米歇尔·奥巴马2015塔斯基吉大学毕业演讲(5)
Just think about what that must have been like for those young men.
试想一下那些年轻人的经历。
Here they were, trained to operate some of the most complicated, high-tech machines of their day
他们在这里接受训练操作当时最复杂的高科技飞机，
flying at hundreds of miles an hour, with the tips of their wings just six inches apart.
这些飞机机翼的尖端相距只有六英寸，但却以每小时数百英里的速度飞行。
Yet when they hit the ground, folks treated them like they were nobody — as if their very existence meant nothing.
然而，当他们落地时，人们对待他们像对空气一样，仿佛他们的存在没有任何意义。
Now, those Airmen could easily have let that experience clip their wings.
如今，这些飞行员并没有因那些不公平待遇而放弃。
But as you all know, instead of being defined by the discrimination and the doubts of those around them,
正如大家所知，他们不仅没有被周遭的歧视和怀疑束缚，
they became one of the most successful pursuit squadrons in our military.
而且成为空军中最成功的追击中队。
They went on to show the world that if black folks and white folks could fight together, and fly together,
他们不断向世界证明:如果黑人和白人可以一起战斗，一起飞行，
then surely — surely — they could eat at a lunch counter together.
那么，有一点也可以确定，他们能够共进午餐。
Surely their kids could go to school together.
当然，他们的孩子也可以一起上学。
You see, those Airmen always understood that they had a “double duty”
这些飞行员始终明白，他们肩负着双重责任，
one to their country and another to all the black folks who were counting on them to pave the way forward.
一方面是国家的使命，另一方面是对倚仗他们铺平前进道路的黑人种族的责任。
So for those Airmen, the act of flying itself was a symbol of liberation for themselves and for all African Americans.
因此，对于这些飞行员而言，飞行本身就是解放的象征，为自己也为所有非裔美国人。
One of those first pilots, a man named Charles DeBow, put it this way.
查尔斯·德鲍是首批黑人飞行员之一。
He said that a takeoff was — in his words — “a never-failing miracle”
他说过，起飞是一个“永不失败的奇迹”，
where all “the bumps would smooth off in the air out of this world free.”
世间所有的冲突都在九霄云外得以化解。
米歇尔·奥巴马2015塔斯基吉大学毕业演讲。