文 | Juan
朗读 | 约瑟
沃尔特·爱德华·威廉姆斯简介：（Walter Edward Williams，生于1936年3月31日）美国经济学家、评论员和学者。他是乔治·梅森大学（George Mason University）的约翰·奥林（John M. Olin）杰出经济学教授。他是以古典自由意志主义（Classical Libertarian）观点而闻名的联合专栏作家。他的著作经常出现在Townhall.com，WND和《犹太世界评论》上。威廉姆斯童年时期的家庭包括他的母亲、他的妹妹和他。威廉姆斯的父亲在抚养威廉姆斯或他的妹妹方面没有任何作用。他在费城长大。1959年，他被征召入伍，并在美国陆军中担任私人参谋。在南部驻扎时，他“从军队内部与《吉姆·克劳法》展开了一场单人战斗”。他向同胞们发出挑衅性的言论，挑战了种族秩序。这导致了一名监督官对威廉姆斯提起军事法庭诉讼。威廉姆斯辩护他自己的案子，被判无罪。服兵役后，威廉姆斯从1963年至1967年担任洛杉矶县缓刑部门的少年组主管。威廉姆斯还恢复了学业，并于1965年在洛杉矶的加利福尼亚州立学院（现为UCLA）获得经济学学士学位，1967年获得了硕士学位，1972获得博士学位。威廉姆斯UCLA时，托马斯·索威尔（Thomas Sowell）于1969年作为访问教授来到校园。尽管他从未参加过索威尔博士的课程，但两人结识并开始了长达数十年的友谊。1972年夏天，索威尔被聘为城市学院的少数族裔项目主任，威廉姆斯此后不久加入了该项目。索威尔和威廉姆斯之间的往来出现在索威尔2007年的《一个男人的信》中。本文的英语原文“Insult to Black History”刊载于6月24日《The Daily Home》众多的白人对美国奴隶制、《吉姆·克劳法（种族隔离法）》以及严重的种族歧视历史感到深深的羞耻、悲哀和内疚。很多黑人仍然对历史上的不公正、以及他们现在所看到的不公正而愤怒！其实，无论黑人还是白人都可以通过更好地理解和正确评价黒人历史而获益！
经常被忽视或忽略的事实是：相比美国的其他任何族裔，美国黑人族群在美国历史上只用了极短的时间就获取了最大的利益，甚至是通过突破了某些最高的屏障获得的！
举例而言, 假如把美国黑人族群的收入和支出相加，并且假定黑人族群整体是一个拥有自己的国内生产总值（GDP）的独立国家, 那么他将会排在全球最富有的前二十个国家之列。
做为一个黑人, 科伦·鲍威尔将军（Colin Powell）曾经领导着全世界最强大的军队！众多的黑人在世界上享有盛名, 还有几个黑人位居世界上最富有的人之列, 如投资人罗伯特·史密斯（Robert F Smith）、IT科技服务供应商大卫·斯图亚特（David Steward）、奥普拉·温弗瑞（Oprah Winfrey）以及篮球明星麦克尔·乔丹（Michael Jordan）。甚至，在美国历史上第一次选出了一位黑人总统！
这些伟大成就的意义怎么强调也不过分。
当南北战争结束时, 无论是奴隶还是奴隶主都不会相信，仅仅短短一个半世纪的时间会取得这么大进步！就其本身而言，这充分体现了美国人民的勇气！
同样重要的是，在那时就可以取得这些成就，它证明了这个国家的伟大。除了美利坚合众国，世界上没有任何其他地方能取得如此辉煌的进步！
现在摆在我们面前的问题是：如何把这样的进步扩大到被证明是被遗忘的占黑人人口4分之1 的群体！第一步就是要承认民权斗争已经结束并取得了胜利。在历史上的曾经，美国黑人没有像其他族群一样享有宪法的保障和权利，而现在，我们黑人族群已经拥有了这个保障和权利！
尽管没有人否定仍然有种族歧视的残存，但是对于大多数美国黑人社区来说，种族歧视并不是他们面临的最大问题！
现在最大的问题是，一些公共和私人政策鼓励黑人依赖政府，以及不负责任的行为。在这些政策中，首要的就是福利制度！这种福利制度直接助长了75%的非婚生育率，使得许多在《吉姆·克劳法》的种族隔离政策以及种族歧视中幸存下来的黑人家庭遭到毁灭性打击！
大家要牢记的一点是，1940 年间，美国黑人的婚外生育率仅仅是11%，而且大部分的黑人孩子是在双亲家庭中被抚养长大的，黑人双亲家庭的贫困率在过去二十几年一直保持在个位数！大部分的黑人贫困家庭属于25% 的由单亲母亲支撑的家庭。
黑人族群应该感到庆幸的是，在20世纪20年代、30年代、40年代和50年代期间，美国并没有实施这种双重标准以及鼓励自卑、依赖政府救济、不负责任的公共和私人政策。假如那些年代就有这样（糟糕）的政策的话，黑人族群就不会表现出那种创造了世界上最成功的民权运动历史的卓越智慧和精神勇气！
从19世纪后期到1950 年，一些黑人社区学校是杰出的学术成就的典范。早在1899 年，在华盛顿的顿巴高中，黑人学生的成绩经常比白人学生更高！巴尔的摩的弗雷德里克道格拉斯学校，亚特兰大的布克华盛顿学校，布鲁克林的P.S. 91 学校，以及新奥尔良的麦克唐纳学校以及其他一些黑人学校，黑人学生的成绩维持在非常卓越的水平。
（近些年来）尤其是以黑人为主的学校为甚，（黑人）学生自我毁灭的行为变成了可以被大众接受的行为。来之不易的平等教育机会被不负责任地随意放弃和浪费，这些都成了家常便饭，完全背离了先辈们为争取（黑人）获得平等教育机会，付出鲜血、汗水和眼泪，不屈不挠的斗争的初衷！
我敢保证，那些经历过这场斗争、现已不在我们身边的黑人先辈们绝对不会相信他们的后代会有如此背叛的行为。
政府理应做好自己的工作来保障宪法赋予人民的权利！除此之外，黑人族群应像其他族群一样被平等对待，靠自己的力量过自己的生活，而不是在被所谓的“白人的负罪感”而衍生出来的家长式的压制中失去活力、窒息！
在此，我忍不住要告诉读者去参考我的《赦免和饶恕宣言》（下图）。这个宣言是对早期来到美国的欧洲先辈们对黑人带来的苦难及苦衷的赦免和饶恕，也是对他们后代赦免和饶恕。白人不要再有负罪感，再也不要在处理与非裔美国人的关系时做傻事！
另附读者注意：
这是我们国家历史上的艰难时期。今天的美国，两大阵营（进步主义和保守主义）正在进行一场意识形态的战争，他们对公共政策和政府在我们生活中的角色的问题上有着截然相反的观点。这个国家其中大致有一半的人口叫嚣着希望更多政府干预，尤其是医疗保障，社会主义，更多的法规还有边境开放。我们必须从美国的建国原则中寻找美国前途如何最好地前行的答案！（原文如下：）
Insult to Black History
Many whites are ashamed, saddened, and feel guilty about our history of slavery, Jim Crow, and gross racial discrimination. Many black people remain angry over the injustices of the past and what they see as injustices of the present. Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history.Often overlooked or ignored is the fact that, as a group, black Americans have made the greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles, and in a shorter span of time than any other racial group in history.For example, if one totaled up the earnings and spending of black Americans and considered us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, we would rank well within the top 20 richest nations.A black American, Gen. Colin Powell, once headed the world’s mightiest military. Black Americans are among the world’s most famous personalities, and a few black Americans are among the world’s richest people such as investor Robert F. Smith, IT service provider David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, and basketball star Michael Jordan. Plus, there was a black U.S. president.Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today. But what side are you on? And how can you sharpen up on how to defend your position? Learn more now >>The significance of these achievements cannot be overstated.When the Civil War ended, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half—if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people.Just as important, it speaks to the greatness of a nation in which such gains were possible. Nowhere else on earth could such progress been achieved except in the United States of America.The issue that confronts us is how these gains can be extended to about one-quarter of the black population for whom they have proven elusive. The first step is to acknowledge that the civil rights struggle is over and won. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the constitutional guarantees as everyone else. Now we do.While no one can deny the existence of residual racial discrimination, racial discrimination is not the major problem confronting a large segment of the black community.A major problem is that some public and private policies reward dependency and irresponsibility. Chief among these policies is the welfare state that has fostered a 75% rate of out of wedlock births and decimated the black family that had survived Jim Crow and racism.Keep in mind that in 1940 the black illegitimacy rate was 11% and most black children were raised in two-parent families. Most poverty, about 25%, is found in female-headed households. The poverty rate among husband-and-wife black families has been in the single digits for more than two decades.Black people can be thankful that double standards and public and private policies rewarding inferiority and irresponsibility were not a part of the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. If there were, then there would not have been the kind of intellectual excellence and spiritual courage that created the world’s most successful civil rights movement.From the late 1800s to 1950, some black schools were models of academic achievement. Black students at Washington’s Dunbar High School often outscored white students as early as 1899. Schools such as Frederick Douglass (Baltimore), Booker T. Washington (Atlanta), P.S. 91 (Brooklyn), McDonogh 35 (New Orleans), and others operated at a similar level of excellence.Self-destructive behavior that has become acceptable, particularly that in predominantly black schools, is nothing less than a gross betrayal of a struggle, paid with blood, sweat, and tears by previous generations, to make possible today’s educational opportunities that are being routinely squandered.I guarantee that blacks who lived through that struggle and are no longer with us would not have believed such a betrayal possible.Government should do its job of protecting constitutional rights. After that, black people should be simply left alone as opposed to being smothered by the paternalism inspired by white guilt.On that note, I just cannot resist the temptation to refer readers to my “Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon,” which grants Americans of European ancestry amnesty and pardon for their own grievances and those of their forebears against my people so that they stop feeling guilty and stop acting like fools in their relationship with Americans of African ancestry.
These are trying times in our nation’s history. Two regimes are fighting an ideological war in America today, with polar opposite viewpoints on public policy and the government’s role in our lives.