时代周刊:了解私刑有助于伤口愈合(1)

Now here is a view by Issac J. Bailey

下面是艾萨克·J.贝利供稿的一篇评论

Learning about lynching helped heal my wounds

了解私刑有助于伤口愈合

IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME BEFORE I REALIZED THAT MY family's struggles had not simply materialized out of thin air—

我花了很长时间才意识到，我家人的挣扎成为现实并非是无中生有——

that although we have rightly never made excuses about our faults,

意识到尽管我们确实从未为自己的错误找过借口，

they weren't evidence of ugliness running through our veins¹.

那些错误也不能证明我们的血管里就流淌着丑陋的血液。

My father beat my mother.

我父亲打我母亲。

My maternal² grandfather beat my maternal grandmother.

我外祖父打我外祖母。

Moochie, my hero big brother, murdered a man.

我崇拜的哥哥穆奇杀过人。

My youngest brother, Jordan, is serving 20 years in a federal prison.

我最小的弟弟，乔丹，正在联邦监狱服刑，刑期是20年。

A nephew who was raised like a brother is in the middle of a 25-year sentence in a state facility.

和我形同兄弟的侄子，在国家监狱服刑，刑期为25年。

Another brother is serving 16 years.

还有一位兄弟被判了16年。

I know now that a sense of shame convinced us as black people to not speak too loudly about our struggles,

我还意识到，羞耻感说服了我们，身为黑人，就不要太大声地谈论我们的艰难，

only to fuel a cycle of violence that led to more shame.

我们这么做最后却只助长了暴力的循环，继而又催生出更强烈的羞耻感。

You can't cure a disease you refuse to acknowledge.

你承都不承认的病又怎么治呢？

As I prepared to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy³ Museum,

准备参观国家和平正义纪念碑和遗产博物馆的时候——

both of which opened to the public on April 26 and honor victims of lynching,

两者都是4月26日开始对公众开放的，也都是为了纪念私刑的受害者建立的——

I had a reaction I had not anticipated:

我的一个反应是我自己也完全没有预料到的：

a rage at the unbroken chain that connects slavery to my own life.

对依旧没有被打破，依然在我的生活和奴隶制之间架起了一座桥梁的枷锁的愤怒。

Before I read Mary Turner's story in Patrick Phillips' Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing⁴ in America,

在看到帕特里克·菲利普斯的《血淋淋的根源:美国的种族清洗》一书中关于玛丽·特纳的故事之前，

I didn't know they had lynched us

我不知道他们不仅对我们用了私刑，

and taught us to hate ourselves for not being able to perfectly⁵ navigate⁶ a terrorized land soaked in slave blood.

还教我们憎恶自己没能在这片浸泡在奴隶的鲜血之中的恐怖土地上熟练地航行。

In 1918 Georgia, Turner was hung from a tree by her ankles, doused⁷ with gasoline, set a fire;

1918年，佐治亚州，特纳被拴着脚踝倒掉在树上，身上被淋了汽油后被点燃了；

her 8-monthold fetus⁸ was cut from her belly⁹ and stomped¹⁰ upon.

她8个月大的胎儿被从她的肚子里掏下来任他们践踏。

She was lynched because she demanded justice for her husband, who himself had just been lynched.

她之所以被处以私刑，是因为她想为她丈夫伸张正义，而她丈夫不久前也遭受了私刑。

Countless¹¹ others died like this because they dared to try to vote and organize black laborers¹²

类似的情况不计其数，因为受害者们敢于为投票，为组织黑人劳工而奋起反抗，

or were deemed "uppity" in their attempts to exercise their rights.

因为他们在行使自己权利的过程中给白人留下了“狂妄自大”的印象。

Many black men hung from trees after being falsely accused of raping¹³ white women,

许多被诬告强奸白人妇女，

or for merely speaking to or glancing at them in a way that white men deemed inappropriate.

或仅仅以白人男子认为不恰当的方式与她们交谈或看了她们一眼的黑人男子之后都被吊在了树上。

A twisted hallucination, born of hate, became a justification¹⁴ for murder.

一种仇恨催生的，扭曲的幻觉成了杀人的正当理由。

The rules between right and wrong were always morphing, intentionally¹⁵ illusive¹⁶.

对与错之间的规则不断变化，故意显得若即若离。

To survive, we told ourselves that talking right or walking right or beating our kids enough to keep them in line

为了生存，我们告诉自己，正确地说话、正确地走路，或者打我们的孩子打到他们听话，

would convince white people that we too were American, worthy¹⁷, beautiful.

就能让白人相信，我们也是美国人，我们有价值，我们也很美。

But we were mistaken.

但我们错了。

So the shame grew, and we swallowed it.

我们的羞耻感越来越强，我们也继续选择了忍气吞声。

1 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

3 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。

4 cleansing   

n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词

参考例句：

• medicated cleansing pads for sensitive skin 敏感皮肤药物清洗棉
• Soap is not the only cleansing agent. 肥皂并不是唯一的清洁剂。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

7 doused   

v.浇水在…上( douse的过去式和过去分词 )；熄灯[火]

参考例句：

• The car was doused in petrol and set alight. 这辆汽车被浇上汽油点燃了。
• He doused the lamp,and we made our way back to the house. 他把灯熄掉，我们就回到屋子里去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

9 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

10 stomped   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She stomped angrily out of the office. 她怒气冲冲，重步走出办公室。
• She slammed the door and stomped (off) out of the house. 她砰的一声关上了门，暮暮地走出了屋了。 来自辞典例句

11 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

12 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

13 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

14 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

15 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

16 illusive   

adj.迷惑人的，错觉的

参考例句：

• I don't wanna hear too much illusive words.我不想听太多虚假的承诺。
• We refuse to partake in the production of illusive advertisements.本公司拒绝承做虚假广告。

17 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。