The advances of the civil-rights period led to a big improvement in black health, which by the mid-70s had levelled off. Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, which followed the example of Medicaid in trying to improve the health care of all poor Americans, can be viewed as the third major effort to correct the disparity. The 20m Americans who received health insurance under the act were likeliest to be black or Latino. Yet the fury this elicited among some whites-fuelled by a vague feeling that their tax dollars were being squandered on the undeserving-helped get Donald Trump elected. Having failed to repeal the act, as he had promised to, the president has since sought to shrink it through technlcal changes.
民權的推進導致黑人健康狀況大為改善，到70年代中期已經趨于平穩。貝拉克·奧巴馬提出的平價醫療法案，延續了醫療補助計劃，試圖改善所有貧困的美國人的醫療保障。這一法案可以被視為糾正差距的第三大努力。根據該法案獲得醫療保險的2000萬美國人最有可能是黑人或拉丁裔。然而，一些白人燃起了怒火，他們模糊地感覺到，自己的稅收被浪費在不值得的東西上，這有助于唐納德·特朗普當選。由于未能像他所承諾的那樣廢除該法案，總統后來試圖通過技術變革來減小法案。
Some dare hope the pandemic may lead to a fourth push to close the gap. "I'm always optimistic-especially when there are trillions of dollars circulating," said Muriel Bowser, Washington's mayor. African-Americans' electoral heft might help. Even Mr Trump has been courting their votes; Joe Biden's health-care plan was aimed at blacks even before the pandemic struck.
一些人大膽地希望，這次疫情可能導致第四次推動縮小差距的努力。華盛頓市長穆里爾·鮑澤說：“我一直都很樂觀，特別是當還有數萬億美元在流通的時候。非裔美國人的選舉影響力可能會有所幫助。就連特朗普先生也在爭取他們的選票；甚至在疫情爆發之前，拜登的醫療計劃就針對黑人。
Covid-19 has also made dear that such an intervention should not be considered ideological. Perhaps government action is not the best way to raise blacks economically, as conservatives argue; but their poor health cannot be improved otherwise. The virus afflicts the industrious and work-shy alike-a point made by Mr Trump's trim African-American surgeon-general, Jerome Adams, when he acknowledged his own asthma, high blood pressure and heart disease. Indeed the most industrious blacks-such as Bertina's son, labouring in harm's way at Costco-are likeliest to expose themselves and succumb to the virus. Poor black health is a disincentive to work that work alone cannot fix.
新冠肺炎也為我們指明，這種干預不應被視為意識形態干預。就如保守派主張的那樣，也許政府的行動并不是在經濟上提升黑人地位的最佳途徑，但是他們的健康狀況卻無法得到改善。這種病毒同樣折磨著勤勞和懶惰的人——這是特朗普的非洲裔美國外科醫生總干事杰羅姆·亞當斯在承認自己患有哮喘、高血壓和心臟病時提出的觀點。事實上，大多數勤勞的黑人——比如伯蒂娜的兒子就在好市多工作并身處危險中——最有可能暴露在病毒之下，并屈服于病毒。黑人健康狀況差是工作的障礙，光靠工作是解決不了的。
It only remains to be seen, to revert to Du Bois's difficult problem, whether a majority of Americans can be mobilised behind the issue. That must surely be possible, after the vulnerability of millions has been so cruelly exposed. If not now, indeed, when?
至于杜博伊斯的難題，是否能動員大多數美國人支持這一問題，我們只能拭目以待。在數百萬人殘酷地暴露在病毒中且易感病毒之后，這肯定是可能的。如果現在不去改變，那又在什么時候呢？
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
評論
打印
