前美国总统候选人杨安泽:为自己身为亚裔感到“有些羞愧”(中英双语)
We Asian Americans are not the virus, but we can be part of the cure.
我们亚裔美国人不是病毒,而可以为消除病毒贡献一份力量。By Andrew Yang
杨安泽Last week I was shopping for groceries and preparing to hole up at home with my wife, Evelyn, and our two boys. There was an eerie, peculiar aura in the parking lot in upstate New York as night fell and shoppers wheeled out essentials and snacks.
上星期的一天,我去超市购物,准备接下来就和妻子伊夫琳及两个儿子一起窝在家里。夜幕降临,购物者一车车往外推着食物和必需品,纽约北部这个停车场里的气氛不同寻常、有些怪异。Three middle-aged men in hoodies and sweatshirts stood outside the entrance of the grocery store. They huddled together talking. One looked up at me and frowned. There was something accusatory in his eyes. And then, for the first time in years, I felt it.
三名穿着连帽衫和运动衫的中年男子站在超市门外。他们挤在一起聊天。其中一个抬头看到我,眉头就皱了起来,眼神里带有某种指责的意思。多年来,我第一次感到了这一点:I felt self-conscious — even a bit ashamed — of being Asian.
我感到了不自在——甚至有一点点羞愧——就因为我是亚裔。It had been years since I felt that way. I grew up with semi-regular visitations of that sense of racially tinged self-consciousness. It didn’t help that I was an awkward kid. But after adulthood, marriage, a career, parenthood, positions of leadership and even a presidential run, that feeling had disappeared — I thought.
我已经很多年没有这种感觉了。在成长的过程中,我似乎隔段时间就会因为自己的种族而觉得不自在。我小时腼腆笨拙,感觉尤为强烈。但是经历了长大成人、娶妻成家、开创事业、生儿育女、担任领导甚至参加总统竞选之后,那种感觉早就不见了——我以为不见了。My place in this country felt assured. I have it better than the vast majority of Americans of any background. When comedian Shane Gillis slurred me by name, I did not think he deserved to lose his job. It barely registered when a teenager yelled “Chink” at me from the window of his car in New Hampshire a number of months ago. My only reaction was to think, “Well, I’m glad that neither of my sons was around because then I might have to explain to them what that word means.”
我对自己在这个国家所处的位置很放心。我比绝大多数美国人都过得好,无论他们背景如何。但是当喜剧演员肖恩·吉利斯指名道姓诋毁我时,我还觉得他不至于为此丢了工作。几个月前,我在新罕布什尔州遇到一个年轻人坐在车里透过车窗向我大吼Chink,我也几乎没什么感觉。我当时唯一的反应是想:“嗯,幸亏两个儿子没在身边,不然还得向他们解释这个词的意思。”But things have changed.
但情况已经变了。In the past few weeks, the number of reported physical and verbal attacks on Asian Americans has increased dramatically. The percentage of Asians who use the not-for-profit Crisis Text Line to speak with a counselor has shot up from 5 percent of callers — about in line with our share of the population — to 13 percent, an increase of 160 percent. Some level of background disdain or alienation has grown into outright hostility and even aggression.
据报道,过去几周,针对亚裔美国人的袭击和谩骂激增。向非营利性组织“危机短信热线”求助的人中,亚裔的比例已从5%(大致与人口比例相当)上升到了13%,增加了160%。某种程度隐隐的轻蔑或疏远已经发展成不加遮掩的敌对甚至攻击。And we all know why. The coronavirus is devastating communities and lives. People’s livelihoods and families are being destroyed. And people are looking for someone to blame.
我们都知道为什么。新冠病毒在摧毁社区,夺去生命。大家生计无着,家破人亡。于是人们开始寻找替罪羊。Before covid-19, too many Americans were already living paycheck to paycheck, working long hours just to get by. Now, we all are even more fearful for the future, worried about our parents, grandparents and children. We are anxious about our jobs, bills and next month’s rent or mortgage payment.
在新冠肺炎流行前,就已经有太多美国人过着月光族的生活,长时间工作也只是勉强度日。如今,我们大家都对未来更加恐惧,担心我们的父母、祖父母和孩子。我们担心自己的工作、账单和下个月的房租或房贷。In early February, when I was still running for president, someone asked me, “How do we keep the coronavirus from inciting hostility toward Asians in this country?”
二月初,我仍在竞选总统时,有人曾问我:“我们怎么阻止新冠病毒在美国引发对亚裔的敌意?”I responded, “The truth is that people are wired to make attributions based on appearance, including race. The best thing that could happen for Asians would be to get this virus under control so it isn’t a problem anymore. Then any racism would likely fade.” This was weeks before “Chinese Virus” became a thing.
我回答说:“事实是,人们往往以貌——包括种族——取人。对于亚裔来说,最好的情况就是控制住这种病毒,那就什么问题也没有了。任何种族主义的言行可能随之自行消退。”那时,距离“中国病毒”成为话题还有好几周。Now it is, and we have to figure out how to combat that, too. I’m an entrepreneur. In general, negative responses don’t work. I obviously think that being racist is not a good thing. But saying “Don’t be racist toward Asians” won’t work.
现在形势严峻,我们也必须弄清楚如何与之斗争。我是做企业的,知道消极回应一般来说都没用。我当然认为种族主义不好,但仅仅靠说“不要对亚裔种族歧视”是没用的。I have been thinking about ways to improve that encounter at the grocery store. People are hurting. They look up and see someone who is different from them, whom they wrongly associate with the upheaval of their way of life.
我一直在思考如何能改善我在超市遇到的那种情况。人们受到了伤害,他们抬头看到某个与他们不同的人,错误地将这个人与自己生活遭遇的剧变联系起来。Natalie Chou, a UCLA basketball player, said that she felt better when she wore her UCLA gear, in part because the association reminded people that she was an American. UCLA女篮华裔球星仇莉莉说,她穿着UCLA队服时自我感觉更好,部分原因是这提醒了人们她是美国人。
During World War II, Japanese Americans volunteered for military duty at the highest possible levels to demonstrate that they were Americans. Now many in the Asian American community are stepping up, trying to demonstrate that we can be part of the solution. Some 17 percent of U.S. doctors are Asian and rushing to the front lines.
二战期间,日裔美国人的热情空前高涨,纷纷自愿参军,以表明他们是美国人。现在,许多亚裔美国人也站了出来,努力证明我们可以为解决问题贡献一份力量。美国约有17%的医生是亚裔,他们都奔赴了抗疫前线。We Asian Americans need to embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before. We need to step up, help our neighbors, donate gear, vote, wear red white and blue, volunteer, fund aid organizations, and do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis. We should show without a shadow of a doubt that we are Americans who will do our part for our country in this time of need.
我们亚裔美国人需要以前所未有的方式拥抱和展现我们美国人的一面。我们需要站出来,帮助邻居、捐赠物品、投票、穿红白蓝色服装、当志愿者、资助援助组织,竭尽全力让这场危机尽快结束。我们应该毫不犹豫地表明,我们作为美国人,在这个危急时刻,会为国家尽自己的义务。Demonstrate that we are part of the solution. We are not the virus, but we can be part of the cure.
证明我们可以为解决问题贡献一份力量。我们不是病毒,而可以为消除病毒贡献一份力量。Andrew Yang was wrong. Showing our ‘Americanness’ is not how Asian-Americans stop racism.
杨安泽错了,展示我们“美国人的一面”并不能让亚裔美国人摆脱种族歧视。By Canwen Xu许灿文
I grew up Asian American in North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho, some of the whitest states in this country. I learned to speak accentless English. I had mostly Caucasian friends until college, and I learned to eschew the meek and submissive stereotypes that plague so many Asian Americans today.
我是在北达科他、南达科他和爱达荷长大的亚裔美国人,这些州都是美国白人最多的州。我讲一口地道的英语。上大学之前,我的朋友大多是白人,我学会了摒弃亚裔温顺和顺从的刻板印象——这种印象如今依旧让许多亚裔美国人备受困扰。Did these things make people think I was American? Absolutely not. I was constantly asked where I was from — even though my race is the only indication that I could be from anywhere but the United States. 这些会让人认为我是美国人吗?绝对没有。我经常被问到是哪里人,尽管只有我的种族这一点能显示出我不是美国人。
Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang argued in The Post this week that Asian Americans demonstrating their “American-ness” is the best way to combat racism related to the covid-19 pandemic. His message was effectively: There’s no practical use in telling folks not to be racist. So let’s combat racism by showing everyone how American we are. He urged people to follow the example of Japanese Americans who enlisted in the military during World War II, demonstrating their own “American-ness” in a time of crisis. Yang omitted the fact that while 33,000 volunteered to serve in the war, more than 120,000 were placed in internment camps at home.
企业家、前总统候选人杨安泽本周在《华盛顿邮报》上撰文称,展示自己“美国人的一面”是亚裔美国人抗击与新冠肺炎大流行有关的种族主义的最佳方式。他想表达的意思很清楚:告诉人们不要种族歧视没有实际意义。所以,我们应该通过向所有人展示我们是货真价实的美国人来抗击种族主义。他呼吁人们以二战期间入伍的日裔美国人为榜样,在危机时刻展示自己“美国人的一面”。但杨安泽忽略了一个事实:在3.3万日裔美国人志愿为美国而战的同时,还有超过12万的同胞被安置在了美国的“集中营”。During Yang’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination, I appreciated his solution-based thinking. That drew me to his campaign, and it helped me overlook his previous tone-deafness toward race issues. But for many Asian Americans, myself included, his op-ed went too far. Instead of calling out the recent hostility toward Asians for what it is — the reincarnation of historical misconceptions that Asians are dirty and uncivilized — he chose to be a people pleaser. Specifically, the white-people pleaser. He further entrenched the decades-old myth of the model minority: that Asian Americans are the obedient people of color, the ones who are willing to uphold a system that is rigged against us by submissively working within.
在杨安泽角逐民主党总统候选人提名期间,我很欣赏他以解决问题为基础的思考模式。这一点吸引了我参与他的竞选活动,也让我忽略了他之前面对种族问题的迟钝。但是,对包括我在内的许多亚裔美国人来说,他文章中的观点太过火了。他没有指出最近人们对亚裔的敌意究竟是什么——是从前认为亚裔肮脏粗野的错误印象的死灰复燃——而选择去讨好别人。具体来说,就是讨好白人。他进一步巩固了数十年来关于这个模范少数族裔的谬见:亚裔美国人是顺从的有色人种,哪怕体制针对他们,他们也愿意顺从地服务以示支持。He does this through his insistence on adherence to a “win-win” framework, which tries desperately not to offend anyone. As Anand Giridharadas described in his book “Winners Take All,” prominent business executives, thought leaders and philanthropists such as Yang have adopted the mind-set that solutions can be found to problems without ever criticizing the culprits. In practical terms, that means that instead of fighting “income equality,” we can fight “poverty.” Instead of calling out “sexism,” we can choose to “uplift women.” And instead of criticizing anti-Asian racism, Asian Americans can be told to wear red, white and blue in hopes that other Americans will finally think we’re one of them.
杨安泽之所以这么说,是因为他坚持想要“双赢”,这需要极力避免得罪任何人。正如阿南德·格里哈拉达斯在他的著作《赢者通吃》中所描述的,像杨安泽这样杰出的企业高管、思想领袖和慈善家采用的都是这样一种思维模式,即在不批评罪魁祸首的情况下也可以找到问题的解决方案。实际上,这就意味着:与其与争取“收入平等”,不如消除“贫困”;与其大声疾呼不要“性别歧视”,不如选择“提升女性地位”;与其批评针对亚裔的种族歧视,不如让亚裔美国人穿上红白蓝色衣服,希望其他美国人最终会将我们视为自己人。But ignoring the root causes of social issues leads us toward shallow, and often temporary, fixes for problems while neglecting larger structural issues and precluding lasting solutions. The middle-aged men in hoodies that Yang mentions in his op-ed will not stop looking at him accusatorily simply because he dons an American flag-patterned hat. And the racism and otherization of Asian Americans will not stop simply because our community shows its “American-ness.” When the president of the United States still refers to covid-19 as the “Chinese virus,” I have a hard time believing that the issue is simply that white Americans in the United States haven’t seen Asian Americans mobilize yet.
但是,忽视社会问题的根源让我们只会得到粗浅且往往临时的解决方案,同时会忽略更大的结构性问题,排除了长期的解决方案。杨安泽在其专栏文章中提到的那些穿着连帽衫的中年男子不会因为他戴一顶美国国旗图案的帽子就停止用责备的眼神看他。而针对亚裔美国人的种族歧视和他者化也不会因为我们亚裔表现出“美国人的一面”就停止。当美国总统仍然把新冠病毒称为“中国病毒”,我很难相信,问题仅仅是美国的白人还没有看到亚裔美国人行动起来。Perhaps the main difference between Yang’s opinion and mine is that he focused on showing “without a shadow of a doubt that we are Americans who will do our part for our country in this time of need,” suggesting that the solution to hostility against Asians is just getting the virus under control. I personally have a hard time believing that people from, say, France, England or Sweden would face the same hostility if the coronavirus had originated in those countries.
也许杨安泽和我的观点的主要区别在于,他强调“(我们)应该毫不犹地表明,我们作为美国人,在这个危急时刻,会为国家尽自己的义务”,暗示只要控制了病毒,对亚裔的敌视就会消失。我个人很难相信,如果新冠病毒疫情最先暴发于法国、英国或瑞典等国,这些国家的人也会面临同样的敌意。I appreciate Yang’s call to action, but his argument was atrociously framed. We, as Asian Americans, should absolutely be part of the solution to coronavirus. We should certainly “do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis.” But that’s not because our actions will demonstrate that we are American. They won’t. It is because we are obligated to as members of our communities and, most importantly, as human beings.
我很欣赏杨安泽呼吁人们采取行动,但他的论点被粗暴地框定了。作为亚裔美国人,我们绝对应该为消除新冠病毒贡献一份力量。我们当然应该“竭尽全力让这场危机尽快结束”。但这并不是因为我们这么做会证明我们是美国人。这些行动证明不了这一点。我们这么做是因为作为社群的一分子——最重要的是,作为人类的一分子——我们有义务这样做。「点击图片 查看文章」
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