PBS高端访谈:通过艺术剖析残忍的现实（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tonight's Brief But Spectacular features an artist who uses his work to shed light on the truth. Paul Rucker has created pieces that explore mass incarceration, systemic racism, police brutality, and the continuing legacy of slavery in this country. His story is also part of Canvas, our ongoing series on art and culture.PAUL RUCKER, Artist: The L.A. riots happened on my birthday. They started on my birthday, April 29. And that was one of the turning points for me that I realized that I can't make artwork about nothing. In making artwork, it's really important to bring truth to light. And that's power. We repeat history over and over again, whether we, as a country, allow lynchings to take place, thousands of lynchings to take place without any kind of accountability, we have police shootings or shooting by civilians, such as Trayvon Martin. There's parallels systems as far as slavery and the prison system. We went seamlessly from one system to another system. Did one time lapse that showed the growth of the U.S. prison system over a couple hundred of years. Since 1976, we have built, on average, one new prison a week in the United States. We currently have 2.3 million people incarcerated right now. That's one in every 99 people.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：今晚《简短而精彩》的主人公是一位艺术家，他通过自己的工作来阐释真理。保罗·洛克的许多作品都探索了大规模监禁、系统性的种族主义、警察野蛮行为、奴隶制的残存。本期故事也是艺术与文化主题的帆布系列节目的部分内容。保罗·洛克，艺术家：洛杉矶的暴乱行为发生在我生日那天，也就是4月29日那天。这一天对我来说是个转折点——我的艺术作品不能没有主题。在创作的过程中，很重要的一点是阐释真理。真理是创作的力量所在。我们会一遍又一遍地重复历史。作为一个国家，我们却允许对人处以私刑。我们处以数千次私行却没有任何问责可言。我们有警察的枪击行为和平民百姓（比如特雷沃恩·马丁）的枪击行为。此外，还有与之差不多的奴隶制和监狱体制。我们在各种体制之间无缝转换。数百年时间的流逝见证了美国监狱体制的发展。自1976年以来，美国平均每周就要建造一所新的监狱。现在有230万人被监禁，占总人口的1/99。

My work is not really about black history. It's not white history. This is American history. You have a visceral understanding of history when you hold something that was once used on humans. This is a ship's branding iron, and it was used to brand Africans, humans, before they were put on the boat. The branding is S for slave. I want to keep these pieces and show these pieces. And I allow people to hold them so, because they tell a story. These objects hold power over all of us right now. And until we, as a society, admit and confront that systemic racism is sewn into the very fabric of who we are as a country, we will never be able to dismantle this ugly legacy of slavery. My father could have been lynched if he didn't yield a sidewalk to someone. My father could have been lynched if he said the wrong word to someone. He lived during a time where you had to be really brave, and, unfortunately, really careful. And, right now, I shouldn't have to be careful. But, as person of color in America, I have to be careful. So it's my responsibility to bring awareness, regardless of how dangerous it is. My name is Paul Rucker. This is my Brief But Spectacular take on the normalization of systemic and structural racism.

我的作品说起来不是关于黑人历史的，也不是关于白人历史的，而是美国历史。当我们审视人类曾经使用过的东西时，我们对于历史就会有一个本能的理解。这就是羊身上的烙印，这个烙印也存在于非洲人乃至全人类身上，在它们登上同一艘船之前就已经存在了，这就是奴隶的标签。我想保留下这些东西并向世人展示。我也想让所有人都能审视一下——因为这其中蕴藏着故事。这些东西对我们所有人而言都有一种力量在。如果我们的社会不能承认并直面系统性的种族主义已经深入国家之中，我们就永远无法根除奴隶制的肮脏残留。曾几何时，如果我父亲没有给别人让路，那么他可能会被处以私刑。曾几何时，如果我父亲对别人说了什么不该说的话，他也可以会被处以私刑。我父亲生活的那个时代，人必须要非常勇敢，也需要非常谨慎。现在，我不必谨慎才对。但作为美国的有色人种，我必须要时刻小心。所以提高人们的意识是我的责任，无论有多危险。我是保罗·洛克。这是我本期分享的与系统性、结构性种族主义的正常化有关的《简短而精彩》。

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can find more Brief But Spectacular essays on our Web site. That's at PBS.org/NewsHour/brief.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：更多节目，可戳官网PBS.org/NewsHour/brief。