美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: Looking Back On 2019, I Think Of Fear

Opinion: Looking Back On 2019, I Think Of Fear

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

For my day job here at NPR, I cover identity, race and culture. And in 2019, there was no shortage of stories to tell.

This summer, I met a girl named Katy Martinez. She was 16, bubbly and spoke¹ so fast she'd forget to take breaths between sentences. She was obsessed² with dance and, like most teens, spent a lot of time on her phone. But in the past year, something had started to bother her. She noticed people making assumptions about her based on her name and her ethnicity. Martinez was born in Las Vegas. Her parents came from El Salvador. She saw derogatory comments about immigrants online or the word Mexican used in a catchall way for Spanish-speaking people. She heard it in Washington, too - words like infestation³, invasion. So she started giving presentations at school on immigration, her family history and the country her parents came from. She told me she felt like she needed to prove that she was human.

And that need to prove humanity - I heard it a lot in 2019, stories from people increasingly boxed into rigid⁴ categories - black, white, LGBTQ, brown, Muslim, Jewish - people finding themselves in the role of reluctant ambassador in a dangerously divided nation, as if any one race, religion or identity speaks in a single voice.

There was the woman and her wife in Billings, Mont. They worried about a Supreme⁵ Court case that could end federal protections for LGBTQ people who face discrimination at work. I talked with a Latina conservative in Texas who feels alienated⁶ by both political parties. She said it seemed like Democrats⁷ didn't respect her religious beliefs, and Republicans promoted hate against her race and language. I spoke with American Muslims terrified that the massacre⁸ at two mosques⁹ in New Zealand could happen here. There were deadly attacks all year on Jewish communities amid a resurgence¹⁰ of anti-Semitism. Just this week, during Hanukkah in New York City, there were reports of several attacks on Jewish people.

So when I look back on my beat in 2019, I think of the fear - fear that you'll be misunderstood, judged or hurt for what you look like or who you are.

On the day I met 16-year-old Katy Martinez, a gunman had just targeted people that looked like her at a Walmart in El Paso. She told me about the last presentation she'd given at her school about her family.

KATY MARTINEZ: The core message was, like, we're human. That was the last thing I said in my presentation. Like, that's all I wanted everyone to know.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

3 infestation   

n.侵扰，蔓延

参考例句：

• The premises were treated for cockroach infestation.因蟑螂成灾，这些房屋集中进行了灭蟑活动。
• Parts of California are suffering from an infestation of oriental fruit flies.加利福尼亚的部分地区正遭受东方果蝇的大肆侵袭。

4 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

9 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

10 resurgence   

n.再起，复活，再现

参考例句：

• A resurgence of his grief swept over Nim.悲痛又涌上了尼姆的心头。
• Police say drugs traffickers are behind the resurgence of violence.警方说毒贩是暴力活动重新抬头的罪魁祸首。