时代周刊:了解私刑有助于伤口愈合(1)（在线收听）

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 veins.

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 maternal 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 Legacy 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 Cleansing 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 perfectly navigate 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, doused 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 fetus was cut from her belly and stomped 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。

Countless others died like this because they dared to try to vote and organize black laborers

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 raping 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 justification 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, intentionally illusive.

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, worthy, 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。