米歇尔·奥巴马2015塔斯基吉大学毕业演讲(12)
Instead they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world.
相反，他们会基于对这个世界有限的认知假设你是什么样的人。
And my husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be.
我丈夫和我知道这样的经历是多么地让人感到沮丧。
We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives
我们都被生活中存在的歧视刺痛过，
the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety;
有人在和我们一起过马路的时候担心自身安全；
the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores;
百货公司的柜员总是提防我们；
the people at formal events who assumed we were the “help”
人们在正式场合认为我们是“来帮忙的人”，
and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.
还有人质疑我们的智力、诚实，甚至对于这个国家的热爱。
And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day
我知道，我和我丈夫经历的这些无礼的事，相比于那些每天都在被无休止冒犯的黑人同胞显然是不值一提的。
those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason;
你们可能一直担心会被毫无理由地禁行；
the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds;
你们可能害怕自己的工作申请因为名字听起来就是黑人而直接被忽略；
the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal;
你们苦恼自己的孩子在学校时，即使不再被隔离，但也远不能被平等对待；
the realization that no matter how far you rise in life,
你们面临的现实是无论自己多么努力工作，
how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen — for some folks, it will never be enough.
多么努力地做个好人、好家长好公民，但对一些人来说，你永远做得不够好。
And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry. It can feel isolating.
所有这一切将是沉重的负担。它让人感觉到被孤立。
It can make you feel like your life somehow doesn’t matter
可以让你觉得你的人生在某种程度上并不重要，
that you’re like the invisible man that Tuskegee grad Ralph Ellison wrote about all those years ago.
就像是塔斯基吉校友拉尔夫·埃利森多年前写的一样，“你看起来如隐形人一般”。
And as we’ve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real.
在过去的几年里，正如我们所见，这些感受是真实的。
They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible.
它们扎根于几十年的结构性挑战中，而挑战失败的结果令太多的人感到沮丧、无望。
And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country.
这些情绪在全美，如巴尔的摩、弗格森等城市爆发出来。
But, graduates, today, I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up.
但是今天，我要明确地告诉大家，那些情绪不是我们放弃的借口。
Not an excuse. They are not an excuse to lose hope.
更不是我们失去希望的理由。
To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose.
屈服于绝望和愤怒的感情只是意味着最终我们失败了。
米歇尔·奥巴马2015塔斯基吉大学毕业演讲。