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How Could I Love a Race of People Who Hated Me

我如何能热爱一个憎恨我的民族

There was a pretty strict system of segregation¹ in Atlanta. For a long, long time I could not go swimming, until there was a Negro YMCA. A Negro child in Atlanta could not go to any public park. I could not go to the so-called white schools. In many of the stores downtown, I couldn't go to a lunch counter to buy a hamburger or a cup of coffee. I could not attend any of the theaters. There were one or two Negro theaters, but they didn’t get any of the main pictures. If they did get them, they got them two or three years later.

亚特兰大拥有相当严格的种族隔离制度。很长很长一段时间我都不能去游泳，直到一个黑人基督教青年会建成。在亚特兰大，黑人孩子不能去任何公共的公园，不能去所谓的白人学校，在市中心的许多商店里不能去午餐柜台买汉堡或一杯咖啡，不能去任何剧院观看演出。虽然那里有一两个黑人剧院，但他们拿不到任何重大影片的胶片，即使拿到了，那也是影片公映后两到三年的事了。

I had grown up abhorring² not only segregation but also the oppressive and barbarous acts that grew out of it. I had seen police brutality³ with my own eyes, and watched Negroes receive the most tragic⁴ injustice⁵ in the courts. I can remember the organization known as the Ku Klux Klan. It stands out white supremacy⁶, and it was an organization that in those days even used violent methods to preserve segregation and to keep the Negro in his place, so to speak. I remember seeing the Klan actually beat a Negro.I had passed spots where Negroes had been savagely⁷ lynched. All of these things did something to my growing personality.

在成长过程中，我不仅憎恶种族隔离，而且对于由此造成的压迫和野蛮行为深恶痛绝。我曾亲眼看到警察的暴行，目睹黑人在法庭上遭受最为悲惨的不公正待遇。我还记得一个叫做三K党的组织，它坚持白人至上主义。可以这么说，在那些曰子里，这个组织为了保持隔离制度，为了让黑人待在自己的地方，甚至采用暴力的手段。我仍然记得见过三K党鞭打一个黑人，我还到过黑人被滥用野蛮私刑的地方。所有这些事情对我人格的养成都起到了一定的作用。

In my late childhood and early adolescence⁸, two incidents happened that had a tremendous effect on my development. The first was the first empty seats at the front of the store. A young white clerk came up and murmured politely:

在我的童年末期和少年早期发生了两件事情，对我的成长产生了巨大的影响。第一件事发生在商店里，和店前的几个空座位有关。一个年轻的白人店员走过来，礼貌地低声说：

“I’ll be happy to wait on you if you’ll just move to those seats in the rear.”

“如果你挪到后面的座位上，我会很乐意为你服务。”

Dad immediately retorted, “There’s nothing wrong with these seats. We're quite comfortable here.”

爸爸立即反驳道：“坐这些座位有什么不对。我们在这儿很舒服。”

“Sorry，” said the clerk, “but you'll have to move.”

“对不起，”职员说，“但你必须得移开。”

“We'll either buy shoes sitting here，” my father retorted, “or we won’t buy shoes at all.”

“我们要么坐在这儿买鞋，”我爸爸回答说：“要么什么也不买。”

Whereupon he took me by the hand and walked out of the store. This was the first time I had seen Dad so furious. That experience revealed to me at a very early age that my father had not adjusted to the system, and he played a great part in shaping my conscience. I still remember walking down the street beside him as he muttered, “I don’t care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it.”

于是他拉着我的手，走出了商店。这是我第一次看到爸爸如此愤怒。那次经历让年少的我认识到父亲并不适应这种制度，他对我善恶观念的形成发挥了至关重要的作用。我现在依然还记得我和他并排走在街上，他喃喃地说：“我不在乎我还要在这种制度下生活多久，我永远都不会接受它。”

And he never has. I remember riding with him another day when he accidently drove past a stop sign. A policeman pulled up to the car and said:

而且，他也从未接受过。记得还有一次和他开车外出，他不小心开过了一个停车的标志。一个警察把车开到我们旁边，说道：

“All right, boy, pull over and let me see your license⁹.”

“好吧，孩子，靠边停车，让我看看你的驾照。”

My father instantly retorted: “Let me make it clear to you that you aren't talking to a boy. If you persist in referring to me as boy, I will be forced to act as if I don’t hear a word you are saying.”

我父亲立即反驳道：“让我清楚地告诉你，你并不是在和一个孩子讲话。如果你坚持说我是个孩子，我将不得不对你的话充耳不闻。”

The policeman was so shocked in hearing a Negro talk to him so forthrightly¹⁰ that he didn't quite know how to respond. He nervously¹¹ wrote the ticket and left the scene as quickly as possible.

警察听到一个黑人和他说话如此直率，大吃一惊，一时真不知该如何回应才好。他紧张地写下罚单，尽快离开了现场。