评论 | 美国的历史是侵犯人权的历史

Editor's note: Dennis Etler is a current affairs commentator who holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California, Berkley. He conducted archaeological and anthropological research in China throughout the 1980s and 1990s and taught at the college and university level for over 35 years. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

编者按：丹尼斯·埃特勒是一名时事评论员，拥有加州大学伯克利分校的人类学博士学位。他曾于上世纪80和90年代在中国进行考古学和人类学研究，并在高等院校任教超过35年。本文仅为作者本人观点，不一定代表CGTN立场。

The United States has been pointing fingers at China's human rights record (as in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), but has many problems of its own. Here I will discuss the human rights situation in the U.S. in terms of its historic experience, social unrest, the gap between rich and poor, and its violation of international law.

美国一直对中国（涉疆涉港）人权纪录指指点点，而其自身却问题重重。在本文中，我将从历史发展、社会动荡、贫富差距和对国际法的违背几个方面谈一谈美国的人权状况。

The People's Republic of China was founded a mere 72 years ago. In that time it has undergone a vast transformation, hitherto unwitnessed in the annals of human history. At the time of its founding, China had been devastated by years of war. With a vast population and little in the way of industry or infrastructure, it faced daunting problems. Added to that, the animosity of the Western powers kept it isolated from the rest of the world, forcing it to rely on its own efforts to reconstruct a new China.

中华人民共和国成立至今仅有72年，但却经历了人类历史上前所未有的巨变。成立之初的新中国饱受多年战乱的摧残，人口数量巨大却几乎没有任何产业或基础设施，因此面临着诸多严峻挑战。不仅如此，西方国家的敌意使得当时的中国被世界孤立，不得不自力更生，重建家园。

In contrast, the U.S. in its current form was founded in 1789 when its Constitution was ratified by the 13 states that had declared independence in 1776 and won it from Great Britain in 1783. Its population was small and its resources plentiful.

再来看美国。1776年，北美13个殖民地宣布独立；1783年，英国正式承认美国独立；1789年，宪法在13个州获得批准，美国建国。当时其人口较少但资源丰富。

71 years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution brings us to 1860, the year that the American Civil War began. During those 71 years the U.S. had expanded westward, and in the process removed the indigenous nations who had inhabited their lands for millennia. This was a process of genocide seldom before witnessed. 

1860年，即宪法获批71年后，美国内战开始。在这71年中，美国将其领土向西扩张并侵占了北美原住民上千年来一直生活的土地，同时对原住民实施了几乎前所未闻的种族灭绝。

This process continued after the Civil War, with wars of extermination and the forced destruction of Native culture by family separations which forcibly took children away from their communities and placed them in boarding schools where native languages and cultural practices were forbidden. 

内战过后，这种侵略仍未停止。除开展灭绝战以外，原住民文化也遭到了野蛮破坏。美国政府将原住民儿童强行带离家庭和社区，送入禁止使用原住民语言和进行原住民文化活动的寄宿学校。  

The U.S. policy at all levels of government was to destroy Native American identity and to let them wither on the vine. Their lands, natural resources, culture, and children were stolen from them and the traumatic effects have been cross-generational, adversely affecting Native Americans to this day. 

美国各级政府的政策目标均是要彻底破坏原住民的身份认同，使他们自行消亡。美国夺走了原住民的土地、自然资源、文化和后代，留下世世代代难以抹去的创伤，对原住民造成的消极影响持续至今。

71 years after the promulgation of the U.S. Constitution, which proudly proclaimed the Bill of Rights, American Blacks were still enslaved under the most brutal conditions in half of the states. A civil war was fought to finally lift this ignominious burden off the shoulders of the nation. But, soon thereafter the freed slaves were subject to heinous attacks by White racists in the South while subject to racial discrimination throughout the country. 

美国宪法，也就是美国人引以为傲的《人权法案》颁布71年后，美国黑人在半数州中仍以黑奴身份在最为残酷的条件下生活。内战最终为这段不光彩的历史画上了句号，但被解放的黑奴很快又受到了南方白人种族主义者令人发指的攻击，同时还在全美各地普遍遭受种族歧视。

Black Americans have a poverty rate twice that of White Americans and their communities have been devastated by a discriminatory and unjust judicial system that has led to the mass incarceration of millions of young Black men, who are stigmatized for life as felons, unable to find housing, get an education or get a decent job. 

美国黑人的贫困率是白人的两倍。充满歧视和不公的司法系统给黑人社区带去了毁灭性的打击，造成数百万年轻美国黑人遭到监禁。这些人一生都背负着重刑犯的污名，无法找到住处，接受教育或是获得体面的工作。 

While a thin stratum of outstanding Black (African American) athletes, artists, and political leaders have risen to the top of society the vast majority of Black Americans suffer under the yolks of poor health care availability, substandard housing and health care, and high unemployment. In any other country these sets of circumstances would be judged a gross human rights violation, but the U.S. government and its media mouthpieces while bemoaning the plight of Black Americans has done little to alleviate it.

除极少数得以步入上层社会的杰出黑人（非裔美国）运动员、艺术家和政治领袖外，绝大多数美国黑人都生活在枷锁之下，难以获得医疗资源，居住和医疗条件差，失业率居高不下。这样的情形在任何其他国家都会被视为对人权的严重侵犯，但美国政府及其媒体喉舌一边对非裔的悲惨遭遇大发同情之声，一边却不采取任何行动改变现状。

In addition to all of the above, workers of all races and ethnicities in the U.S. have seen their living standards eroded over the last forty years. As China's living standards have risen, America's have fallen. This is a result of the premeditated destruction of America's industrial base and the outsourcing of production by U.S. multinational corporations to obtain super-profits without regard for the welfare of American workers. This has led to American ghost cities in many areas of the country and the growth of extreme income inequality throughout society, exacerbating social and racial tensions. 

除了上面提到的这些之外，过去40年里，美国各族裔劳动者的生活水平也出现了下降，而与此同时，中国人民的生活水平得到了提高。造成这种状况的原因是美国跨国公司为获取超额利润而置劳动者的利益于不顾，蓄意破坏美国工业基地并将生产转移至国外。这使得美国的许多城市沦为“鬼城”，极端的收入不平等在社会中愈演愈烈，社会和种族矛盾由此进一步加剧。

The ongoing U.S. economic crisis has led to an explosion of homelessness with tent cities mushrooming on the streets and in the public parks of every U.S. city, large and small. Due to lack of medical care and scarce social services, many of the homeless self-medicate and have physical, social, and emotional disabilities brought on by months and years of psychological trauma. The life expectancy of the homeless averages 54 years, more than 20 years less than average Americans.

目前的经济危机造成了无家可归者的数量激增，美国所有城市的大街小巷和公园里都出现了大量帐篷区。由于缺乏医疗护理和社会服务资源，许多流浪者只得自行服药。经年累月的心理创伤给他们造成了身体残疾以及社交和情感障碍。这一群体的平均预期寿命仅为54岁，低于美国人总体平均寿命20年以上。

Hate speech and hate crimes directed against Asian-Americans, in particular, have escalated since the spread of COVID-19 when people of Asian heritage were targeted by the U.S. government as the source of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has also served to highlight the deficiencies of the U.S. healthcare system, especially the disproportionate number of cases and deaths among Native Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics.

新冠肺炎疫情在美国传播之初，政府将亚裔视为疫情源头。自那之后，针对亚裔美国人的仇恨言论和仇恨犯罪不断加剧。疫情，尤其是原住民、黑人和拉美裔人群过高的确诊和死亡率也暴露了美国医疗体系的弊端。

The U.S. has also engaged in illegal wars, imposed illegal sanctions and embargoes, and committed other acts of aggression against sovereign nations that it has unilaterally targeted as "national security threats," leading to the death and injury of millions, the creation of millions of refugees from war-torn countries, and the destruction of whole nations. The military actions of the U.S. throughout the world have resulted in civilian massacres and other war crimes, yet the U.S. has not been held accountable by the Western media or governments for its crimes against humanity.

美国还多次参与非法战争，对他国施加非法制裁和贸易禁令，并对其单方面视为“国家安全威胁”的主权国家进行侵犯，造成数百万人死伤，制造了数百万战争难民，摧毁了整个国家。美国在世界各地采取军事行动，犯下了屠杀平民等战争罪行，而西方媒体或政府从未针对这些反人类罪行对美国问责。

No other country has engaged in the level of mass murder, genocide, systemic racism, and foreign aggression since its founding than the United States of America and the consequences of its human rights violations live on and multiply to this day.

美国自其建国至今犯下了其他任何国家都无法比拟的大屠杀、种族灭绝、系统性种族歧视和对外侵略等罪行，造成了延续至今且不断扩大的恶果。 

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