种族平等——让中国学生无从下笔的文书话题

作者：Dan

If you’re a Chinese student applying for American universities or are currently studying in America, you’re probably somewhat confused hearing all the talk about race. In America these days, it seems that everyone is talking about race all the time. Or at least everyone in the media. This phenomenon has been going on for at least a decade, but it has exploded in prevalence over the past few years. If you’re like many of the hundreds of Chinese students we’ve met over the years, you probably aren’t sure how to respond to questions about racial identity in America. So, if you feel uncomfortable answering questions or being asked to write about these topics, you’re not alone. If you feel nervous about being falsely accused of racism, you’re definitely not alone.

如果你是个正在申请美国大学或已经在美国高校读书的中国学生，你可能会感到困惑，为什么身边的人都没完没了的问种族相关的问题。这段时间，种族似乎成了每个美国人都在谈论的问题。至少媒体上是这样。这个现象已经持续了至少10年了，并且在最近几年尤其流行。你可能和我们见过的中国学生差不多，已经不知道如何回答种族身份的问题了。所以如果你对这类问题感到不舒服，别担心，不舒服的不只是你。如果莫名地担忧自己被贴上种族主义标签，和你一样担忧的人有很多。

Race is not something that most Chinese people have to think about on a daily basis. China is quite racially homogenous, and you might not even see a difference in appearance from a Han Chinese compared to some minority Chinese group. America is just the opposite. At only 244 years old this year, our citizens come from all regions of the world, so we’re used to seeing people who look very different. You can even see this in our culture. Family meals in an American home might switch daily from Italian to Mexican to German to Japanese or Chinese cuisines.

种族问题并非中国人每天都要思考的问题。中国的种族比较单一，从汉族人和少数民族的相貌上，很可能已经看不出太多区别。但是美国不同，美国的历史只有244年，美国民众都来自世界各个地方，所以我们对相貌差异大这件事，已经见怪不怪了。这点从我们的文化上就可以看出来。在美国家里吃饭，从意大利菜到墨西哥菜，再到德国菜、日本菜、中国菜，大家经常来回换。

Data source: World Values Survey

As you already know, for almost the first 100 years of our history, America had slavery in some states, and we’re not proud of that. Americans are raised to remember the evils of slavery and to make sure that our society never treats people unfairly based on their race again. As you can see from the diagram above, most Americans don’t hold racial biases and for the most part, we all get along quite well.

正如各位已经知道的，在美国成立的最初100年，美国一些州还有努力，我们并不会觉得这事光彩的事。现在的美国人，在成长的过程中，就不断的接触到这些历史，确保我们的社会不会在因为种族而区别对待他人。从上面的图标可以看出，大部分美国人在绝大部分情况下，已经不会再带着种族偏见，我们相处的很好。

Recently, though, many politicians and media organizations have become obsessed with racial identity. Every day you can see newspaper articles discussing how some racial minority in America is struggling statistically, and blaming those struggles on racism. The sad fact is that bad news and division sells. If you look hard enough for anything, you’ll find it, and a lot of Americans have been taught by the media and some government officials to find racism in everything.

然而最近，许多政客和媒体又开始对种族身份着迷了起来。每天你在报纸上看到的，都是一些少数族裔如何挣扎生活的讨论，这些讨论大都摆数据，并归责于种族主义。可惜，烂新闻总是更叫卖。如果你真的足够努力的去观察，你会发现，在媒体和一些政客的教导下，任何事情都可以在种族主义里找到答案。

Four Ways to Avoid Sensitive Racial Issues

如何避免敏感的种族话题

We’ve even seen some of our international students in the US have to deal with these situations. Often times, you can avoid controversy simply by using slightly different words. Many words that seem harmless (and should be harmless), have recently become “offensive” in the minds of a few people who are probably being overly sensitive. Here are a few examples:

我们发现，很多国际生现在也不得不面对这些问题。许多时候，你需要通过使用不同的词汇来避免争议。许多次看似无害（其实本来就无害），但却被一些过度敏感的人看作“冒犯他人”。比如，下面就有几个例子：

1) “Hei” translates to “black” in Chinese, but it is common in Chinese culture to use this word the same way Westerners use the word “dark”. English is often excessively precise (because your skin doesn’t actually become “black”, right?), but in this case, it will save you some trouble. So, if you’re referring to your own skin color and not wanting to spend too much time in the sun, you can say that you don’t want your skin to get too “dark” or “tan”, rather than “black”—which in America has a double meaning.

1) Black在中文的对应单词是黑，但是中国人说黑的时候，其实有时我们会用dark来表达。英语在这方面有时会过度的精确（毕竟你不可能真变黑，对吗？）。所以说“dark”可以让你规避不少麻烦。如果你说自己不想晒太阳，不想被晒黑，那么你得说我不想“get too dark or tan”，而不是black。在美国，black会引起双重含义。

2) Americans love to wear costumes. We dress in costumes on Halloween, and sometimes even as Santa or an elf for Christmas celebrations. Just 20-30 years ago, it would not have been controversial to dress up as Tina Turner or Michael Jackson (two famous black American singers), but it’s very controversial today! There is a historical reason for this because we used to have something called “minstrel shows” which used racist humor and featured white actors with black painted faces or “black face”. Because of this history, some Americans have decided that it’s always offensive for someone to alter their skin color to make people laugh or smile. So, avoid black or brown face paint or even dressing up as a person who is a minority race in America. If you want to dress up as a famous white person to make people laugh, no one will be offended, so go for it.

2)美国人喜欢穿夸张的服装。万圣节、圣诞节，我们都会穿各种服装庆祝。20-30年前，装扮成Tina Turner或者Michael Jackson不是什么大事，但是现在就变得有争议了。这是有历史原因的，因为我们过去有一种叫 "迷魂戏 "的东西，它使用的是种族主义的幽默，主角是涂着黑漆脸或 "黑脸 "的白人演员。因为有这么段历史，所以一些美国人认为，用改变肤色来搞笑令人反感的。所以，大家要避免化妆成黑色或棕色，甚至不应该装扮成美国的少数族裔。如果你想打扮成一个著名的白人来让人们发笑，没有人会被冒犯，随便去做吧。

3) When trying to identify someone in a crowd, humans usually think of the most obvious characteristic that makes that person stand out. In some places in America that are predominantly white, it might seem easy to point someone out by mentioning the color of their skin or their race, by saying “That black girl” or “That Asian guy”. But sadly, even this can cause some people to become offended, so choose a different characteristic like “That guy in the blue cap”, just to be extra careful. Also, there’s no universal agreement on whether to call “black” people in America simply “black” or “African American”. In most situations, it’s probably totally fine to refer to them as “black”, but if you want to be extra extra careful or precise like in an academic setting, you can say African American.

3) 当在人群中识别某个人时，人们总喜欢用对方最显而易见的特征。在美国，由于大部分人是拜仁，所以利用肤色识别是最简单的方式。比如：瞧，那个黑皮肤姑娘；看，那个亚洲男孩。遗憾的是，现在就连说这些都是冒犯他人的行为了，所以大家必须换个说法：看那个戴蓝帽子的小伙子，大家必须额外小心。同样，不是说一定要把黑人说成非洲裔美国人。许多时候，你说黑人是没问题的，但如果遇到需要非常小心的场合，那你可以说非洲裔美国人。

4) You can even see this racial sensitivity starting to appear on your college applications in some personal statement prompts. For international students who know what’s going on in America with racial issues, there is a temptation to write an essay about how you are going to fight for “racial justice” and other cliché terms. My advice to you on this is just to tread very carefully, because many students are thinking the same as you, and it might be considered as “pandering”.

4) 如今，大学申请文书里，也常常出现和种族相关的问题了。对于国际学生来说，如果了解美国的种族问题，那么就会特别想写一些为种族平等而奋斗，或者其他被看作陈词滥调的内容。我的个人建议是，会往这方面想的不只你一个，别让招生官以为你是在刻意地迎合他们。

We Should Be Talking About Innovation and Problem-Solving, Not This

更该聚焦创新和解决问题 招生办的焦点偏了

When I see these essay prompts that ask students to write about racial inequality or racial discord in America, I always feel sad for foreign students, especially Chinese students. Although Chinese students might not understand all of the historical details of race in America, they do understand that these are extremely sensitive issues in American culture. Even if they do understand the issue well, it can be a terrifying process to try to write something that won’t be even slightly offensive to someone at a university admissions office. These days, a lot of Americans seem very easily offended.

每次看到文书题目设计种族不平等或不和谐的问题时，我都会心疼一下国际学生，特别是中国学生。虽然中国学生并不了解美国种族史的全貌，但是他们知道，这在美国是个非常敏感的话题。就算他们很了解美国种族史，他们也要在写文书的时候忐忑不安，生怕一不小心就冒犯了招生官。毕竟，现在的美国人很容易“被冒犯”。

In my opinion, foreign students shouldn’t be forced to write essays about distinctly American problems that non-Americans haven’t experienced and really can’t understand. College application essays are hard enough to write when the prompts ask about commonly understood subjects like community service or your favorite academic subject.

在我看来，国际生原本就不该被要求写这种非美国人无法理解的话题。光是写社区服务，学术科目这样的话题，本身就已经很难了。

To me, it’s arrogant for American universities to assume that American culture and media are so widespread and accepted that even non-American high school students should know all of the details. Conversely, if you ask the administrators at American universities to write essays about some unique aspects of Chinese culture or Chinese history, most wouldn’t know how to write more than a few basic sentences.

依我看，美国大学想当然的以为“美国文化和媒体广泛传播的东西，非美国的高中生也应该知道”，这种想法本身就够傲慢。反过来，如果你让美国大学招生官鞋一点关于独特的中国文化、中国历史相关的话题，他们大部分人就算绞尽脑汁也挤不出个屁来。

Unfortunately, this trend is probably not going to end anytime soon, so you’re going to have to learn how to tactfully respond to sensitive questions about race. Just know that most Americans feel the same way you do—wondering why we spend so much of our time talking about race. We too are exhausted by the sensitivity of some people about race, especially at universities. The majority of Americans are just like you, wanting this issue to fade away so that we can focus on the human qualities that matter. We don’t judge people by the color of their skin, we just want to discover a person’s value as a human being. For now, we just have to try to appease those who have an unhealthy obsession with race (sadly, many of them work at universities) without becoming one of them. Keep being you and you’ll be just fine. And if you ever do face a problem, you can contact us for advice.

不幸的是，这个趋势段时间并不会结束。所以大家还是要学会如何巧妙的回应和种族相关的文书话题。好在大部分美国学生和你一样，也在困惑为什么要浪费时间写这种东西。我们也被一些对种族过度敏感的人搞得筋疲力尽。大部分美国人和你一样，希望肤色的话题尽快翻篇，这样我们就能关注真正有意义的话题。我们不会因为肤色去评判别人，我们只希望发现每个人身上的价值。现在，我们只能先安抚那些对种族问题过于执念的人（可悲的是，他们中的许多人在大学工作），但不要成为他们中的一员。继续做你自己，一切都不会有问题。如果你真的遇到了问题，你可以联系我们寻求建议。

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