奥巴马霍华德大学毕业典礼演讲 | 毕业季【上】
当地时间2016年5月7日，美国华盛顿，奥巴马出席霍华德大学毕业典礼并发表演讲。
霍华德大学(Howard University)成立于1867年，是一所综合类的私立大学，为全美著名的黑人大学。
第一部分原文如下：
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=d0199s60fbk&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Remarks by the President at Howard University Commencement Ceremony
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! Hello, Howard! (Applause.) H-U!
AUDIENCE: You know!
THE PRESIDENT: H-U!
AUDIENCE: You know!
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughter.) Thank you so much, everybody. Please, please, have a seat. Oh, I feel important now. Got a degree from Howard. Cicely Tyson[西西莉·泰森] said something nice about me. (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, President!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you back.
To President Frederick, the Board of Trustees[董事会;教育理事会], faculty and staff[教职员], fellow recipients of honorary degrees, thank you for the honor of spending this day with you. And congratulations to the Class of 2016! (Applause.) Four years ago, back when you were just freshmen, I understand many of you came by my house the night I was reelected. (Laughter.) So I decided to return the favor and come by yours.
To the parents, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, all the family and friends who stood by this class, cheered them on, helped them get here today -- this is your day, as well. Let’s give them a big round of applause, as well. (Applause.)
I’m not trying to stir up any rivalries[激起/挑起竞争/较量] here; I just want to see who’s in the house. We got Quad? (Applause.) Annex. (Applause.) Drew. Carver. Slow. Towers. And Meridian. (Applause.) Rest in peace, Meridian. (Laughter.) Rest in peace.
I know you’re all excited today. You might be a little tired, as well. Some of you were up all night making sure your credits were in order. (Laughter.) Some of you stayed up too late, ended up at HoChi at 2:00 a.m. (Laughter.) Got some mambo sauce on your fingers. (Laughter.)
[注释]"Mumbo sauce" or Mambo sauce is a condiment found in Chinese takeout restaurants in Washington, DC and surrounding metro area.
芒波酱（Mumbo sauce）是一种带红色的调味品，介于烧烤酱和甜酸酱之间，多年来深受大众喜爱。
But you got here. And you've all worked hard to reach this day. You’ve shuttled[穿梭往返] between challenging classes and Greek life. You've led clubs, played an instrument or a sport. You volunteered, you interned. You held down one, two, maybe three jobs. You've made lifelong friends and discovered exactly what you’re made of. The “Howard Hustle” has strengthened your sense of purpose and ambition.
Which means you're part of a long line of Howard graduates. Some are on this stage today. Some are in the audience. That spirit of achievement and special responsibility has defined this campus ever since the Freedman’s Bureau[自由民局] established Howard just four years after the Emancipation Proclamation[奴隶解放宣言]; just two years after the Civil War[南北战争] came to an end. They created this university with a vision -- a vision of uplift[精神动力]; a vision for an America where our fates would be determined not by our race, gender, religion or creed[信条,教义], but where we would be free -- in every sense -- to pursue our individual and collective dreams.
[注释]国会于1865年3月成立了自由民事务局（Freedmen's Bureau），保护非洲裔美国人的利益，帮助他们实现自立。参考：http://t.cn/R2ojjuc
It is that spirit that's made Howard a centerpiece of African-American intellectual life and a central part of our larger American story. This institution has been the home of many firsts: The first black Nobel Peace Prize winner. The first black Supreme Court justice. But its mission has been to ensure those firsts were not the last. Countless scholars, professionals, artists, and leaders from every field received their training here. The generations of men and women who walked through this yard helped reform our government, cure disease, grow a black middle class, advance civil rights, shape our culture. The seeds of change -- for all Americans -- were sown[播种] here. And that’s what I want to talk about today.
As I was preparing these remarks, I realized that when I was first elected President, most of you -- the Class of 2016 -- were just starting high school. Today, you’re graduating college. I used to joke about being old. Now I realize I'm old. (Laughter.) It's not a joke anymore. (Laughter.)
But seeing all of you here gives me some perspective. It makes me reflect on the changes that I’ve seen over my own lifetime. So let me begin with what may sound like a controversial statement -- a hot take.
[注释]a hot take：An opinion based on simplistic moralizing[简单说教] rather than actual thought.
Given the current state of our political rhetoric[政治修辞/语艺/辞令] and debate, let me say something that may be controversial, and that is this: America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college. (Applause.) Let me repeat: America is by almost every measure better than it was when I graduated from college. It also happens to be better off than when I took office -- (laughter) -- but that's a longer story. (Applause.) That's a different discussion for another speech.
But think about it. I graduated in 1983. New York City, America’s largest city, where I lived at the time, had endured a decade marked by crime and deterioration[恶化;退化] and near bankruptcy[破产]. And many cities were in similar shape. Our nation had gone through years of economic stagnation[经济停滞/萧条], the stranglehold[束缚;勒颈] of foreign oil[外国石油], a recession[衰退;不景气] where unemployment nearly scraped 11 percent. The auto industry[汽车业] was getting its clock cleaned by foreign competition. And don’t even get me started on the clothes and the hairstyles. I've tried to eliminate all photos of me from this period. I thought I looked good. (Laughter.) I was wrong.
[注释]scrape [skreɪp]
1）to succeed in getting or achieving something, but only just or with great difficulty 勉强获得；艰难达到
2）to remove an unwanted covering or a top layer from something, especially using a sharp edge or something rough 去除；刮；擦
[注释]clearn one's clock
(idiomatic) To defeat decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation.//to strike and punish someone 彻底打败/打得落花流水
Since that year -- since the year I graduated -- the poverty rate[贫困率] is down. Americans with college degrees, that rate is up. Crime rates are down. America’s cities have undergone a renaissance[文艺复兴]. There are more women in the workforce. They’re earning more money. We’ve cut teen pregnancy[未成年怀孕] in half. We've slashed[削减] the African American dropout rate[辍学率] by almost 60 percent, and all of you have a computer in your pocket that gives you the world at the touch of a button. In 1983, I was part of fewer than 10 percent of African Americans who graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Today, you’re part of the more than 20 percent who will. And more than half of blacks say we’re better off than our parents were at our age -- and that our kids will be better off, too.
So America is better. And the world is better, too. A wall came down in Berlin. An Iron Curtain[铁幕;(阻隔消息，思想交流的)无形屏障] was torn asunder[撕扯得支离破碎]. The obscenity of apartheid[种族隔离] came to an end[万恶的种族隔离终结了]. A young generation inBelfast[贝尔法斯特(北爱尔兰首府)] and London have grown up without ever having to think aboutIRA[爱尔兰共和军(Irish Republican Army)] bombings. In just the past 16 years, we’ve come from a world without marriage equality to one where it’s a reality in nearly two dozen countries. Around the world, more people live in democracies. We’ve lifted more than 1 billion people from extreme poverty[扶贫/脱贫]. We’ve cut the child mortality rate[幼儿死亡率] worldwide by more than half.
America is better. The world is better. And stay with me now -- race relations[种族关系] are better since I graduated. That’s the truth. No, my election did not create a post-racial[超越种族的/后种族] society. I don’t know who was propagating that notion[传播这一观点]. That was not mine. But the election itself -- and the subsequent one -- because the first one, folks might have made a mistake. (Laughter.) The second one, they knew what they were getting. The election itself was just one indicator of how attitudes had changed.
In my inaugural address[就职演说], I remarked that just 60 years earlier, my father might not have been served in a D.C. restaurant -- at least not certain of them. There were no black CEOs of Fortune 500[财富500强(指《财富》杂志每年评出的全美国500家最大企业)] companies. Very few black judges. Shoot, as Larry Wilmore pointed out last week, a lot of folks didn’t even think blacks had the tools to be a quarterback[橄榄球的四分卫]. Today, former Bull[公牛] Michael Jordan isn’t just the greatest basketball player of all time -- he owns the team. (Laughter.) When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T. (Laughter.) Rap and hip hop were counterculture[反主流文化(60和70年代美国青少年中盛行的一种思想)], underground. Now, Shonda Rhimes[珊达·莱梅斯] owns Thursday night, and Beyoncé runs the world. (Laughter.) We’re no longer only entertainers, we're producers, studio executives. No longer small business owners -- we're CEOs, we’re mayors, representatives, Presidents of the United States. (Applause.)
I am not saying gaps do not persist[我并不是说隔阂已经不复存在]. Obviously, they do. Racism persists. Inequality persists. Don’t worry -- I’m going to get to that. But I wanted to start, Class of 2016, by opening your eyes to the moment that you are in. If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn’t know ahead of time who you were going to be -- what nationality, what gender, what race, w 50 30566 50 15535 0 0 3052 0 0:00:10 0:00:05 0:00:05 3177hether you’d be rich or poor, gay or straight, what faith you'd be born into -- you wouldn’t choose 100 years ago. You wouldn’t choose the fifties, or the sixties, or the seventies. You’d choose right now. If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry[洛林·汉斯伯里(美国黑人剧作家)], “young, gifted, and black” in America, you would choose right now. (Applause.)
I tell you all this because it's important to note progress. Because to deny[否认] how far we’ve come would do a disservice[伤害;帮倒忙] to the cause of justice[正义事业], to the legions of foot soldiers[步兵军团]; to not only the incredibly accomplished individuals who have already been mentioned, but your mothers and your dads, and grandparents and great grandparents, who marched and toiled[辛苦工作;艰难地行进] and suffered and overcame to make this day possible. I tell you this not to lull you into complacency[让你陷入自满;麻痹大意], but to spur you into action -- because there’s still so much more work to do, so many more miles to travel. And America needs you to gladly, happily take up that work. You all have some work to do. So enjoy the party, because you're going to be busy. (Laughter.)
Yes, our economy has recovered from crisis stronger than almost any other in the world. But there are folks of all races who are still hurting -- who still can’t find work that pays enough to keep the lights on, who still can’t save for retirement. We’ve still got a big racial gap[种族差异/隔阂] in economic opportunity. The overall unemployment rate is 5 percent, but the black unemployment rate is almost nine. We’ve still got an achievement gap when black boys and girls graduate high school and college at lower rates than white boys and white girls. Harriet Tubman[哈莉特·塔布曼,美国废奴主义者] may be going on the twenty, but we’ve still got a gender gap when a black woman working full-time still earns just 66 percent of what a white man gets paid. (Applause.)
We’ve got a justice gap when too many black boys and girls pass through a pipeline from underfunded[资金不足的] schools to overcrowded jails. This is one area where things have gotten worse. When I was in college, about half a million people in America were behind bars[在监狱服刑]. Today, there are about 2.2 million. Black men are about six times likelier to be in prison right now than white men.
Around the world, we’ve still got challenges to solve that threaten everybody in the 21st century -- old scourges[灾祸;苦难的根源;鞭子] like disease and conflict, but also new challenges, from terrorism and climate change.
So make no mistake, Class of 2016 -- you’ve got plenty of work to do. But as complicated and sometimes intractable[棘手的;难治的] as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges, to flip the script.
[注释]flip the script
To reverse a role or situation; turn a circumstance around; To do the unexpected.
未完待续...
摘自白宫官网：http://t.cn/Rq3g6j7
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