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It felt as valid perhaps even as American culture.
它甚至可以和美國(guó)文化相媲美。
Then a friend of a friend of mine had a daughter who was a dwarf.
我朋友的朋友有個(gè)女兒，是個(gè)小矮人。
And when her daughter was born,
當(dāng)她女兒出生的時(shí)候，
she suddenly found herself confronting questions that now began to seem quite resonant to me.
她突然發(fā)現(xiàn)她要面對(duì)很多問(wèn)題，這些問(wèn)題使我產(chǎn)生共鳴。
She was facing the question of what to do with this child.
她當(dāng)時(shí)面臨的問(wèn)題是--該如何對(duì)待這個(gè)孩子？
Should she say, You're just like everyone else but a little bit shorter?
她應(yīng)該說(shuō)你和其他人一樣，只是矮了點(diǎn)兒？
Or should she try to construct some kind of dwarf identity,
還是去試圖建立某種小矮人身份認(rèn)同，
get involved in the Little People of America,
加入美國(guó)小個(gè)子聯(lián)盟，
become aware of what was happening for dwarfs?
開始了解矮人生活圈的那些事？
And I suddenly thought,
然后我突然想到，
most deaf children are born to hearing parents.
大多數(shù)耳聾孩子的父母都是聽力健全的。
Those hearing parents tend to try to cure them.
那些聽力健全的父母總是試圖去治愈他們的孩子。
Those deaf people discover community somehow in adolescence.
那些聾人要差不多到青春期的時(shí)候才開始接觸聾人群體。
Most gay people are born to straight parents.
大多數(shù)同性戀者的父母是異性戀。
Those straight parents often want them to function in what they think of as the mainstream world,
那些異性戀父母常常希望他們的孩子表現(xiàn)得，如他們認(rèn)為的主流世界所期望的那樣，
and those gay people have to discover identity later on.
那些同性戀者不得不長(zhǎng)大后才尋找身份認(rèn)同。
And here was this friend of mine looking at these questions of identity with her dwarf daughter.
再說(shuō)說(shuō)我的這個(gè)朋友面對(duì)這些關(guān)于她小矮人女兒身份認(rèn)同的問(wèn)題。
And I thought, there it is again:
然后我想，又是這樣。
A family that perceives itself to be normal with a child who seems to be extraordinary.
一個(gè)認(rèn)為自己正常的家庭有著一個(gè)特殊的孩子。
And I hatched the idea that there are really two kinds of identity.
我想，事實(shí)上身份認(rèn)同分為兩種類型。
There are vertical identities,
有垂直身份認(rèn)同，
which are passed down generationally from parent to child.
從父母到孩子，代代相傳。
Those are things like ethnicity, frequently nationality, language, often religion.
也有像是種族，國(guó)際，語(yǔ)言，宗教。
Those are things you have in common with your parents and with your children.
你和你的父母,孩子擁有共同點(diǎn),
And while some of them can be difficult,
而有些身份較難識(shí)別,
there's no attempt to cure them.
但并不需要嘗試去改變。
You can argue that it's harder in the United States our current presidency notwithstanding to be a person of color.
你可以爭(zhēng)辯說(shuō)，在美國(guó)，作為有色人種生存艱難，盡管我們現(xiàn)任的總統(tǒng)是有色人種。
And yet, we have nobody who is trying to ensure that the next generation of children born to African-Americans and Asians come out with creamy skin and yellow hair.
確實(shí)，沒(méi)人試圖去保證非洲裔美國(guó)人，亞洲裔的孩子們生來(lái)就有著奶油色的皮膚和金黃的頭發(fā)。
