时代周刊 金博士遗产的洗白和复兴(1)

The whitewashing—and resurrection—of Dr. King’s legacy¹

金博士遗产的洗白和复兴

By Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

文/小艾迪·S·格劳德

ON SEPT. 20, 1966, IN THE SMALL TOWN of Grenada, Miss., Martin Luther King Jr. would not get out of bed.

1966年9月20日，在密西西比州的格林纳达小镇上，马丁·路德·金说什么也不肯起床。

Andrew Young, his closest adviser², tried everything.

他最亲密的参谋安德鲁·杨什么办法都试过了。

He used all the techniques they had learned over the course of the movement when any one of them faced debilitating³ exhaustion⁴.

他把他们在那次运动中学到的，用来对付筋疲力竭的所有技巧都用上了。

Nothing worked.

却无一例外地都没奏效。

This was not exhaustion. King had fallen into a deep depression, and he would not budge⁵.

因为金并不是觉得累了，而是陷入了深深的沮丧，并且丝毫不愿回心转意。

King’s bout⁶ hit in the midst of the Southern Christian⁷ Leadership Conference’s efforts to desegregate schools in Grenada County.

金这次发作正值南部基督教领袖联合会为废除格林纳达县各学校的种族隔离制度而努力的时候。

He had witnessed, once again, the human capacity for evil.

他目睹，而且是再次目睹了人类能邪恶到何等地步。

As 150 black students entered John Rundle High School and Lizzie Horn Elementary School, an angry mob gathered outside.

150名黑人学生踏入约翰·伦德尔高中和丽齐·霍恩小学时，一群愤怒的暴徒也聚集在了学校外面。

White students were dismissed at midday.

中午时分，白人学生们都放学了。

Half an hour later, black students emerged.

半小时后，黑人学生出现了。

The mob attacked the children.

暴徒便上前袭击了他们。

Grown men descended⁸ upon 12-year-old Richard Sigh and broke his leg with lead pipes.

一群成年男子突然袭击了12岁的理查德·赛，并用铅筒打断了他的腿。

Others laughed as they pummeled a girl in pigtails.

另一些人则笑着殴打了一个扎着马尾辫的女孩。

No wonder King went to bed.

难怪金躺到床上去了。

Near the end of his life, King confronted the uncertainty⁹ of his moral vision.

因为在他生命的最后时刻，金的道德愿景反倒变模糊了。

He had underestimated how deeply the belief that white people matter more than others—what I call the value gap—was ingrained in the habits of American life.

他低估了“白人比其他人种的人更重要”这一信念——我称之为“价值鸿沟”——在美国人的生活习惯中是多么的根深蒂固。

He saw that white resentment¹⁰ involved more than fatigue¹¹ with mass demonstrations¹² and demands for racial equality,

他看到，白人的不满针对的不仅仅是对大规模示威活动和呼吁种族平等的要求的厌倦，

and was not simply a sin of the South. It was embedded¹³ in the very psyche¹⁴ of white America.

而且，这一情绪也不单单是南方的罪过，这种情绪已经深深地植根于美国白人内心了。

In King’s final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos¹⁵ or Community?, drafted in early 1967,

在他的最后一本书，1967年初拟写的《我们将何去何从：混乱还是共同体？》中，

he argued in part that white supremacy¹⁶ stood in the way of America’s democracy,

金指出，“白人至上”在一定程度上阻碍了美国民主的发展，

that it was an ever-present force in frustrating¹⁷ the dreams of the nation’s darker-skinned citizens.

并且一直都在挫伤这个国家黑人公民的梦想。

At the heart of it was a distorted understanding of the meaning of racial justice.

这种观念的核心是对“种族平等”的误解。

He wrote: Negroes have proceeded from a premise¹⁸ that equality means what it says,

他写道：黑人从平等就意味着它的字面意思这个前提出发，

and they have taken white Americans at their word when they talked of it as an objective.

在白人说话间将其作为奋斗目标时，他们就相信了白人的话，对他们深信不疑。

But most whites in America proceed from a premise that equality is a loose expression for improvement.

但大多数美国白人是从平等就是改进的不那么精确的表达这一前提出发的。

White America is not even psychologically organized to close the gap—essentially it seeks only to make it less painful and less obvious but in most respects to retain it.

从心理的角度来讲，白色美国甚至根本就不是为了弥合这一鸿沟而组建起来的——实质上，它只是想让这一鸿沟变得不那么痛苦、不那么明显，而且在大多数时候，他们是想保留这一鸿沟的。

This is a devastating¹⁹ judgment²⁰ about our so-called national commitment to progress.

这一事实无异于对我们所谓的，全国上下齐心协力追求进步的承诺下了一个毁灭性的决断。

It reduces racial justice to a charitable enterprise by which white people “do good” for black people.

因为它将种族平等贬低成了白人为黑人“做好事”的慈善事业。

This, in turn, provides white Americans with a necessary illusion that preserves the idea of innocence²¹ and insulates their conscience or, perhaps, their soul from guilt²² and blame.

这一认识又反过来为美国白人提供了一种必要的错觉，让他们始终觉得自己清白无辜，让他们的良心或者内心免于内疚和责备。

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

4 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

5 budge   

v.移动一点儿；改变立场

参考例句：

• We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来，但它连动都没动一下。
• She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。

6 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

10 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

11 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

12 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

13 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

14 psyche   

n.精神；灵魂

参考例句：

• His exploration of the myth brings insight into the American psyche.他对这个神话的探讨揭示了美国人的心理。
• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。

15 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

16 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

17 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

19 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

20 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

21 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

22 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。