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.
我很害怕, 現在, 在這個講台上, 我感到恐懼。 我一生中,沒見過很多 會欣然承認自己害怕的人。 我覺那是因為在內心深處, 他們知道恐懼有多容易散播。 恐懼就像疾病。 當它散播移動時,就像野火。 但當你去做你該做的事, 即使是要面對恐懼也去做, 會發生什麼事呢? 那就叫做勇氣。 就像恐懼一樣, 勇氣會傳染。
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.
我來自伊利諾州的東聖路易斯, 那是個小城市, 在密蘇里州聖路易斯的 密西西比河對岸。 我一生都住在聖路易斯一帶。 當小麥可布朗── 他是個平凡的青少年 , 於 2014 年在密蘇里州的 佛格森被警方槍殺── 佛格森是聖路易斯北邊的 另一個郊區, 我記得我當時在想, 他不是第一個, 也不會是最後一個被執法人員 奪去生命的年輕孩子。
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,他的死不一樣。 當麥可被殺時, 我記得當權者試圖用恐懼當作武器。 警方對哀傷的 社區大眾的回應是用武力 來造成恐懼: 對備戰警察、 坐牢、 罰金的恐懼。 媒體甚至試圖用編造故事的方式 讓我們害怕彼此。 這些在過去都是可行的。 但如我所言,這次不同。
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.
麥可布朗之死 以及後續對社區的對待方式, 導致了佛格森及聖路易斯 一帶一連串抗議。 當我在第四或第五天時, 出門去參與這些抗議, 並非出於勇氣 而是出於罪惡感。 我是黑人, 不知道你們有沒有注意到。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
但我無法坐在離佛格森 只有幾分鐘遠的聖路易斯, 卻不去看看。 所以我出門去看看。
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.
當我到那兒時, 我發現的東西讓我很驚訝。 我看到了憤怒,很多的憤怒。 但我看到了更多的是愛。 人們有對自己的愛、 對他們的社區的愛。 那很美── 直到警察出現。 接著,新的情緒被加了進來: 就是恐懼。
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.
現在我老實地說, 當我看到那些武裝車輛、 那些裝備、 那些槍枝、 那些警察, 我嚇壞了── 我個人是如此。 當我看向周圍群眾, 我看到很多人跟我一樣。 但我也看到一些人, 他們內心還有別的, 就是勇氣。 那些人吶喊, 他們大叫, 他們不打算因為警察而打退堂鼓。 他們已超越了這個點了。 我接著感到我內在起了變化, 所以我也吶喊、我也大叫, 我注意到我身邊的每個人 也在做同樣的事。 沒什麼比得上那種感覺。
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.
所以我決定要多做點什麼。 我回家,心想: 我是個藝術家,我會產出作品。 所以我開始針對抗議來創作, 創作出在心靈戰爭中 能當武器用的作品、 能夠表達人民心聲的作品, 讓他們能更堅強 面對前方道路的作品。
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?"
我有一個設計是 將抗議者的手拍下來, 把照片貼在圍住建築物的木板上 及社區店家上。 我的目標是要引起注意、提振士氣。 我覺得至少有一個短暫的時間, 我有做到了。 接著我想,我要把 我看到的這些在當下 很有勇氣的人的故事再推進一步。 我自己、我朋友、 製片人、以及合作伙伴沙巴佛拉亞 用我們的紀錄片完成了這目標, 片名叫「誰的街道?」
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.
我有點變成了導體, 這些被賦予我的勇氣的導體。 我認為身為藝術家, 那是我們工作的一部份。 我想該用我們的作品來傳遞勇氣。 我認為我們是介在一般人, 與用權力來散播 恐懼與恨意的人之間的一道牆, 特別是在這樣的時刻。
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,我想問你們, 你們是有行動有影響力的人物、 是思想領袖; 你們打算用 你們被賦予的天賦來做什麼, 讓我們不要再每天被恐懼所束縛?
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.
因為,我每天都很害怕。 我記不得有任何不害怕的時候。 一旦我了解到,恐懼被植入 我內心的目的不是要削弱我, 而是要保護我, 一旦我了解到如何運用那恐懼, 我就找到了我的力量。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)