Priya Vulchi: Four years ago, we really thought we understood racism. Just like many of you here today, we had experienced and heard stories about race, about prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping and we were like, "We get it, racism, we got it, we got it." But we weren't even close.
普里亚·弗里奇 :四年前, 我们真的认为我们懂得种族主义。 就像今天很多在座的你们那样, 我们曾经经历过并且听说过一些 关于民族,关于偏见,歧视和成见的故事 然后我们就像这样,“我们懂了, 种族歧视,我们懂了,我们懂了。” 然而我们甚至都没有 踏进理解的范畴一步。
Winona Guo: So we decided that we had to listen and learn more. We talked to as many random people as we could and collected hundreds of personal stories about race, stories that revealed how racial injustice is a nationwide epidemic that we ourselves spread and now can't seem to recognize or get rid of.
薇诺娜·郭(Winona Guo):因此我们决定 我们必须更多地去倾听和了解。 我们尽可能随机的去和别人聊天 然后收集了成百上千份的 关于种族(偏见)的私人经历, 这些经历揭示了种族间 的不公平待遇如何成为一种 我们所传播的国际流行病 并且现在似乎无法 被识别出或者攻克掉。
PV: We're not there yet. Today, we are here to raise our standards of racial literacy, to redefine what it means to be racially literate.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我们 现在都没有到达理解的地步。 今天,我们在这里提高 我们种族文化的基准 以便重新定义作为一名 种族学者意味着什么。
WG: We want everywhere across the United States for our youngest and future generations to grow up equipped with the tools to understand, navigate and improve a world structured by racial division. We want us all to imagine the community as a place where we not only feel proud of our own backgrounds, but can also invest in others' experiences as if they were our own.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们 想要美国任何一个地方的 年轻人和他们的后代 可以在成长的过程中具备 一些理解(种族主义)的手段,应对 复杂困难情况的能力从而可以改善 这个已经被种族划分结构化的世界。 我们希望大家都想象这样一个群体: 在那里我们不但对自己 的人生背景感到自豪, 而且我们肯在理解其他群体人的经历上 花时间就好像那些人是我们自己人一样。
PV: We just graduated from high school this past June.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我们 六月份刚从高中毕业。
WG: And you'd think --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):然后你们会想——
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
And you'd think after 12 years somebody in or out of the classroom would have helped us understand --
然后你们会想经过12年 进进出出教室的某些人之后 会帮助我们理解程度——
PV: At a basic level at least --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):至少 到达一个基础级别——
WG: The society we live in.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):来了解 我们正处于的社会团体。
PV: The truth for almost all our classmates is that they don't.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):事实上,我们 几乎所有同学并没有达到(基础级别)。
WG: In communities around our country, so many of which are racially divided,
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们国家的群体, 大多数都是经过种族划分的,
PV: If you don't go searching for an education about race, for racial literacy --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):如果 你没有在关于民族的教育, 关于种族文化上做研究——
WG: You won't get it. It won't just come to you.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):你永远不会理解它。 它不会就这样走向你。
PV: Even when we did have conversations about race, our understanding was always superficial. We realized that there are two big gaps in our racial literacy.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):即使我们曾经 在民族方面展开的许多次的对话, 我们的理解仍然处于一知半解的程度。 我们意识到在我们的种族文化 理解上有两个大的漏洞。
WG: First, the heart gap: an inability to understand each of our experiences, to fiercely and unapologetically be compassionate beyond lip service.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):首先是,感情漏洞: 一种在理解每个人的经历上的无能为力, 从而对他人富有同情心 的表现上过于激烈和坦率。
PV: And second, the mind gap: an inability to understand the larger, systemic ways in which racism operates.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):其次是,精神漏洞: 一种在理解种族主义巨大、系统化的 运作方式上无能为力。
WG: First, the heart gap. To be fair, race did pop up a few times in school, growing up. We all defend our social justice education because we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks. But even in all of those conversations, race always felt outdated, like, "Yes, slavery, that happened once upon a time, but why does it really matter now?" As a result, we didn't really care. But what if our teacher introduced a story from the present day, for example, how Treniya told us in Pittsburgh that --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):首先,感情漏洞。 公平的说,民族(的影响)的确曾经突然 出现于学校一段时间,并且不断扩大。 我们都捍卫我们的社会公平教育 因为我们曾经了解关于马丁路德·金 ( Martin Luther King Jr.)、哈莉特·塔布曼( Harriet Tubman) 和罗莎·帕克斯( Rosa Parks.)(所做出的贡献)。 但是甚至在所有他们讲话的内容当中, 他们所讲述的人种间(的歧视) 总感觉有些过时,比如, “的确,奴隶制度,曾经 在很久以前出现过,” 然而对今天有什么实质上的影响吗?" 结论是,我们真的不关心它。 但是假如我们的老师 介绍一个当代的故事, 例如,匹兹堡的特里尼亚(Treniya)讲述的是——
PV: "My sister was scrolling through Facebook and typed in our last name. This white guy popped up, and we found out that his great-great-grandfather owned slaves and my great-great- great-grandmother was one of them. My last name -- it's not who I am. We've been living under a white man's name. If slavery didn't happen, who would I even be?"
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):“当我的姐姐正在滚动 查看脸书并且按类型把我们的姓氏归类的时候。 突然一个白人出现了, 然后我们发现他的 曾曾祖父曾经拥有过奴隶 并且我的曾曾祖母是其中的一员。 我的姓氏——并不能说明我是谁。 我们曾经一直凭借 一个白人的姓氏生活。 如果奴隶制度没有出现过,那我又会是谁呢?”
WG: Now it feels relevant, immediate, because the connection to slavery's lasting legacy today is made clear, right? Or what would happen is our teacher would throw out these cold statistics. You've probably seen this one before in news headlines.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):现在 立刻感觉是上述是相关的, 因为奴隶制度与现如今联系 而产生的延续性影响是无可厚非的,对吗? 不然可能即将发生是我们的老师 会掷出那些冷冰冰的统计数字。 你可能曾经看过这些在 新闻标题前出现的统计数字。
PV: African-Americans are incarcerated more than five times the rate of white people.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):非洲裔美国人 被监禁的次数高于白人的五倍。
WG: Now consider Ronnie, in Seattle.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):现在我们 转向西雅图的罗尼(Ronnie)。
PV: "My father means everything to me. He's all I've got, I don't know my mother. My father's currently being wrongly incarcerated for 12 years. I've got a daughter, and I try to be that same fatherly figure for her: always involved in everything she does, it might even be annoying at some points. But I'm afraid I'll go missing in her life just like my father did in mine."
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我父亲 对我来说意味着一切。 他就是我拥有的一切, 我不知道谁是我的母亲。 我父亲目前已经 被错误地监禁了12年。 我有一个女儿,我尝试着 作一个我父亲式的家长: 参与她所做的所有事情,但这种行为 在某些时候会(使她)感到厌烦 然而我害怕我会在她的生活中消失 就像我父亲对我那样。”
WG: Throwing out just the statistic, just the facts alone, disconnected from real humans, can lead to dangerously incomplete understanding of those facts. It fails to recognize that for many people who don't understand racism the problem is not a lack of knowledge to talk about the pain of white supremacy and oppression, it's that they don't recognize that that pain exists at all. They don't recognize the human beings that are being affected, and they don't feel enough to care.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):仅仅掷出 统计数字,只是单单事实罢了, 并不能与人们相联系, (这些数字)会引导人们对那些 事实有很危险且不完整的认识。 会带给很多曾经不理解 种族主义的人们一些错误的认识 关键问题是:很多人并不是 由于缺少专业知识 从而不谈白人优越主义 和他们的压迫感, 而是他们根本无法感受到 那些所产生的痛苦感。 他们无法意识到人类 正在被那些所影响, 并且他们不对于 那些产生足够的关心。
PV: Second, the mind gap. We can't ignore the stats, either. We can't truly grasp Ronnie's situation without understanding how things like unjust laws and biased policing systematic racism has created the disproportionate incarceration rates over time. Or like how in Honolulu, the large prison population of native Hawaiians like Kimmy is heavily influenced by the island's long history with US colonialization, its impact passing down through generations to today. For us, sometimes we would talk about people's personal, unique experiences in the classroom. Stuff like, how Justin once told us --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV): 其次是,精神漏洞。 当然我们也不能忽略统计数字。 我们无法真的急切接受罗尼(Ronnie)的处境 在我们不理解一些事物的基础上比如 非正义的法律和有偏向性的警务系统 所展现出的种族主义, 从而随着时间的推移 产生了并不成比例的监禁率。 或者又如檀香山, 夏威夷土著人的庞大的 监狱人口聚集地,其中吉米( Kimmy) 受到这个岛屿长期被 美国殖民化的历史 所深深影响, 它所造成的影响一代代延续到今天。 有时候我们会在教室里谈论到 有些人的私人事务或是 他们独特的经历。 类似的事情,贾斯廷( Justin)曾经告诉我们——
WG: "I've been working on psychologically reclaiming my place in this city. Because for me, my Chicago isn't the nice architecture downtown, it's not the North Side. My Chicago is the orange line, the pink line, the working immigrant class going on the train."
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我一直在 心理层面上恢复这个城市的地位。 因为对我来说,芝加哥不是 一座具有美观建筑的城市, 它并不在北面。 芝加哥是拥有橙线,粉线(地铁线路), 不断的有上下班的移民阶层 来乘坐火车的城市。”
PV: And while we might have acknowledged his personal experience, we wouldn't have talked about how redlining and the legalized segregation of our past created the racially divided neighborhoods we live in today. We wouldn't have completely understood how racism is embedded in the framework of everything around us, because we would stay narrowly focused on people's isolated experiences. Another example, Sandra in DC once told us:
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):虽然我们 可能已经承认了他的个人经历, 但是我们不会去谈论 曾经出现的红线区域 和合法化的种族隔离 是如何造成今天的种族分居现象的. 我们不会完全理解 种族主义是怎样嵌入在 我们周围的一切框架内的, 因为只是单方面关注 到了每个人单独的经历。 华盛顿特区的桑德拉 (Sandra )讲述的另一个事例是:
WG: "When I'm with my Korean family, I know how to move with them. I know what to do in order to have them feel like I care about them. And making and sharing food is one of the most fundamental ways of showing love. When I'm with my partner who's not Korean, however, we've had to grapple with the fact that I'm very food-centric and he's just not. One time he said that he didn't want to be expected to make food for me, and I got really upset."
薇诺娜·郭(WG):“当我还在与我朝鲜的家人们 一起生活的时候,我知道如何与他们一起行动。 我知道我应该如何做能够让 他们知道我一直关心着他们。 并且制作和分享食品是 向他人表达爱意最基础的方法之一。 然而,当我与一个并不是 朝鲜人的爱人生活的时候 我们不得不努力设法解决 我是以食物为中心而 他恰好相反这样的事实问题。 有一次他说他不想 为我所期待, 为我制作食物, 从而我感到很伤心。”
PV: That might seem like a weird reaction, but only if we don't recognize how it's emblematic of something larger, something deeper. Intragenerational trauma. How in Sandra's family, widespread hunger and poverty existed as recently as Sandra's parents' generation and therefore impacts Sandra today. She experiences someone saying --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):那看起来 似乎是一个奇怪的反应, 我们这么想是由于我们无法 识别出其中是怎样象征出大 而深层次的事情的。 是种代间的创伤。 昔日桑德拉家人们那样的举动是由于 桑德拉父辈人普遍存在的 饥饿和贫穷问题所造成的。 那种举动因而影响了 桑德拉(Sandra)今日的行为。 她把别人对她说——
WG: "I don't want to feed you."
薇诺娜·郭(WG):“我不想为你提供食物。”
PV: As --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):当作——
WG: "I don't want to hug you."
薇诺娜·郭(WG):“我不想拥抱你(亲近你)。”
PV: And without her and her partner having that nuanced understanding of her reaction and the historical context behind it, it could easily lead to unnecessary fighting. That's why it's so important that we proactively --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):如果她和 她丈夫之间没有对她的反应 和她曾经处于的生活背景 具有细致入微的理解, 就会很容易导致一些 不必要争吵的产生。 这就是为什么重要的是我们主动地——
(Both speaking): Co-create --
(两人齐声):共同-创造——
PV: A shared American culture that identifies and embraces the different values and norms within our diverse communities.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):一个共享的美国文化 应该在我们多元的社区中 认同和包容不同的价值和规范。
WG: To be racially literate --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):作为一名种族学者——
PV: To understand who we are so that we can heal together --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):要去理解我们自己是谁 以便我们能(使我们的人生)一起变得更完整——
WG: We cannot neglect the heart --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们不能忽略感情——
PV: Or the mind. So, with our hundreds of stories, we decided to publish a racial literacy textbook to bridge that gap between our hearts and minds.
或是精神。 因此,对于成百上千份的(私人)经历, 我们决定出版一本关于种族文学的教科书 从而弥补我们感情和精神之间的漏洞。
WG: Our last book, "The Classroom Index," shares deeply personal stories.
我们(出版)的上一本书,“课堂索引”, 分享了深刻的私人经历。
PV: And pairs those personal stories to the brilliant research of statisticians and scholars.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV): 并且将那些私人经历与 一些统计学家和优秀 学者的杰出研究进行配对。
WG: Every day, we are still blown away by people's experiences, by the complexity of our collective racial reality.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):每天, 我们仍然被人们的私人经历, 复杂的共同种族的真实情况所打动。
PV: So today, we ask you --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV): 所以今天,我想问你们——
WG: Are you racially literate? Are you there yet?
薇诺娜·郭(WG):你们是种族学者吗? 你们到达理解的地步了吗?
PV: Do you really understand the people around you, their stories, stories like these? It's not just knowing that Louise from Seattle survived Japanese American internment camps. It's knowing that, meanwhile, her husband was one of an estimated 33,000 Japanese Americans who fought for our country during the war, a country that was simultaneously interning their families. For most of us, those Japanese Americans both in camps and in service, now see their bravery, their resilience, their history forgotten. They've become only victims.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV): 你们真的理解周围的人们吗, 他们的故事,像上述的故事那样? 我们不能只是知道 西雅图的路易丝( Louise) 在日裔美国人的 拘留营中生存了下来。 我们同时还要知道, 她的丈夫是约33,000名为我们 国家反抗的日籍美国人其中的一员, 这个国家同时关押了他们的家庭。 对大多数的我们来说, 那些日籍美国人,在营地或是正在服役的 现在他们的勇敢、坚韧和历史都被遗忘了。 他们现在只是成为了受害者。
PV: It's not just knowing that interracial marriages like Shermaine and Paul in DC exist, it's acknowledging that our society has been programmed for them to fail. That on their very first date someone shouted, "Why are you with that black whore?" That according to a Columbia study on cis straight relationships black is often equated with masculinity and Asian with femininity, leading more men to not value black women and to fetishize Asian women. Among black-white marriages in the year 2000, 73 percent had a black husband and a white wife. Paul and Shermaine defy that statistic. Black is beautiful, but it takes a lot to believe so once society says otherwise.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我们不能仅仅知道 在华盛顿特区,像舍曼( Shermaine)和 保罗( Paul)这样的异族婚姻的存在。 我们要承认的是我们的社会 对他们的关心不够。 在他们第一次约会的时候,有人大喊道, “你为什么和那个黑妓在一起?” 根据哥伦比亚在顺直关系上的研究表明 黑人被视为具有阳刚之气而 亚洲人被视为具有阴柔之气, 从而导致更多的男性不重视 黑人女性并且迷恋亚洲女性。 到2000年为止, 在所有的黑人-白人婚姻之中, 73%具有一位黑人丈夫或白人妻子。 保罗(Paul )和舍曼(Shermaine) 反对这个数字。 黑人是美丽的, 但是社会不这么认为从而 导致人们要花更多的时间相信。
WG: It's not just knowing that white people like Lisa in Chicago have white privilege, it's reflecting consciously on the term whiteness and its history, knowing that whiteness can't be equated with American. It's knowing that Lisa can't forget her own personal family's history of Jewish oppression. That she can't forget how, growing up, she was called a dirty Jew with horns and tails. But Lisa knows she can pass as white so she benefits from huge systemic and interpersonal privileges, and so she spends every day grappling with ways that she can leverage that white privilege for social justice. For example, starting conversations with other people of privilege about race. Or shifting the power in her classroom to her students by learning to listen to their experiences of racism and poverty.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们不能只是知道 在芝加哥像丽萨( Lisa )这样的白人, 拥有白色特权, 它有意识地反映了白人阶级和它的历史, 让我们知道白人并不能等同于美国人。 我们要知道的是丽萨(Lisa)不能忘记 她的家庭受到犹太压迫的历史。 她无法忘记如何,在成长的过程中 她被称之为有犄角和尾巴 肮脏的犹太人。 但是丽萨(Lisa)知道她可以像白人一样 从而她受益于巨大的(社会)系统和人际特权, 因此她每天都竭尽全力 用她的白人特权来实现 社会公平。 比如,与其他阶层的人们展开关于民族话题的对话。 或者通过学习他们在种族主义和贫穷的经历, 去在课堂上把这种动力转移给她的学生。
PV: It's not just knowing that native languages are dying. It's appreciating how fluency in the Cherokee language, which really only less than 12,000 people speak today, is an act of survival, of preservation of culture and history. It's knowing how the nongendered Cherokee language enabled Ahyoka's acceptance as a trans woman in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her grandmother told her firmly a saying in Cherokee, "I don't tell me who you are, you tell me who you are. And that is who you are."
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我们不能 仅仅知道母语正在面临危机。 我们应该感激的是切罗基语 在社会中的用于交谈流利程度, 现如今只有不超过 12,000人还在说这门语言, 这是一种展示它仍然存在的行为, 是一种保护文化和历史的行为。 我们应该知道未经处理过得切罗基语 使得河冈(Ahyoka)被接受成为一名 俄克拉荷马州塔勒阔 的跨性女性。 她的祖母坚定地向她 讲述了一个切罗基语的谚语, “我不告诉我你是谁, 你告诉我你是谁。 然后那个就是你。”
WG: These are just parts of a few stories. There are approximately 323 million people in the United States.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):这只是那些故事的一部分。 美国有大约3亿2300万人口。
PV: And 7.4 billion people on the planet.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):全球有74亿人口。
WG: So we have a lot to listen to.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):所以我们有很多的事件需要去聆听。
PV: And a lot to learn.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):还有很多东西要学。
WG: We need to raise the bar.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们需要提高门槛。
PV: Elevate our standards for racial literacy. Because without investing in an education that values --
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):提升我们的种族文化。 因为如果没有在教育上面花费时间那么价值——
WG: Both the stories -- PV: And statistics --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):上述的两个故事—— 普里亚·弗里奇(PV):还有统计数字——
WG: The people -- PV: And the numbers --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):人们—— 普里亚·弗里奇(PV):还有数字——
WG: The interpersonal -- PV: And the systemic --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):人际关系—— 普里亚·弗里奇(PV):还有系统——
WG: There will always be a piece missing.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):这里会永远少一项。
PV: Today, so few of us understand each other.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):今天,有很少一部分人理解他人。
WG: We don't know how to communicate --
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们不知道如何去沟通——
PV: Live together -- WG: Love one another. We need to all work together to create a new national community.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):一起生活—— 薇诺娜·郭(WG):爱一个又一个人。 我们需要共同努力去创造 一个全新的民族共同体
PV: A new shared culture of mutual suffering and celebration.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):一种 全新的同甘共苦共享文化。
WG: We need to each begin by learning in our own local communities, bridging the gaps between our own hearts and minds to become racially literate.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们每个人都 需要从我们当地的群体开始学习, 弥补我们感情和精神之间的漏洞 从而成为一名种族学者。
PV: Once we all do, we will be that much closer to living in spaces and systems that fight and care equally for all of us.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):一旦我们所有人 都这样去做了,我们将距离为我们 一视同仁地提供关怀、争取权利 的空间和体制更进一步。
WG: Then, none of us will be able to remain distant.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):然后,我们之间将不再存在距离。
PV: We couldn't -- sorry, mom and dad, college can wait.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):我们不能—— 抱歉,父母和学校能够等待。
WG: We're on a gap year before college, traveling to all 50 states collecting stories for our next book.
薇诺娜·郭(WG):我们正在用 空档年的时间走遍全美50个州 为我们的下一本书收集故事。
PV: And we still have 23 states left to interview in.
普里亚·弗里奇(PV):直到现在 我们还剩下23个州需要去采访。
(Both) Let's all get to work.
(两人齐声)让我们大家一起开始工作吧。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)