TED演讲之入门 我们需要谈谈不公(7)
And yet, we have in this country this dynamic where we really don’t like to talk about our problems.
然而，我们这个国家不喜欢讨论存在的问题。
We don’t like to talk about our history.
我们不喜欢讨论历史。
And because of that, we really haven’t understood what it’s meant to do the things we’ve done historically.
正因如此，我们不能真正理解我们有史以来做了什么。
We’re constantly running into each other. We’re constantly creating tensions and conflicts.
我们不停地产生冲突。不停地制造紧张气氛。
We have a hard time talking about race,
我们没法讨论种族问题，
and I believe it’s because we are unwilling to commit ourselves to a process of truth and reconciliation.
我相信是因为我们不愿意正视一系列的事实，不愿意达成和解。
In South Africa, people understood that we couldn’t overcome apartheid without a commitment to truth and reconciliation.
在南非，人们知道我们不能忘记种族隔离，除非我们诚实面对，达成和解。
In Rwanda, even after the genocide, there was this commitment, but in this country we haven’t done that.
在卢旺达，即使种族灭绝后，人们还是正视了，但是在美国我们不愿意这么干。
I was giving some lectures in Germany about the death penalty.
我也在德国谈过死刑的问题。
It was fascinating because one of the scholars stood up after the presentation and said,
结果很绝妙，因为在讲谈后有个学者站起来说：
“Well you know it’s deeply troubling to hear what you’re talking about.”
“你要知道，听你谈这个很痛心。”
She said, “We don’t have the death penalty in Germany. And of course, we can never have the death penalty in Germany.”
她说：“我们德国没有死刑。当然了，我们德国永远也不可能有死刑。”
And the room got very quiet, and this woman said,
全场肃静，这位女士说：
“There’s no way, with our history, we could ever engage in the systematic killing of human beings.
“因为我们的历史，我们永不可能决定有系统地杀人。
It would be unconscionable for us to, in an intentional and deliberate way, set about executing people.”
公开化且下意识地执行死刑，对我们来说，是良心上无法接受的。”
And I thought about that.
我思考了这个问题。
What would it feel like to be living in a world where the nation state of Germany was executing people,
如果我整天都看着德国人杀人，
especially if they were disproportionately Jewish? I couldn’t bear it. It would be unconscionable.
毫无道理地屠杀犹太人，我会有什么感受？我无法忍受。那真是太不合理了。
And yet, in this country, in the states of the Old South,
但是，在我们这个国家，在南方各州，
we execute people — where you’re 11 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black,
我们真的在屠杀，当仅仅因为受害人是白人而不是黑人，你被判死刑的机率上升十倍时，
22 times more likely to get it if the defendant is black and the victim is white
当仅仅因为被告是黑人而不是白人，你被判死刑的机率上升二十一倍时，
in the very states where there are buried in the ground the bodies of people who were lynched. And yet, there is this disconnect.
在这些州，到处埋着被私刑处死的人。可是，我们还是漠不关心。
演讲简介：
在这个演讲里，人权律师布莱恩·史蒂文森通过讲述他与其外婆以及与帕克斯夫人之间的故事，告诉了大家一些美国司法系统中的骇人真相。演讲从讲述大规模的的种族不平等待遇开始：三分之一美国黑人男性有被监禁的经历。这些问题源于美国一段不被重视的历史，它们从未像今天这样被坦诚地，有洞察力地和有说服力地公开讨论过。