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Repairing the story of race in the South
糾正南方的種族故事
I BELIEVE THAT THE FOUR CONFEDERATE monuments in New Orleans that became a dominating presence in my life for well more than two years
我想，(路易斯安那州)新奧爾良這四座聯(lián)邦紀念碑，在過去遠超過兩年的時間里它們一直在我的生命中發(fā)揮著決定性的作用，
never relected what the true society of New Orleans, generations ago, actually felt when they were built.
絲毫沒有體現(xiàn)好幾代人以前，它們被立起來的時候真正的新奧爾良社會的感受。
The structures relected what the people who erected them, mostly ex–Confederate soldiers or sympathizers, believed
雖然它們的結(jié)構(gòu)體現(xiàn)了那些當初打造它們的人——大部分都是前聯(lián)邦士兵或者聯(lián)邦的支持者——的信仰，
because they had the power to build them and because they wanted to send a particular political message.
因為他們有能力打造那些紀念碑，也因為他們想要傳達一個特定的政治訊息。
They cast a dark and repressive shadow over my city and, in a way, held us back.
但它們令我們的城市蒙上了一層黑暗而壓抑的陰影，并在一定程度上阻礙了我們的發(fā)展。
It took most of my lifetime to see this.
我花了大半輩子才想明白這一點。
So I listened to people who had absorbed a diferent message from those statues than the one I did over the years.
我聽取那些從這些雕像中吸收了不同于我多年來吸收的信息的人們的看法。
A great part of governing is listening to and learning from your people.
治理政務一個很重要的部分就是傾聽并向你的百姓學習。
Once you do learn the truth about the past, you have a responsibility to act, and so I did.
一旦你了解了過去的真相，你就有責任采取行動，所以我行動起來了。
A week before Christmas 2015, the city council voted 6-1 in favor of dismantling the monuments.
距離2015年圣誕節(jié)一周前，市議會以6比1的票數(shù)通過了拆除紀念碑的提案。
A Baton Rouge company agreed to service the order once we were out of the legal thicket—
巴吞魯日一家公司愿意在我們走完繁雜的法律程序之后接下這個訂單——
the Louisiana Landmarks Society and other groups had filed suit against our plan,
路易斯安那州地標協(xié)會和其他團體對我們的計劃提起了訴訟，
citing their members’ “recognized interest in the aesthetic and cultural well-being in the city of New Orleans.”
說他們的成員“對新奧爾良市美學和文化福祉十分感興趣”。
I assumed the legal appeals would be tossed out.
我認為這一上訴會被否決。
But before we reached that point, the owner of the company and his wife received death threats, which we reported to the FBI,
然而，事情還沒有發(fā)展到那一步，巴吞魯日那家公司的老板和他的妻子就受到了恐嚇，我們向聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局報告了此事，
and even though the company ended its agreement with the city, his sports car was set afire in the driveway of his business.
而且，即便該公司終結(jié)了與市議會達成的協(xié)議，他的跑車還是被人在他的私人車道上放火燒了。
The spread of domestic terrorism has many small stories like this—
國內(nèi)蔓延的恐怖主義情緒還有很多這樣的小故事——
threats, acts of religious desecration and vandalism that move across the news radar or make a few paragraphs on inside pages of the local press,
恐嚇行為，褻瀆和破壞宗教的行為逃過新聞雷達的追蹤，抑或是在當?shù)孛襟w不起眼的內(nèi)頁上被寫上寥寥幾筆，
and no one gets caught, or if so, quite some time later.
沒有人被抓，即便被抓，也是猴年馬月的事了。
This is part of the ho-hum racism that eats through our country every day.
這就是讓人厭倦但每天都在吸食我們國家血肉的種族主義行徑的一部分。
In other words, we really haven’t made it as far as we like to think—
換句話說，我們真的沒有我們想象的那么成功——
we’re still mired in a mentality where they could lynch you, destroy your reputation, hurt your business or engage in symbolic lynchings, like a cross burned on your lawn or the car in your driveway torched.
我們?nèi)匀幌菰谝环N心態(tài)里，以為種族主義者會對我們施加私刑，毀我們的聲譽，砸我們的生意，或者對我們施加象征性的私刑，比如在我們家草坪上燒十字架或是在我們的私人車道上燒我們的車。
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