[2008.12.06] 奥巴马治下的种族问题：寻觅”应许之地”

Race in Obama’s America
奥巴马治下的种族问题

Searching for the promised land
寻觅”应许之地”

Dec 4th 2008 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

What will Barack Obama’s presidency mean for race relations?
巴拉克•奥巴马就任美国总统对种族关系意味着什么？

AS HE sat in a television studio in Alabama on election night, Artur Davis saw a white cameraman with tears in his eyes. It was while Barack Obama was giving his victory speech in Chicago. Of course it was an emotional moment, says Mr Davis, a young black congressman. But he was still surprised to see a cameraman cry, because”they’re a pretty cynical lot.”

大选之夜，阿特•戴维斯（Artur Davis)坐在阿拉巴马州的一个电视演播室里，看见一个白人摄影师眼中噙满泪水。此时，奥巴马正在芝加哥发表大选获胜演说。毫无疑问，这是一个激动人心的时刻，年轻的黑人国会议员戴维斯先生说道。但是看到一位摄影师落泪他还是颇感意外，因为”他们这群人相当愤世嫉俗”。

“Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job” was how the Onion, a satirical newspaper, reported Mr Obama’s triumph. But most Americans are still overjoyed to see such conspicuous evidence that their country really is a place where anyone with talent and drive can make it. And blacks are ecstatic. Some 80% of them tell pollsters that Mr Obama’s victory is “a dream come true”, while a whopping 96% think it will improve race relations.

讽刺小报《洋葱》以”黑人得到了全国最差劲的工作”来报道奥巴马先生的获胜。但是能有如此明显的证据证明自己的国家确实是一个有天赋和动力就能成功的地方，大多数美国人仍然沉浸在见证的欢腾之中。黑人们欣喜若狂，民意调查显示约有八成黑人认为奥巴马的胜利是” 梦想成真”，而96%的压倒性多数认为奥巴马当选总统将有助于改善种族关系。

The election provided solid evidence that race matters less in America than pessimists suppose. Mr Obama won a bigger share of the popular vote than any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and more of the white vote than either John Kerry or Al Gore. Outside the South, he beat Mr Kerry’s share of the white vote in every state except New Mexico and Arizona (John McCain’s home state). Even among southern whites, Mr Obama did well. He scored worse than Mr Kerry in only five states: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia.

这次大选充分证明，在美国，种族并没有悲观主义者们料想的那么重要。继林登•约翰逊（Lyndon Johnson）1964年当选美国总统以来，尚无哪位民主党人获得过比奥巴马先生还要多的普选选票，而且奥巴马先生还赢得了比约翰•克里（John Kerry）或阿尔•戈尔（Al Gore）都要多的白人选民的支持。南方之外的各州中除了新墨西哥和亚利桑那州（约翰•麦凯恩的家乡州），奥巴马都赢得了多于克里先生的白人选票。即使在南方各州，奥巴马先生也获得了可观的白人选票，仅有阿拉巴马、阿肯色、路易斯安那、密西西比和西弗吉尼亚五个州的票数少于克里先生。

But what difference will a black president make for black Americans? “He’s not a magician or a messiah,” says Marc Morial of the National Urban League, a civil-rights group. He will, however, be a role model. For one thing, “he finished school,” says Mr Morial. For another, he is a good father. And when black parents tell their children that if they work hard they may grow up to be president, those children will no longer find the notion absurd.

一位黑人总统将给美国黑人带来怎样的不同呢？”他既不是魔术师，也不是救世主。”民权组织”美国城市联盟 “（National Urban League）的马克•莫瑞尔（Marc Morial）如是说。但他将成为一个榜样，首先，”他完成了学业，”莫瑞尔先生说，其次，他是一位好父亲。而且当黑人父母教育自己的孩子说”你们努力学习，长大了就能当总统”的时候，这些孩子不再觉得可笑。

Some pundits think the role of role-models is exaggerated. Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution, a conservative think-tank, doubts that having a black man in the White House will have much effect on the proportion of African-Americans who are born out of wedlock (currently more than two-thirds) or wind up in jail (black men are nearly seven times more likely than whites to be locked up).

有些学者认为榜样的作用被夸大了。美国保守派智囊团–胡佛研究所（Hoover Institution）的谢尔比•斯蒂尔（Shelby Steele）怀疑，黑人当选总统未必会对非婚出生（目前，有超过三分之二的黑人是非婚生子）或卷入牢狱之灾（黑人进监狱的可能性比白人高将近7倍）的非洲裔美国人的比例产生较大的影响。

Maybe so. But it is already affecting the way black Americans are portrayed in the news. Not long ago, when television producers wanted a talking head to represent black America, they would call up Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, who would always say the same thing about every problem-that white racism was to blame. Now the spotlight is falling on black leaders who have led more than just protest marches. Deval Patrick, the first black governor of Massachusetts, is a close friend of Mr Obama’s. Mr Davis, who first met Mr Obama at Harvard, plans to be the first black governor of Alabama, of all places. Valerie Jarrett, one of Mr Obama’s closest advisers (who is also black), boasts that her boss will make public service cool, thereby attracting the best talent into government.

这也有可能，但是，奥巴马的榜样作用已经对新闻中塑造黑人的方式产生了影响。就在不久以前，当电视节目制作人希望一个黑人代言人参加节目时，他们会找来杰西•杰克逊（Jesse Jackson）和阿尔•沙普顿（Al Sharpton），他们对每一个问题的解决之道都一样—那就是，白人种族主义应对这些问题负责。而现如今聚光灯却落在了那些除了组织抗议游行之外更有作为的黑人领袖身上。德沃•帕特里克（Deval Patrick）是马萨诸塞州的第一位黑人州长，也是奥巴马先生的挚友。在哈佛大学与奥巴马先生第一次相见的戴维斯先生正计划成为阿拉巴马州的第一位黑人州长。作为奥巴马最亲近的顾问之一，瓦莱瑞•贾勒特（Valerie Jarrett）（她也是黑人）夸赞她的上司能够将公共服务做得很出色，从而将最优秀的人才吸引到政府机构中。

Mr Obama’s early choices for important jobs include two dynamic African-Americans: Eric Holder as attorney-general and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations. Apart from a flap over Mr Holder’s role in advising Bill Clinton to pardon a dodgy financier, neither has attracted much attention. Americans have grown used to seeing blacks in top jobs.

奥巴马先生早前还提名两位年富力强的非裔美国人担任重要职务：埃里克•霍尔德（Eric Holder）担任司法部长，苏珊•莱斯（Susan Rice）出任美国驻联合国大使。除了霍尔德先生曾建议比尔•克林顿赦免一位狡诈的金融家而引起争议外，他们二位都没有得到太多注意。美国人已经逐渐习惯黑人担任高层职务。

Mr Obama is always respectful towards the older generation of civil-rights leaders. He likens them to Moses, who led his people to the edge of the promised land. It is now up to younger leaders, he says, to complete the journey. Some of his elders are unwilling to be shoved aside. In July, unaware that his microphone was turned on, Mr Jackson said he would like to cut off Mr Obama’s testicles. Mr Obama had suggested that black fathers should not abandon their children. Mr Jackson deemed this “talking down to black people”.

奥巴马先生一向尊重老一辈民权领袖，他将他们比作将其子民带向”应许之地”边缘的摩西（Moses），而现在年轻一辈的领导则担当起由他们来带领民众走完旅程的重任。有些前辈并不甘被后人推在一旁，就在7月，杰克逊先生在不知道麦克风开着的情况下，扬言要割掉奥巴马的睾丸。奥巴马先生奉劝黑人父辈们不要抛弃他们的孩子，杰克逊先生则认为这是用”居高临下的语气对黑人讲话”。

Advocates of colour-blind government think Mr Obama’s victory helps their case. If America can elect a black president, racism must be less of an obstacle to black progress than previously thought. The time for racial preferences, they argue, must surely be past. Voters in Nebraska agree. On November 4th it became the fourth state in 12 years to ban official discrimination in favour of “under-represented” minorities in hiring, contracting or public education.

主张建立平等对待各种肤色人群政府的倡议者认为，奥巴马的胜利有助于论证他们的观点。如果美国能够选一位黑人当总统，那么”黑人进步”道路上的种族主义障碍就会比预想的要少。他们还认为种族优待的时代已经成为历史。内布拉斯加州的选民们也同意这一观点，11月 4日该州成为美国12年以来禁止”官方偏袒”的第四个州—禁止在招聘、订立契约和公共教育等方面优先照顾处于”弱势”的少数族裔公民。

A study by Richard Sander of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that when black students are admitted to law school with lower test scores than whites or Asians, those black students are less likely to cope. More drop out, and fewer pass the bar exam than would have done under race-neutral admissions policies. But many universities are convinced that racial preferences (“affirmative action”) are necessary to diversify the intake, both racially and sociologically.

加州大学洛杉矶分校的理查德•桑德（Richard Sander）发现，如果黑人学生以比他们的白人或亚裔同学低的考试分数被招进法学院后，在应付功课上有可能显得要力不从心一些。比起在种族中立招生政策下招收的黑人学生，前者中有更多的学生会中途退学，而能够通过律师考试的学生就更少了。但很多大学都认为从种族上和社会学的角度来说，为了实现生源多样化，种族优待（”平权措施”[注]）是有必要的。

Mr Obama’s views are hard to pin down. He has suggested that affluent blacks such as his own daughters should not get special treatment when applying to college, and that poor whites sometimes should. But he also says he supports affirmative action, his website includes no plans to scale it back and his allies would howl if he did. “I think probably in his heart of hearts he knows better, but I’d be shocked if [Mr Obama] does away with affirmative action,” says Mr Steele.

奥巴马先生的观点则很难确定。他已经提出富裕黑人，比如他的两个女儿，在申请进入大学的时候不应再享受特殊待遇，而贫穷白人有时则需要这种待遇。但他也说他支持”平权措施”，他的个人网站中也并没有减少”平权措施”的计划，如果他做出这种计划，他的同盟们将会狂呼乱喊。斯蒂尔先生说，”我想很有可能他内心深处是清醒的，但如果他废除‘平权措施’，我会感到震惊。”

Mr Obama’s black supporters hope he will make good on promises to root out racism in the criminal-justice system and the workplace by enforcing existing laws more vigorously. Many also seek “environmental justice”, which means less pollution near black areas (more than half of those living within two miles of a toxic waste dump are minorities). And everyone expects a push to improve the relatively poor health of black Americans, who die, on average, five years younger than whites. Reforming health in general will have a marked effect on blacks, because they tend to get the worst care.

奥巴马的黑人支持者们希望他能够履行诺言，通过更加有力地执行现行法律来根除刑事司法体系和工作场所中的种族主义。很多人也在寻求”环境正义”，在黑人居住区附近减少污染（生活在距离有毒废物堆两英里以内的居民中有一半以上是少数族裔）。而且，美国黑人平均死亡年龄要比白人低五岁，每个人都希望能够大力改善他们目前不容乐观的健康状况。对卫生事业的进行普遍的改革将对黑人有显著影响，因为他们往往都接受的是最差的医疗护理。

But the new president’s most urgent task will be to grapple with the economic crisis. If he succeeds, Americans of all hues will cheer.

但是，这位新总统的当务之急将是全力应对眼下这场经济危机。如果他取得成功，任何肤色的美国人都将为之欢呼雀跃。

[注]:平权措施（affirmative action）:在美国指为消除种族和性别歧视而在雇佣和教育方面采取的照顾黑人和妇女的行动，又称为”补偿性行动”和”肯定性行动”。白人反对这种矫枉过正的做法，称为reverse discrimiantion(倒歧视)。

译者：Bender.Z ; 编辑：Phantom; http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=15908&extra=page%3D1