的我发现了爱。 人们对自己的爱。 对群体的爱。 很感人—— 直到警察出现。 然后新的情绪被注入对话中: 那就是恐惧。
Now, I'm not going to lie; when I saw those armored vehicles, and all that gear and all those guns and all those police I was terrified -- personally. And when I looked around that crowd, I saw a lot of people that had the same thing going on. But I also saw people with something else inside of them. That was courage. See, those people yelled, and they screamed, and they were not about to back down from the police. They were past that point. And then I could feel something in me changing, so I yelled and I screamed, and I noticed that everybody around me was doing the same thing. And there was nothing like that feeling.
我不撒谎的说; 当我看到那些装甲的车子, 那些装备, 手枪, 包括警察, 就我个人而言—— 我很害怕。 而我看看周围的人群, 我发现他们和我一样。 但是我也看到了另一些人。 他们有勇气。 他们呼喊着, 大叫着, 他们没有因为警察而退缩。 他们已经经历过这个点。 我感受到了我内心的变化, 于是我也开始呼喊, 我注意到我周围的人也在呼喊着。 从没有过那样的感觉。
So I decided I wanted to do something more. I went home, I thought: I'm an artist. I make shit. So I started making things specific to the protest, things that would be weapons in a spiritual war, things that would give people voice and things that would fortify them for the road ahead.
我决定我要做更多的事。 回到家我想,我是个作家,我写文章。 所以我便开始写关于抗议的很具体的事, 不仅在精神战斗中可以作为武器, 也可以让人们发声, 还可以帮助人们构筑前方的路。
I did a project where I took pictures of the hands of protesters and put them up and down the boarded-up buildings and community shops. My goal was to raise awareness and to raise the morale. And I think, for a minute at least, it did just that. Then I thought, I want to uplift the stories of these people I was watching being courageous in the moment. And myself and my friend, and filmmaker and partner Sabaah Folayan did just that with our documentary, "Whose Streets?"
我拍了一张抗议者们的手的照片, 张贴到用木板封住的建筑和 社区的商店上。 我的目标就是宣扬这种意识和士气。 我认为至少有一分钟, 我做到了。 然后我想宣扬那些当时我觉得勇敢的人, 他们的故事。 于是我和我朋友, 电影制片人和伙伴Sabaah Folayan, 利用纪录片‘’谁的街道?‘’, 完成了它。
I kind of became a conduit for all of this courage that was given to me. And I think that's part of our job as artists. I think we should be conveyors of courage in the work that we do. And I think that we are the wall between the normal folks and the people that use their power to spread fear and hate, especially in times like these.
我感觉对于给我的所有勇气, 我完成了传递。 我认为这也是我们艺术家工作的一部分。 在工作中我们都要成为勇气的传播者。 我们是在普通人和 利用权力传播恐惧和 憎恨的人之间的一堵墙, 尤其是这种时刻。
So I'm going to ask you. Y'all the movers and the shakers, you know, the thought leaders: What are you gonna do with the gifts that you've been given to break us from the fear the binds us every day?
所以我要问大家。 所有的行动者和动摇者, 思想的领导者: 拥有着可以使我们不再恐惧的 天赋的你们, 打算怎么做?
Because, see, I'm afraid every day. I can't remember a time when I wasn't. But once I figured out that fear was not put in me to cripple me, it was there to protect me, and once I figured out how to use that fear, I found my power.
因为看到了吧,我每天都很害怕。 我完全想不到哪个时候我不害怕。 但是想到恐惧并不是来打倒我的, 而是保护我, 当我明白了怎么利用恐惧, 我就找到了我的力量。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)