“我们不站队，而是选择正义和爱”，MIT华裔学生评论耶鲁女孩的信

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华裔二代耶鲁在读大学生Eileen Huang，就种族问题给华人社区发了一封公开信。引发了社区内的广泛讨论，在她信的后面有不少英文留言，大多来自华二代。此文选自MIT的华裔学生Erica Weng对她信件的评论，颇具一定代表性。

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英文原文 | Erica Weng

中文翻译 | 琥珀风筝

我是二代亚裔美国人；我的父母是第一代移民。我的家人反对任何形式的种族歧视和偏见；我和我的父母选择根据每个人的性格品质来评判人，而不是基于他们的种族或社会地位。

当我尝试站在一个家庭或周边华裔社区存在歧视现象的环境中长大的人的角度审视这个问题时，我完全能理解艾琳信的出发点，（理解与她类似想法的人会）将评论区一些留言视为自私自利，并由此很容易对亚裔美国人整个群体感到愤怒。 

但是，当我从没有接触到种族歧视的环境的人的角度，以及第一代移民的角度来看这个问题时——我承认这是我更熟悉的视角——我也完全理解那种受到伤害、未被体谅、并觉得遭到错误指控的感受。

非裔为让大家能够生活在一个进步的、更美好的世界中，做出了贡献。他们付出了生命和牺牲，包括民权运动的贡献（点击前文），都以我们感激不尽的方式帮助了亚裔美国人。我们欠他们的。而我们的父母，第一代移民，当年带着只够零花的微薄存款来到美国。他们为我们，他们的孩子们奉献了一切，而他们的牺牲也是我们永远不能完全报答的。我们欠他们一切。这些都不是很容易报恩的。

然而，让我们不要轻视自己的亚裔遗产。它不仅仅是你所描述的听话的医生和律师的传承，而是努力工作、毅力和对下一代恒久的爱。这是一种对未来充满美好希望的力量。父母的牺牲使我们得以在耶鲁这样的学校学习。他们使我们可以实现愿望，并因此有时间去捍卫我们的信念。是的，包括保护被压迫和受歧视的群体。

某些亚裔父母有种族主义的言论，由此可能造成我们对亚裔文化产生偏见，而错过其中那些宝贵和美好的部分。不要这样，即使他们有种族偏见/歧视的错误，也不能因此否定他们在我们身上倾注的爱。

就像用单一标签针对整个社区是错误的一样，给个人带上此类标签也是错误的。金无足赤，人无完人。让我们珍惜善良，用柔和的方式纠正错误；让我们帮助我们的父母，互相帮助，使自己朝更全面更好的方向发展。

就是说，由于父母不辞辛劳地为我们奠定了良好的家庭基础，让我们可以去捍卫自己的信念，所以我们绝不能挥霍这种幸运。我们不能局限在引发骚乱和公民反抗的方式，正如古斯牧师所说，“在社会和政治的各个层面去积极地参与”。

谴责一个系统还不够，我们需要参与进去，使一些事物变得更好，而不是消灭它们。

我并不是在提倡我们是“听话的”律师，医生和工程师，一味地服从历史和现有的社会结构。相反，我们必须成为社区的积极成员，必须问自己，行为与理想是否一致，我们必须有勇气大声说出自己的信念。

即使在这些事情上，我们亚裔美国人的遗产也发挥着作用。奋斗、毅力和爱心，是为受压迫者挺身而出所必需的品质。

站在正义的一面，并不一定意味着要激进或持反对意见，并不需要浮于“破坏者，激进主义者，战斗人员或幸存者”这些术语的表面。可以说，我们可以通过履行日常的公民职责，带来更大的变化。

投票，与伙伴们交流，与观点立场不同的人交朋友。是的，去认识少数族裔的朋友；跟与自己不同的人打交道；将对方不仅作为一个个体，同时也从了解悠久传统文化的角度去理解他们的群体，就像我们每个人都拥有丰富的亚裔美国人的传统一样。

爱与团结就像建立人与人的关系一样简单。与极端的动乱和反抗相比，人与人之间的关系所能涉及的深度和持续的时间要长得多。

我们不应该因为觉得欠了别人的才去做一些事情。我们这样做，是因为这些是正确的事情，因为不公正是错误的。过于好胜，和按欠账还债的思维进行思考，只会产生怨恨。

“你支持哪一方呢？”这不是一个合适的问题，它的出发点不对。我们必须在正义和不公正，爱与恨之间选择立场，而不是按人去选边站队。我们必须问自己，我们真正相信什么，我们是否做到了言行一致。我们应该扪心自问，自己代表着什么——“你站在哪一边？”

Comment in English | Erica Weng

I’m a second-generation Asian American; my parents were of the immigrant generation. My family does not subscribe to racial stereotyping; my parents and I choose to judge each person by the quality of their individual character, regardless of their ethnicity or social standing. When I try to look at this issue from the perspective of one who grew up in a racist family or a racist Asian American community, I understand how easy it is to agree wholeheartedly with Eileen’s letter, to view many comments in this thread as selfishly defensive, and to feel anger towards the Asian American community as a group. But when I look at this issue from the perspective of one who grew up without experiencing much racism in the immigrant generation, and from the perspective of one of the immigrant generation — and I acknowledge that this is the perspective I am more familiar with — I see how easy it is to feel hurt, unappreciated, and wrongly accused. 

The black community has allowed us to live in a changed and better world; their lives and deaths, their civil rights activism has helped the Asian American community in a way we will never fully appreciate or understand. We owe everything to them. Our parents, the immigrant generation, came to America with little more than cents in their pockets; they gave everything for us, their children, and their sacrifice is something we will never fully appreciate or understand. We owe everything to them. Neither of these are debts that can be repaid so easily. 

Let us not look down on our Asian heritage with contempt. It’s not a heritage merely of obedient doctors and lawyers as you describe it, but rather one of hard work, perseverance, and enduring love for the next generation. It’s a heritage of hope in a better future. Our parents’ sacrifices have allowed us to study in schools like Yale. They have allowed us the freedom from want and the resulting leisure to stand up for what we believe in — yes, even to stand up for the oppressed and discriminated-against. Some Asian parents have racist attitudes, which threaten to poison our comprehension of the precious and good parts of our Asian heritage. Don’t let it. Their racism does not negate their love which they poured out for us. Just as it is wrong to identify entire communities with unilateral labels, it’s wrong to identify individuals with such labels. All humans are broken, crippled individuals. Let us cherish the good, and gently correct the bad; let us help our parents and help each other reorient more wholly towards what is good. 

That said, since our parents have painstakingly laid the groundwork below our feet so we may stand up for what we believe in, we must not let it go to waste. We need more than spark unrest and civil disobedience — we need “more active participation in all social and political ranks” as Goose the Shepherd commented above. We ourselves need to participate in the system we denounce — to change things for the better, not to destroy them. I’m not advocating that we be “obedient” lawyers, doctors, and engineers, blindly obeying the constructs history and society have set in place. Rather, I believe we must be active members of our community, we must ask ourselves whether our actions and behavior reflect the ideals we truly believe in, we must have courage to voice our beliefs out loud. Our Asian-American heritage comes into play even here. Hard work, perseverance, and love are most necessary in standing up for the oppressed. 

Standing on the side of justice does not have to be radical or dissenting — it does not require being a “disrupter, activist, fighter, or survivor,” in the face-value definitions of those terms. Arguably, we can cause greater change by performing our daily civil duties. Voting, engaging in conversation with our peers, making friends outside our comfort zones. Yes; by getting to know a fellow person of color; by spending time with someone different than us; by understanding that person as an individual, yet also as a member of a people with a rich heritage, just as we each have a multifaceted Asian American heritage.

Love and solidarity is as simple as personal relationships. And personal relationships go so much deeper and last so much longer than radical unrest and disobedience. 

We should not do these things because we owe anyone anything. We should do them because it is THE RIGHT THING to do, because injustice is WRONG. Keeping score, thinking in terms of what we owe and is owed to us — only generates resentment. 

“_Whose_ side are you on?” is not the right question to be asking, it does not have the right attitude. Rather than picking sides between people, we must pick sides between injustice and justice, love and hate. We must ask ourselves what we truly believe in, and if our actions reflect that. We must ask ourselves _what_ do we stand for — “_What_ side are you on?” 

Erica W. MIT c/o 2020

相关文章：《“我们站在平等正义社会进步一边”，回复耶鲁华裔学生的公开信》

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