美国国家公共电台 NPR As White Supremacists Push Onto Campuses, Schools Wrestle With Response

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Colleges around the country are seeing an unprecedented¹ increase in white supremacist activity. Alt-right groups are aggressively trying to recruit students, and schools and students are struggling with how to handle it all. NPR's Tovia Smith has our report.

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE²: Posters on buildings and bulletin boards at the University of Texas at Arlington implored³ students to, quote, "report illegal aliens. America is a white nation." At the University of Pennsylvania, flyers were headlined, imagine a Muslim-free America. Hate watch groups have tracked 150 incidents of white supremacist propaganda on campuses this year. Before that, it was such a rarity, no one was even counting.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RICHARD SPENCER: Our time has come.

SMITH: White supremacist leaders are also coming to speak to students, as Richard Spencer did at Auburn University.

SPENCER: There is nothing that can stop an idea whose time has come, and that time is now.

(APPLAUSE, CHEERING)

OREN SEGAL: This is a new phenomenon that's very dangerous.

SMITH: Oren Segal, head of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, says white supremacists making a push for the mainstream⁴ often try to lure⁵ students with more opaque⁶ slogans like, serve your people, and, our destiny is ours.

SEGAL: They don't necessarily, like, shave their heads and wear swastika armbands. And what they're hoping is that people will maybe be interested because it's not so in your face.

SMITH: Indeed, one of those groups, Identity Evropa, describes itself as a fraternity, albeit⁷ only for people of, quote, "European, non-Semitic descent."

NATHAN DAMIGO: Next semester we're going to be setting up tables, handing out thumb drives with videos. We're going to have booklets and stickers and so on.

SMITH: Founder⁸ Nathan Damigo, a 30-year-old student and Iraq War vet⁹, got into white nationalism while serving a five-year prison sentence for armed robbery. He wants whites in the U.S. to have white-only space, as he put it, where we can be ourselves. He says the kind of forced diversity he grew up with is unnatural¹⁰.

DAMIGO: You know, you go over to your friend's house, and all of - their whole family is Latino or something like that. They're all speaking Spanish. You can't understand a single thing that's going on. So it's really awkward. It's just the reality.

SMITH: Damigo dismisses those who call him a racist¹¹, saying it's a, quote, "cheap strategy to undermine him." But he concedes the controversy¹² has been good for him.

DAMIGO: Sure, publicity¹³ is great. We found last year that all you had to do is put up some flyers, and you'd get mass coverage¹⁴, millions of dollars of coverage. So this is amazing.

SMITH: His flyers have been posted at campuses from the University of California, Berkeley, to the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

JOSEPH BROWN: I looked at these images, and I was incensed¹⁵ because it was really an attack on our students.

SMITH: UMass Professor Joseph Brown says the heavily minority campus was clearly not chosen because it was a good place for white supremacists to find sympathetic recruits.

BROWN: They were trying to be provocative¹⁶. In internet terms, they troll. They're trying to make themselves seem a lot bigger than they are.

SMITH: It's all left schools and students trying to walk an almost impossibly fine line.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All right, so who wants to facilitate today?

SMITH: At a UMass meeting of campus activists¹⁷, students struggle with what is the right response to white supremacists.

KATHARINE O'DONNELL: These fringe groups who put up a post just want attention. So I mean really you're giving them what they want.

SMITH: Student Katharine O'Donnell says getting sucked into a showdown with white supremacist also normalizes them and distracts from the fight against institutional racism¹⁸.

O'DONNELL: Responding to a poster is, in my opinion, very damaging rather than these greater issues that are causing problems every single day.

SMITH: But other students like Gabriella Cartagena are equally reluctant to let such hateful messages go unanswered.

GABRIELLA CARTAGENA: We have to let people know that this is not OK. We have to do something about this. We can't just pretend they don't exist and continue to push them under the rug.

SMITH: The same debate played out after white supremacist leaflets showed up at Purdue University. Administrators¹⁹ said they didn't want to, quote, "take the bait from a fringe group," then issued a general statement about university values. But students demanding a more explicit²⁰ condemnation²¹ launched a sit-in.

GEORGIANNA MELENDEZ: This is a hard hair to split.

SMITH: Especially says UMass chief diversity officer Georgianna Melendez for a university trying to balance its responsibility to make all students feel safe and welcome with its commitment to open debate and free speech, including from white supremacists.

MELENDEZ: We didn't take a position on their message except for to say that we understand that it's harmful to some members of our community. And we can't just let that go.

SMITH: Like many schools, Melendez says UMass now has a kind of hate incident SWAT team ready to counter hateful messages and comfort hurt students.

MELENDEZ: We have an email tree. And we send out an email saying, hey, you know, this is happening again. Let's make sure we have our little kit²² together and make sure the counseling office knows we may need them.

SMITH: For now, hate watch groups say white supremacist efforts on campuses don't seem to be paying off despite their claims to the contrary. But experts concede it's not an easy thing to track. And white supremacist gains, they say, need to be measured not only by membership but also by how much their message may be creeping further into the mainstream. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 implored   

恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She implored him to stay. 她恳求他留下。
• She implored him with tears in her eyes to forgive her. 她含泪哀求他原谅她。

4 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

5 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

6 opaque   

adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的

参考例句：

• The windows are of opaque glass.这些窗户装着不透明玻璃。
• Their intentions remained opaque.他们的意图仍然令人费解。

7 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

10 unnatural   

adj.不自然的；反常的

参考例句：

• Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗？
• She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。

11 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

12 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

13 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

14 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

15 incensed   

盛怒的

参考例句：

• The decision incensed the workforce. 这个决定激怒了劳工大众。
• They were incensed at the decision. 他们被这个决定激怒了。

16 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

17 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

19 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

20 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

21 condemnation   

n.谴责; 定罪

参考例句：

• There was widespread condemnation of the invasion. 那次侵略遭到了人们普遍的谴责。
• The jury's condemnation was a shock to the suspect. 陪审团宣告有罪使嫌疑犯大为震惊。

22 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。