評論
打印
I listened to every word he spoke. But my mind was really on something else. I knew at that moment that I would reject all of the offers. I stood there silently surprised by what an easy conclusion it was. Having prepared for so many years to teach, having trained myself to do nothing else, I had hesitated out of practical fear. But now that it was made, the decision came with relief. I immediately knew I had made the right choice.
我聽著他說的每個字，但是我的思緒其實在其他事情上。在那一刻我知道我要拒絕所有的工作邀約。我站在那里沉默了，驚嘆于這個結論竟如此簡單。我為做老師準備了那么多年，一直在培養自己做一名老師，卻因為實際的恐懼而一直猶豫。如今我終于下了決心，欣慰地做出了決定。我當即就知道自己做了正確的選擇。
My colleague continued talking and I realized that he was simply right. Affirmative Action programs are unfair to white students. But as I listened to him assert his rights, I thought of the seriously disadvantaged. How different they were from white, middle-class students who come armed with the testimony of their grades and aptitude scores and self-confidence to complain about the unequal treatment they now receive. I listened to them. I do not want to be careless about what they say. Their rights are important to protect. But inevitably when I hear them or their lawyers, I think about the most seriously disadvantaged, not simply Mexican-Americans, but of all those who do not ever imagine themselves going to college or becoming doctors: white, black, brown. Always poor. Silent. They are not plaintiffs before the court or against the misdirection of Affirmative Action. They lack the confidence (my confidence!) to assume their right to a good education. They lack the confidence and skills a good primary and secondary education provides and which are prerequisites for informed public life. They remain silent.
我的同事繼續說著，我知道他是對的。平權法案項目對白人學生是不公平的。然而當我聽著他主張自己的權利時，我想起了那些嚴重的弱勢群體。中產階級的白人學生們拿著成績證明和能力傾向測試分數抱怨著他們現在所受到的不公平待遇，那些弱勢群體與他們是多么的不同。我聽著他們的話。我不想對他們所說的漠不關心。他們的權利很重要，需要保護。但是當我聽著他們或他們的律師說的時候，我不可避免地想起了那些最弱勢的群體，不僅僅是墨西哥裔美國人，而是所有那些從未想過自己會上大學或者成為博士的人們：白人、黑人、棕色人種。他們一直貧窮著，沉默著。他們并不是法庭前或反對平權法案誤用的控訴者。他們缺少去取得接受良好教育的權利的自信心（我的自信心）。他們缺少好的小學和初中教育提供的 自信心和技能，這些是知曉公眾生活的先決條件。他們只能保持沉默。
The debate drones on and surrounds them in stillness. They are distant, faraway figures like the boys I have seen peering down from freeway overpasses in some other part of town.
他們在喋喋不休的爭論中保持沉默。他們是來自遠處的身影，就像我從高速公路立交橋上瞇著眼往下看所看到的城里其他地區的男孩們。
