So it's 2006. My friend Harold Ford calls me. He's running for U.S. Senate in Tennessee, and he says, "Mellody, I desperately need some national press. Do you have any ideas?" So I had an idea. I called a friend who was in New York at one of the most successful media companies in the world, and she said, "Why don't we host an editorial board lunch for Harold? You come with him."
故事发生在2006年。 我的朋友哈罗德•福特找我帮忙。 他是田纳西州的参议员, 他说:「麦勒迪,我急需找一个国家媒体。 你能帮我吗?」 我想到一个主意, 我给一个在纽约的朋友打电话, 她所在的公司是世界上最成功的媒体公司之一, 她说,「为何不邀请哈罗德参与编辑部的午宴呢? 你可以跟他一起来。」
Harold and I arrive in New York. We are in our best suits. We look like shiny new pennies. And we get to the receptionist, and we say, "We're here for the lunch." She motions for us to follow her. We walk through a series of corridors, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a stark room, at which point she looks at us and she says, "Where are your uniforms?"
哈罗德随我抵达纽约, 身着我们最好的套装, 看起来像金光灿灿的硬币。 到达接待处后,我们说, 「我们是过来吃午餐的。」 她示意我们跟着她走。 经过长长的走廊, 突然,我们发现自己到了一个空旷的房间里, 随后她打量着我们,说, 「你们的工作制服呢?」
Just as this happens, my friend rushes in. The blood drains from her face. There are literally no words, right? And I look at her, and I say, "Now, don't you think we need more than one black person in the U.S. Senate?"
就在这时, 我的朋友冲了进来, 脸红得都要渗出血了。 真得很无语,是吧? 我转向她,说, 「现在,你不觉得美国参议院至少需要一位黑人吗?」 如今,哈罗德跟我——
Now Harold and I -- (Applause) — we still laugh about that story, and in many ways, the moment caught me off guard, but deep, deep down inside, I actually wasn't surprised. And I wasn't surprised because of something my mother taught me about 30 years before. You see, my mother was ruthlessly realistic. I remember one day coming home from a birthday party where I was the only black kid invited, and instead of asking me the normal motherly questions like, "Did you have fun?" or "How was the cake?" my mother looked at me and she said, "How did they treat you?" I was seven. I did not understand. I mean, why would anyone treat me differently? But she knew. And she looked me right in the eye and she said, "They will not always treat you well."
(掌声)—— 我们还把这个故事当笑话讲, 无论怎么说,那一刻令我措手不及, 但在我内心最深处, 我真的不觉得惊讶。 我之所以不惊讶, 是因为大概30年前我母亲给我上了一堂课。 我母亲是不折不扣的现实主义者。 我记得有一天, 参加完一个只有我一个黑人受邀的生日宴会后, 回到家后, 母亲没问一些母亲们通常会关心的问题, 如「玩得开心吗?」或者「蛋糕好吃吗?」 我的母亲看着我说, 「他们对你的态度如何?」 那时我方才7岁,我不明白这个问题。 我想,为什么别人会对我有所不同呢? 但是我母亲知道。 她看着我的眼睛,说, 「别人不会总是对你笑脸相迎。」
Now, race is one of those topics in America that makes people extraordinarily uncomfortable. You bring it up at a dinner party or in a workplace environment, it is literally the conversational equivalent of touching the third rail. There is shock, followed by a long silence. And even coming here today, I told some friends and colleagues that I planned to talk about race, and they warned me, they told me, don't do it, that there'd be huge risks in me talking about this topic, that people might think I'm a militant black woman and I would ruin my career. And I have to tell you, I actually for a moment was a bit afraid. Then I realized, the first step to solving any problem is to not hide from it, and the first step to any form of action is awareness. And so I decided to actually talk about race. And I decided that if I came here and shared with you some of my experiences, that maybe we could all be a little less anxious and a little more bold in our conversations about race.
如今在美国,种族话题是 让人感到极不舒服的话题之一。 在晚宴会或工作场所中提到这个话题, 无异于触碰了「雷区」。 人们会感到震惊, 随即陷入长久的沉默。 甚至对于今天的这个演讲, 当我告诉一些朋友和同事 我计划谈谈种族问题时, 他们警告我说,不要这么做, 谈论这个话题会带来巨大的风险, 人们也许会认为我是一位激进的黑人女性, 这会毁了我的事业。 我必须向你们坦诚, 有时候我确实有一点担心。 但后来我意识到, 解决任何问题的第一步是不逃避, 任何行动的首要条件是意识到问题的存在。 因此我决定要谈谈种族问题。 我坚信,如果我在此跟你们分享一些我的故事, 或许会稍微缓解一下我们对这个话题的焦虑感, 会让我们更有胆量来谈论种族问题。
Now I know there are people out there who will say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right? But I work in the investment business, and we have a saying: The numbers do not lie. And here, there are significant, quantifiable racial disparities that cannot be ignored, in household wealth, household income, job opportunities, healthcare. One example from corporate America: Even though white men make up just 30 percent of the U.S. population, they hold 70 percent of all corporate board seats. Of the Fortune 250, there are only seven CEOs that are minorities, and of the thousands of publicly traded companies today, thousands, only two are chaired by black women, and you're looking at one of them, the same one who, not too long ago, was nearly mistaken for kitchen help. So that is a fact. Now I have this thought experiment that I play with myself, when I say, imagine if I walked you into a room and it was of a major corporation, like ExxonMobil, and every single person around the boardroom were black, you would think that were weird. But if I walked you into a Fortune 500 company, and everyone around the table is a white male, when will it be that we think that's weird too?
我知道有很多人会说, 巴拉克•奥巴马当选美国总统意味着 种族歧视不复存在,没错吧? 但我在投资行业工作, 我们这行有句俗语: 数据不会说谎。 在今天的美国,数据表明 有不可忽视的大量的种族不平等存在, 如家庭财富,家庭收入, 工作机会,医疗服务。 举一个美国企业的例子: 尽管白人占美国人口总数的30%, 他们占据了70%的企业董事会席位。 财富250强的企业中, 只有7位CEO是少数族裔出身, 在数以千计的公司的董事会主席中, 只有两位是黑人女性, 其中一位就站在你们眼前, 就是那位在不久之前, 差点被误以为是厨房打下手的人。 这就是事实。 我跟自己玩思想实验, 我对自己说, 设想我走入一个房间, 是一家大公司的会议室,如埃克森美孚, 全体董事会成员都是黑人, 你会觉得这很奇怪。 但如果你走入一家财富500强企业, 在座的每位都是男性白人, 我们什么时候会认为这也是奇怪的?
And I know how we got here. (Applause)
我知道历史是如何发展到今天的。 (掌声)
I know how we got here. You know, there was institutionalized, at one time legalized, discrimination in our country. There's no question about it. But still, as I grapple with this issue, my mother's question hangs in the air for me: How did they treat you?
我知道我们是如何发展到今天的。 你们也知道,在我们国家, 歧视曾被制度化,有段时间还被合法化了。 这是不争的事实。 但是,当我深陷在这个问题中时, 我母亲的问题依然在那里, 他们对你的态度如何?
Now, I do not raise this issue to complain or in any way to elicit any kind of sympathy. I have succeeded in my life beyond my wildest expectations, and I have been treated well by people of all races more often than I have not. I tell the uniform story because it happened. I cite those statistics around corporate board diversity because they are real, and I stand here today talking about this issue of racial discrimination because I believe it threatens to rob another generation of all the opportunities that all of us want for all of our children, no matter what their color or where they come from. And I think it also threatens to hold back businesses. You see, researchers have coined this term "color blindness" to describe a learned behavior where we pretend that we don't notice race. If you happen to be surrounded by a bunch of people who look like you, that's purely accidental. Now, color blindness, in my view, doesn't mean that there's no racial discrimination, and there's fairness. It doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't ensure it. In my view, color blindness is very dangerous because it means we're ignoring the problem. There was a corporate study that said that, instead of avoiding race, the really smart corporations actually deal with it head on. They actually recognize that embracing diversity means recognizing all races, including the majority one. But I'll be the first one to tell you, this subject matter can be hard, awkward, uncomfortable -- but that's kind of the point.
今天,我抛出这个问题, 不是在抱怨,也绝不是为了博得一丝同情, 我此生取得的成就, 已超出我最大胆的期望, 各个种族的人对我予以善待, 要多于我所受到的恶待, 我告诉你们制服的故事因为那确实发生了。 我列举企业董事会的数据 是因为它们是真实的, 而今天我站在这里, 谈论种族歧视问题, 是因为我相信种族问题会威胁下一代 拥有公平机会的权利, 公平的机会是所有人期望所有的孩子能够拥有的, 无论肤色, 无论来自何方。 而且,我认为种族问题会威胁到商业发展。 你们知道,研究者造出了一个新词 「无视肤色」 用以描述一种「假装没注意到种族差异」 的习得性行为。 如果你恰巧跟一群长得跟你很像的人在一起, 那纯是巧合。 所谓「无视肤色」,在我看来, 并不意味着消除了种族歧视,带来了公平。 根本就不是这样。 「无视肤色」并不能保证消除歧视。 在我看来,「无视肤色」极其危险, 因为它意味着我们有意地忽视问题。 有企业研究表明, 与其避免谈论种族问题, 不如直面问题,迎难而上。 这才是真正有智慧的企业的做法。 这些企业意识到, 包容多元化意味着承认各种种族的存在, 也包括人数最多的种族。 但我会第一个告诉你, 这个问题解决起来会有困难, 会棘手,会让人感觉不舒服——但这是关键所在。
In the spirit of debunking racial stereotypes, the one that black people don't like to swim, I'm going to tell you how much I love to swim. I love to swim so much that as an adult, I swim with a coach. And one day my coach had me do a drill where I had to swim to one end of a 25-meter pool without taking a breath. And every single time I failed, I had to start over. And I failed a lot. By the end, I got it, but when I got out of the pool, I was exasperated and tired and annoyed, and I said, "Why are we doing breath-holding exercises?" And my coach looked me at me, and he said, "Mellody, that was not a breath-holding exercise. That drill was to make you comfortable being uncomfortable, because that's how most of us spend our days." If we can learn to deal with our discomfort, and just relax into it, we'll have a better life.
为揭露种族歧视问题的顽疾, 有人说黑人不喜欢游泳, 我来告诉你我有多热爱游泳。 我如此喜爱游泳, 以至于作为成年人,还请了一位教练。 有一天,教练让我做一项训练, 我不得不在25米长的泳池里从头游到尾, 不能换气。 每次失败后, 都要从头来过。 我屡战屡败。 最后,成功了,但当我从泳池出来后, 心力憔悴,但更恼火, 我说,「为什么要做憋气练习?」 我的教练看着我说, 「麦勒迪,这不是一个憋气练习。 这项训练是为了让你适应不舒服的感觉, 因为这就是我们大部分人的生活。」 如果我们知道如何适应不舒服的感觉, 以轻松的态度来应对, 我们的生活会更加美好。
So I think it's time for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation about race: black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, all of us, if we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity in America, I think we have to have real conversations about this issue. We cannot afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave. We have to be willing, as teachers and parents and entrepreneurs and scientists, we have to be willing to have proactive conversations about race with honesty and understanding and courage, not because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the smart thing to do, because our businesses and our products and our science, our research, all of that will be better with greater diversity.
因此,我认为到了适应这个 让人感觉不舒服的种族话题的时候了: 黑人,白人,亚裔,西班牙裔, 男性,女性,我们所有的人。 如果我们真正相信在美国 拥有平等的权利和机会, 我认为我们不得不真正地谈一谈这个话题。 我们经受不起「无视肤色」。 我们必须勇敢地面对肤色差异。 我们——作为老师、父母、 企业家和科学家—— 必须高瞻远瞩, 乐于讨论种族问题, 心怀诚意、理解和勇气, 不是因为这么做是正确的, 而因为这是明智的举措, 因为更广泛的多元化会让 商业、产品和科学研究等等一切都变得更好。
Now, my favorite example of color bravery is a guy named John Skipper. He runs ESPN. He's a North Carolina native, quintessential Southern gentleman, white. He joined ESPN, which already had a culture of inclusion and diversity, but he took it up a notch. He demanded that every open position have a diverse slate of candidates. Now he says the senior people in the beginning bristled, and they would come to him and say, "Do you want me to hire the minority, or do you want me to hire the best person for the job?" And Skipper says his answers were always the same: "Yes." And by saying yes to diversity, I honestly believe that ESPN is the most valuable cable franchise in the world. I think that's a part of the secret sauce.
关于勇敢地面对肤色差异, 我最喜欢引用的例子是一个叫John Skipper的家伙, 他是ESPN的管理者。 他是北卡罗来纳州当地人, 典型的南方绅士,白人哦。 在他加入ESPN时,ESPN已经形成了一种 包容和多元化的文化,但他将文化落实。 他要求每一个空缺岗位 都要有多元化的候选人。 他说在最初的时候, 高层怒不可遏, 径直找他谈话, 「你希望我雇佣少数族裔的人, 还是一个最适合这份工作的人?」 而Skipper说他的回答总是不变的, 「是。」 ESPN向多元化敞开大门, 我发自内心地相信ESPN是世界上最具价值的电台。 我认为这是其秘密武器之一。
Now I can tell you, in my own industry, at Ariel Investments, we actually view our diversity as a competitive advantage, and that advantage can extend way beyond business. There's a guy named Scott Page at the University of Michigan. He is the first person to develop a mathematical calculation for diversity. He says, if you're trying to solve a really hard problem, really hard, that you should have a diverse group of people, including those with diverse intellects. The example that he gives is the smallpox epidemic. When it was ravaging Europe, they brought together all these scientists, and they were stumped. And the beginnings of the cure to the disease came from the most unlikely source, a dairy farmer who noticed that the milkmaids were not getting smallpox. And the smallpox vaccination is bovine-based because of that dairy farmer.
现在我要告诉你的是,在我从事的行业, 在亚瑞投资公司,我们实际上将多元化 看作竞争优势 , 这个优势的影响力远远超乎商业范畴。 在密歇根大学有个叫斯科特•佩奇的人, 他是第一位建立多元化数学算法的人。 他说,如果你试图解决一个非常困难的问题, 非常困难的问题, 你的团队成员应是多元化的, 人人各有所长。 他举的例子是天花传染病。 当天花肆虐欧洲时, 科学家们汇聚在一起, 却束手无策。 第一道曙光从谁也不曾料到的地方照来, 原来是一位奶农,他注意到挤奶女工都没被感染。 正因为那位奶农,基于牛痘的疫苗才得以发现。 我确信坐在这儿的你们会说,
Now I'm sure you're sitting here and you're saying, I don't run a cable company, I don't run an investment firm, I am not a dairy farmer. What can I do? And I'm telling you, you can be color brave. If you're part of a hiring process or an admissions process, you can be color brave. If you are trying to solve a really hard problem, you can speak up and be color brave. Now I know people will say, but that doesn't add up to a lot, but I'm actually asking you to do something really simple: observe your environment, at work, at school, at home. I'm asking you to look at the people around you purposefully and intentionally. Invite people into your life who don't look like you, don't think like you, don't act like you, don't come from where you come from, and you might find that they will challenge your assumptions and make you grow as a person. You might get powerful new insights from these individuals, or, like my husband, who happens to be white, you might learn that black people, men, women, children, we use body lotion every single day.
「我并不管理一家电台, 我并不拥有一家投资公司, 我不是一位奶农, 我能做些什么?」 我来告诉你,你可以勇敢地面对肤色差异。 如果你在公司做人事或行政, 你应让自己变得勇敢。 如果你在努力解决一个很困难的问题, 你应直言不讳,勇敢面对。 我知道有些人会说, 这样做贡献不了什么的。 但实际上我是在请你做一些非常简单易行的事情: 注意周边环境, 工作中,在学校里,在家里。 我请你们注意身边的人, 有意识地去观察, 让你的生活与那些你不曾来往的人有所交集, 这些人或许长相、思想、行为跟你不一样, 或许跟你来自不同的地方, 你会发现,他们会让你反思你曾经的假设, 让你朝着正确的方向成长。 从他们身上,你也许会听到全新的深刻见解, 或者,像我的丈夫,他碰巧是白人, 你会懂得黑人,无论男人,女人,还是孩子, 我们每天都用润肤露。
Now, I also think that this is very important so that the next generation really understands that this progress will help them, because they're expecting us to be great role models.
那么, 我认为,其重要性也在于让下一代明白, 这一进程会帮助他们, 因为他们在期望我们成为杰出的榜样。
Now, I told you, my mother, she was ruthlessly realistic. She was an unbelievable role model. She was the kind of person who got to be the way she was because she was a single mom with six kids in Chicago. She was in the real estate business, where she worked extraordinarily hard but oftentimes had a hard time making ends meet. And that meant sometimes we got our phone disconnected, or our lights turned off, or we got evicted. When we got evicted, sometimes we lived in these small apartments that she owned, sometimes in only one or two rooms, because they weren't completed, and we would heat our bathwater on hot plates. But she never gave up hope, ever, and she never allowed us to give up hope either. This brutal pragmatism that she had, I mean, I was four and she told me, "Mommy is Santa." (Laughter) She was this brutal pragmatism. She taught me so many lessons, but the most important lesson was that every single day she told me, "Mellody, you can be anything." And because of those words, I would wake up at the crack of dawn, and because of those words, I would love school more than anything, and because of those words, when I was on a bus going to school, I dreamed the biggest dreams. And it's because of those words that I stand here right now full of passion, asking you to be brave for the kids who are dreaming those dreams today. (Applause)
我之前讲过,我的母亲, 是不折不扣的现实主义者。 她是一个不可思议的榜样。 为现实所迫,她不得不以身作则,树立榜样, 因为她是芝加哥的六个孩子的单亲母亲, 在房地产行业工作, 任劳任怨,不辞辛劳, 却依然食不果腹,捉襟见肘。 这意味着有时 电话信号会中断, 灯不得不长闭, 或者被驱逐出门。 我们被驱逐出门后, 有时会住在母亲名下的几个小公寓, 有时只有一个或两个房间, 因为公寓简陋, 我们都能听见洗澡水滴落在电热板上的声音。 但她从没有放弃过希望,从没有, 而且她也从来都不允许我们放弃希望。 她秉持根深蒂固的务实精神, 我的意思是,当我四岁时她对我说, 「妈咪是圣诞老人」(笑声) 她就是这么务实。 她言传身教,循循善诱, 但让我记忆最深的, 还是那句她每天都会对我说的, 「麦勒迪,你的未来有无限可能。」 正因为母亲的话语, 我才会在黎明前就告别梦乡; 正因为母亲的话语, 我才会把学校当作最爱; 正因为母亲的话语, 我才会在乘车去学校的路上,怀揣最远大的梦想; 正因为母亲的话语, 我才会满怀激情地站在这里, 呼吁你们勇敢面对肤色,为了那些拥有梦想的孩子 (掌声) 我希望这些孩子们在看到电视里的CEO时会说,
You see, I want them to look at a CEO on television and say, "I can be like her," or, "He looks like me." And I want them to know that anything is possible, that they can achieve the highest level that they ever imagined, that they will be welcome in any corporate boardroom, or they can lead any company. You see this idea of being the land of the free and the home of the brave, it's woven into the fabric of America. America, when we have a challenge, we take it head on, we don't shrink away from it. We take a stand. We show courage. So right now, what I'm asking you to do, I'm asking you to show courage. I'm asking you to be bold. As business leaders, I'm asking you not to leave anything on the table. As citizens, I'm asking you not to leave any child behind. I'm asking you not to be color blind, but to be color brave, so that every child knows that their future matters and their dreams are possible.
「有朝一日我会成为像她那样的人。」 或说,「他看起来跟我很像。」 我想让他们知道, 一切都是有可能的, 可以实现想象到的最宏伟的目标, 走入任何一家企业的办公室,都会受到欢迎, 他们也可以领导任何公司。 你们知道,「自由之地」和「勇者之家」的理念 是美利坚合众国民族的脊梁, 在美国,当我们面临挑战, 我们要迎难而上,而不是畏首畏脚。 我们要表明立场,展现出勇气。 现在,我希望大家去做的 是请你们展现出勇气, 请你们勇敢。 作为商界领袖, 我会请你们不要在桌子上落下东西。 作为公民,我请你们不要让任何孩子落下, 我请你们不要无视肤色, 而是要勇敢地面对差异, 这样,每一个孩子都会知道他们的未来事关重大, 他们的梦想可以实现。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause) Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. (Applause)
(掌声) 谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。(掌声)