奥巴马霍华德大学毕业典礼演讲 | 毕业季【中】
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。
第二部分原文如下，视频自16：56起
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=m0300fw9i8i&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Now, how you do that, how you meet these challenges, how you bring about change will ultimately be up to you. My generation, like all generations, is too confined[限制;局限] by our own experience, too invested in our own biases[偏差;偏见], too stuck in our ways to provide much of the new thinking that will be required. But us old-heads have learned a few things that might be useful in your journey. So with the rest of my time, I’d like to offer some suggestions for how young leaders like you can fulfill your destiny and shape our collective future -- bend it in the direction of justice and equality and freedom.
First of all -- and this should not be a problem for this group -- be confident in your heritage. (Applause.) Be confident in your blackness. One of the great changes that’s occurred in our country since I was your age is the realization there's no one way to be black. Take it from somebody who’s seen both sides of debate about whether I'm black enough. (Laughter.) In the past couple months, I’ve had lunch with the Queen of England and hosted Kendrick Lamar in the Oval Office[美国总统办公室]. There’s no straitjacket[约束性措施;紧身衣], there's no constraints, there's no litmus test for authenticity[真实性,确实性;可靠性].
[注释]litmus test石蕊试验；立见分晓的检验办法
Look at Howard. One thing most folks don’t know about Howard is how diverse it is. When you arrived here, some of you were like, oh, they've got black people in Iowa[爱荷华州]? (Laughter.) But it’s true -- this class comes from big cities and rural communities[农村社区], and some of you crossed oceans to study here. You shatter stereotypes. Some of you come from a long line of Bison. Some of you are the first in your family to graduate from college. (Applause.) You all talk different, you all dress different. You’re Lakers fans[湖人队粉丝], Celtics[凯尔特人] fans, maybe even some hockey[曲棍球;冰球] fans. (Laughter.)
[注释]
shatter：to (cause something to) break suddenly into very small pieces （使）破碎；粉碎；to end or severely damage something 终结；严重破坏
stereotype：a fixed idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong （尤指错误的）模式化观念，老一套，成见
And because of those who've come before you, you have models to follow. You can work for a company, or start your own. You can go into politics, or run an organization that holds politicians accountable. You can write a book that wins the National Book Award[美国国家图书奖], or you can write the new run of “Black Panther[黑豹党].” Or, like one of your alumni[校友.毕业生], Ta-Nehisi Coates, you can go ahead and just do both. You can create your own style, set your own standard of beauty, embrace your own sexuality. Think about an icon we just lost -- Prince. He blew up categories. People didn’t know what Prince was doing. (Laughter.) And folks loved him for it.
[注释]hold someone responsible/accountable/liable
to believe/consider that someone is responsible for something；to blame something on someone.
eg：I hold you accountable for John's well-being.
eg：I must hold you responsible for the missing money.
You need to have the same confidence. Or as my daughters tell me all the time, “You be you, Daddy.” (Laughter.) Sometimes Sasha puts a variation on it -- "You do you, Daddy." (Laughter.) And because you’re a black person doing whatever it is that you're doing, that makes it a black thing. Feel confident.
Second, even as we each embrace our own beautiful, unique, and valid versions of our blackness, remember the tie that does bind[束缚;捆绑] us as African Americans -- and that is our particular awareness of injustice and unfairness and struggle. That means we cannot sleepwalk[梦游] through life. We cannot be ignorant of history. (Applause.) We can’t meet the world with a sense of entitlement[权利意识]. We can’t walk by a homeless man without asking why a society as wealthy as ours allows that state of affairs[事态;情势] to occur. We can’t just lock up a low-level dealer[经销商;商人] without asking why this boy, barely out of childhood, felt he had no other options. We have cousins and uncles and brothers and sisters who we remember were just as smart and just as talented as we were, but somehow got ground down by structures that are unfair and unjust.
[注释]ground down：exhausted or worn down
And that means we have to not only question the world as it is, and stand up for those African Americans who haven’t been so lucky -- because, yes, you've worked hard, but you've also been lucky. That's a pet peeve[不能忍受的事；经常抱怨的问题] of mine: People who have been successful and don’t realize they've been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn’t nothing you did. So don’t have an attitude. But we must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize[表示同情;有同感,产生共鸣] with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling -- the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender person[变性人], and yes, the middle-aged white guy who you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended[颠倒,倒置;使竖立] by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to get in his head, too.
Number three: You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I'll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes.
[注释]pet peeve：An irritating experience caused by others in which you cannot control;A pet peeve is a particular thing that bugs you every time. If your pet peeve is how people misuse words, you’re in the right place.
You see, change requires more than righteous anger[义愤;愤慨]. It requires a program, and it requires organizing. At the 1964Democratic Convention[民主党大会], Fannie Lou Hamer -- all five-feet-four-inches[162.5cm] tall -- gave a fiery[热烈的,炽烈的] speech on the national stage. But then she went back home to Mississippi[密西西比] and organized cotton pickers[采棉机/人]. And she didn't have the tools and technology where you can whip up a movement[掀起一场运动] in minutes. She had to go door to door[挨门挨户走访]. And I’m so proud of the new guard of black civil rights leaders who understand this. It’s thanks in large part to the activism[行动主义;激进主义] of young people like many of you, from Black Twitter to Black Lives Matter, that America’s eyes have been opened -- white, black, Democrat, Republican -- to the real problems, for example, in our criminal justice system[刑事司法体系].
But to bring about structural change, lasting change, awareness is not enough. It requires changes in law, changes in custom. If you care about mass in carceration[监禁;下狱;禁闭（大规模监禁）], let me ask you: How are you pressuring[对…施加压力] members of Congress[国会议员] to pass the criminal justice reform bill[刑事司法改革法案] now pending[悬而未决] before them? (Applause.) If you care about better policing[更好地维持治安], do you know who your district attorney[美国地方检察官(略作D.A.)] is? Do you know who your state’s attorney general[州首席检察官/总检察长] is? Do you know the difference? Do you know who appoints the police chief[警察局长] and who writes the police training manual[警察训练手册]? Find out who they are, what their responsibilities are. Mobilize the community[动员社区], present them with a plan, work with them to bring about change, hold them accountable if they do not deliver. Passion is vital, but you've got to have a strategy.
And your plan better include voting -- not just some of the time, but all the time. (Applause.) It is absolutely true that 50 years after the Voting Rights Act[选举权法案], there are still too many barriers in this country to vote. There are too many people trying to erect new barriers[造成/制造新的障碍] to voting. This is the only advanced democracy on Earth that goes out of its way to make it difficult for people to vote. And there's a reason for that. There's a legacy to that.
But let me say this: Even if we dismantled[拆卸] every barrier to voting, that alone would not change the fact that America has some of the lowest voting rates in the free world. In 2014, only 36 percent of Americans turned out to vote in the midterms -- the secondlowest participation rate on record. Youth turnout -- that would be you -- was less than 20 percent. Less than 20 percent. Four out of five did not vote. In 2012, nearly two in three African Americans turned out. And then, in 2014, only two in five turned out. You don’t think that made a difference in terms of the Congress I've got to deal with? And then people are wondering, well, how come Obama hasn’t gotten this done? How come he didn’t get that done? You don’t think that made a difference? What would have happened if you had turned out at 50, 60, 70 percent, all across this country? People try to make this political thing really complicated. Like, what kind of reforms do we need? And how do we need to do that? You know what, just vote. It's math. If you have more votes than the other guy, you get to do what you want. (Laughter.) It's not that complicated.
And you don’t have excuses. You don’t have to guess the number of jellybeans[一种豆形糖果] in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap[肥皂中的泡沫] to register to vote. You don’t have to risk your life tocast a ballot[投票]. Other people already did that for you. (Applause.) Your grandparents, your great grandparents might be here today if they were working on it. What's your excuse? When we don’t vote, we give away our power, disenfranchise[剥夺…的公民权] ourselves -- right when we need to use the power that we have; right when we need your power to stop others from taking away the vote and rights of those more vulnerable than you are -- the elderly and the poor, the formerly incarcerated[监禁;下狱] trying to earn their second chance.
So you got to vote all the time, not just when it’s cool, not just when it's time to elect a President, not just when you’re inspired. It's your duty. When it’s time to elect a member of Congress or a city councilman[市议员], or a school board member[校董事会成员], or a sheriff[州长;郡治安官;执行吏]. That’s how we change our politics -- by electing people at every level who are representative of and accountable to us. It is not that complicated. Don’t make it complicated.
And finally, change requires more than just speaking out -- it requires listening, as well. In particular, it requires listening to those with whom you disagree, and being prepared to compromise. When I was a state senator[州参议员], I helped pass Illinois[伊利诺斯州]’s first racial profiling law[种族歧视的法律], and one of the first laws in the nation requiring the videotaping of confessions[招供] in capital cases. And we were successful because, early on, I engaged law enforcement. I didn’t say to them, oh, you guys are so racist, you need to do something. I understood, as many of you do, that the overwhelming majority of police officers are good, and honest, and courageous, and fair, and love the communities they serve.
[注释]When he was an Illinois state senator, President Obama successfully pressed for the videotaping of homicide interrogations and confessions. 跟读 当奥巴马是伊利诺州的参议员时，曾成功的执行了对杀人犯的审讯和供述的拍摄。
And we knew there were some bad apples, and that even the good cops with the best of intentions -- including, by the way, African American police officers -- might have unconscious biases[无意识的偏见], as we all do. So we engaged and we listened, and we kept working until we built consensus[凝聚共识]. And because we took the time to listen, we crafted legislation that was good for the police -- because it improved the trust and cooperation of the community -- and it was good for the communities, who were less likely to be treated unfairly. And I can say this unequivocally[明确地]: Without at least the acceptance of the police organizations in Illinois, I could never have gotten those bills passed. Very simple. They would have blocked them.
The point is, you need allies in a democracy. That's just the way it is. It can be frustrating[令人沮丧的] and it can be slow. But history teaches us that the alternative to democracy is always worse. That's not just true in this country. It’s not a black or white thing. Go to any country where the give and take of democracy has been repealed by one-party rule, and I will show you a country that does not work.
未完待续...
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