American Rhetoric: Eric Holder - Speech at DOJ African American History Program | ericholderdojaahistory

Speech at the DOJ African-American History Month Program

在司法部非裔美国人历史月计划上的演讲

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

[真实性认证：以下文本版本直接从音频转录]

I�m still getting used to the notion of Attorney General Holder.

我还在适应司法部长霍尔德的概念。

I hear that and I expect to hear Attorney General Thornburgh, Reno, Barr, you know.

我听到了，我希望听到司法部长桑伯格、里诺、巴尔，你知道。

I�ve been through a number of Attorneys General, all of whom I have had a great deal of respect for and I�m still getting used to the fact that my name follows that great title.

我经历过很多位司法部长，我对他们都非常尊重，而且我仍然习惯于我的名字跟随这个伟大头衔这一事实。

I want to thank everybody who put this great program together.

我要感谢所有制作这个精彩节目的人。

The folks at the EEO staff I think have done a good job in getting these great, wonderful, young singers here with us today and the young woman who sang the Star Spangled Banner, I mean the National Anthem, I thought did a great job.

我认为 EEO 工作人员做得很好，今天让这些伟大、精彩的年轻歌手来到我们这里，还有唱星条旗永不落的年轻女子，我是说国歌，我认为做得很好。

I look at you all and see the future of this nation.

我看着你们所有人，看到了这个国家的未来。

And we are very proud of what you have done and expect great things from you.

我们对你们所做的一切感到非常自豪，并期待你们取得伟大的成就。

You come from a great institution and there is a responsibility for you to carry on in that great tradition.

你们来自一个伟大的机构，你们有责任继承这一伟大传统。

And we thank you, sir, for bringing them with us today.

先生，我们感谢您今天带他们来。

Every year, in February, we attempt to recognize and to appreciate black history.

每年二月，我们都会尝试认识并欣赏黑人历史。

It is a worthwhile endeavor for the contributions of African Americans to this great nation are numerous and they are significant.

这是一项值得的努力，因为非裔美国人对这个伟大国家的贡献是众多的、意义重大的。

Even as we fight a war against terrorism, deal with the reality of electing an African American for the first time as the President of the United States and deal with other significant issues of the day, the need to confront our racial past, and to understand our racial present, and to understand the history of African people in this country, that all endures.

即使我们在打击恐怖主义的战争中，在处理首次选举非裔美国人担任美国总统的现实以及处理当今的其他重大问题时，我们也需要面对我们的种族过去，了解我们的种族现状，并了解这个国家非洲人民的历史，这一切都将持续下去。

One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation.

如果不了解这个国家黑人的历史经历，就无法真正了解美国。

Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul.

简而言之，要深入这个国家的核心，就必须审视其种族灵魂。

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as a ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe we continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.

尽管这个国家自豪地认为自己是一个种族熔炉，但在种族问题上，我们一直都是，而且我相信，在很多方面，我们本质上仍然是一个懦夫国家。

Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial.

尽管与种族相关的问题继续占据我们政治讨论的重要部分，尽管这个国家仍然存在许多未解决的种族问题，但我们，普通美国人，在种族问题上彼此谈论得不够多。

It is an issue that we have never been at ease with and given our nation�s history this is in some ways understandable.

这是一个我们从未感到轻松的问题，考虑到我们国家的历史，这在某种程度上是可以理解的。

And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.

然而，如果我们要在这一领域取得进展，我们就必须彼此感到足够舒服，彼此足够宽容，才能就继续分裂我们的种族问题进行坦诚对话。

But we must do more -- and we in this room bear a special responsibility.

但我们必须做得更多——而且我们在座的人负有特殊的责任。

Through its work and through its example, the Department of Justice, this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must -- and will -- lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President.

只要我还在这里，司法部就必须通过其工作和榜样，带领国家实现我们最伟大的总统很久以前所承诺的“自由的新生”。

This is our duty.

这是我们的职责。

This is our solemn responsibility.

这是我们的庄严责任。

We commemorated five years ago, the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v.

五年前，我们纪念了具有里程碑意义的布朗诉特朗普案 50 周年。

Board of Education decision.

教育委员会的决定。

And though the world that we now live in is fundamentally different than that which existed then, this nation has still not come to grips with its racial past nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have.

尽管我们现在生活的世界与过去存在根本不同，但这个国家仍然没有正视其种族过去，也不愿意以真正有意义的方式思考它注定拥有的多元化未来。

To our detriment, this is typical of the way in which this nation deals with issues of race.

对我们不利的是，这是这个国家处理种族问题的典型方式。

And so I would suggest that we use February of every year to not only commemorate black history but also to foster a period of dialogue between the races.

所以我建议我们利用每年的二月不仅纪念黑人历史，而且还促进种族之间的对话。

This is admittedly an artificial device to generate discussion that should come more naturally, but our history is such that we must find ways to force ourselves to confront that which we have become expert at avoiding.

诚然，这是一种人为的手段，可以更自然地产生讨论，但我们的历史就是这样，我们必须找到方法迫使自己面对我们已经成为专家避免的事情。

As a nation we have done a pretty good job in melding the races in the work place.

作为一个国家，我们在工作场所融合种族方面做得非常好。

We work with one another, we lunch together and, when the event is at the work place during work hours such as this or shortly thereafter, we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race.

我们一起工作，一起吃午餐，当活动在工作时间或之后不久在工作地点举行时，我们彼此之间的社交相当融洽，无论种族如何。

And yet even this interaction operates within certain limitations.

然而，即使这种相互作用也有一定的限制。

We know, by "American instinct" and by learned behavior, that certain subjects are off limits and that to explore them risks, and at best embarrassment, and, at worst, the questioning of one�s character.

我们知道，根据“美国人的本能”和习得的行为，某些主题是禁区，探索这些主题存在风险，往好里说是尴尬，往坏了说是对一个人的品格提出质疑。

And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us.

而在工作场所之外，情况就更惨淡了，我们之间几乎没有什么重要的互动。

On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed almost fifty years ago.

周六和周日 2009 年的美国在某些方面与近五十年前的国家并没有太大不同。

This is truly sad.

这实在是令人悲伤。

Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.

考虑到我们作为一个国家在民权斗争中所经历的一切，我很难接受这些努力的结果是创建一个更加繁荣、更加积极的种族意识但又自愿实行社会隔离的美国。

As a nation we should use Black History month as a means to deal with this continuing problem.

作为一个国家，我们应该利用黑人历史月作为解决这一持续问题的手段。

By creating what will admittedly be, at first, an artificial opportunity to engage one another we can hasten the day when the dream of individual, character based, acceptance can actually be realized.

通过创造一个公认的、首先是人为的相互接触的机会，我们可以加速个人、基于性格的、接受的梦想真正实现的那一天。

To respect one another we must have a basic understanding of one another.

为了互相尊重，我们必须对彼此有基本的了解。

And so we should use events such as this to not only learn more about the facts of black history but also to learn more about each other.

所以我们应该利用这样的事件不仅可以更多地了解黑人历史的事实，而且可以更多地了解彼此。

This will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful but the rewards are, I believe potentially great.

起初，这将是一个既尴尬又痛苦的过程，但我相信回报可能是巨大的。

The alternative is to allow to continue the polite, restrained mixing that now passes as meaningful interaction but that in reality accomplishes very little.

另一种选择是允许继续礼貌、克制的混合，这种混合现在被认为是有意义的互动，但实际上收效甚微。

Imagine if you will situations where people -- regardless of their skin color -- could confront racial issues freely and without fear.

想象一下，如果人们——无论肤色如何——都可以自由地、毫无恐惧地面对种族问题。

The potential of this country, that is becoming increasingly more diverse, would be greatly enhanced.

这个日益多元化的国家的潜力将大大增强。

I fear however, that we are taking steps that, rather than advancing us as a nation are actually dividing us even further.

然而，我担心我们正在采取的措施非但没有促进我们作为一个国家的发展，实际上反而使我们更加分裂。

We still speak too much about "them" and not "us".

我们仍然过多地谈论“他们”而不是“我们”。

There can be, for instance, be very legitimate debate about the whole notion of affirmative action.

例如，关于平权行动的整个概念可能存在非常合理的辩论。

This debate can, and should, be nuanced, principled and spirited.

这场辩论可以而且应该是细致入微的、有原则的和激烈的。

But the conversation that we now engage in as a nation on this and other racial subjects is too often simplistic and left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own self-worth or narrow self interest.

但我们现在作为一个国家就这个问题和其他种族问题进行的对话往往过于简单化，而留给那些极端的人，他们毫不犹豫地利用这些问题来提升自己的自我价值或狭隘的自我利益。

Our history has demonstrated that the vast majority of Americans are uncomfortable with, and would like to not have to deal with, racial matters and that is why those of us, black or white, elected or self-appointed, who promise relief in easy, quick solutions, no matter how divisive, people like that are too often embraced.

我们的历史表明，绝大多数美国人对种族问题感到不舒服，并且不想处理种族问题，这就是为什么我们这些人，无论是黑人还是白人，是当选的还是自任命的，承诺通过简单、快速的解决方案来缓解困境，无论分歧有多大，这样的人经常受到欢迎。

We are then free to retreat to our race protected cocoons where much is comfortable and where progress is not really made.

然后我们就可以自由地撤退到我们的种族保护茧中，那里很舒适，但并没有真正取得进展。

If we allow this attitude to persist in the face of the most significant demographic changes that this nation has ever faced -- and remember, there will be no majority race in the United States in about fifty years -- the coming diversity that could be such a powerful, positive force will, instead, become a reason for stagnation and polarization.

如果我们允许这种态度在这个国家有史以来最重大的人口变化面前持续存在——并且记住，大约五十年内美国将不会出现多数种族——即将到来的多样性可能是一种如此强大、积极的力量，相反，它将成为停滞和两极分化的原因。

We cannot allow this to happen and one way to prevent such an unwelcome outcome is to engage one another more routinely -- and to do so starting right now.

我们不能允许这种情况发生，防止这种不受欢迎的结果的一种方法是更频繁地相互接触——而且从现在就开始这样做。

Now, as I indicated before, the artificial device that is Black History month is a perfect vehicle for the beginnings of such a dialogue.

现在，正如我之前指出的，“黑人历史月”这一人造装置是开启此类对话的完美工具。

And so I urge all of you to use the opportunity of this month to talk with your friends and co-workers on the other side of the racial divide about racial matters.

因此，我敦促大家利用这个月的机会与种族鸿沟另一边的朋友和同事讨论种族问题。

In this way we can hasten the day when we truly become one America.

通过这种方式，我们可以加速我们真正成为一个美国的那一天。

It is also clear that if we are to better understand one another the study of black history is essential because the history of black America and the history of this nation are inextricably tied to each other.

同样清楚的是，如果我们要更好地相互了解，对黑人历史的研究至关重要，因为美国黑人的历史和这个国家的历史是密不可分的。

It is for this reason that the study of black history is important to everyone -- black or white.

正是由于这个原因，黑人历史的研究对每个人都很重要——无论是黑人还是白人。

For example, the history of the United States in the nineteenth century revolves around a resolution of the question of how America was going to deal with its black inhabitants.

例如，十九世纪美国的历史围绕着美国如何对待黑人居民的问题展开。

The great debates of that era and the war that was ultimately fought are all centered around the issue of, initially, slavery and then the reconstruction of the vanquished region.

那个时代的大辩论和最终爆发的战争都是围绕着最初的奴隶制问题以及后来的战败地区的重建问题展开的。

A dominant domestic issue throughout the twentieth century was, again, America's treatment of its black citizens.

整个二十世纪的一个主要国内问题再次是美国对待黑人公民的方式。

The civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's changed America in truly fundamental ways.

1950 年代和 1960 年代的民权运动从根本上改变了美国。

Americans of all colors were forced to examine basic beliefs and long held views.

各种肤色的美国人都被迫审视基本信仰和长期持有的观点。

Even so, most people, who are not conversant with that history, still do not really comprehend the way in which that movement changed America.

即便如此，大多数不熟悉那段历史的人仍然没有真正理解那场运动如何改变了美国。

In racial terms the country that existed before the civil rights movement is almost unrecognizable to us today.

从种族角度来看，这个民权运动之前就存在的国家今天对我们来说几乎认不出来了。

Separate public facilities, separate entrances, poll taxes, legal discrimination, forced labor, in essence an American apartheid, all were part of an America that the movement destroyed.

独立的公共设施、独立的入口、人头税、法律歧视、强迫劳动，本质上是美国的种族隔离，所有这些都是运动摧毁的美国的一部分。

To attend her state�s taxpayer supported college in 1963 my late sister in law had to be escorted to class by United States Marshals and pass her state�s governor, George Wallace.

1963 年，为了进入该州纳税人资助的大学，我已故的嫂子必须在美国法警的护送下上课，并经过该州州长乔治·华莱士 (George Wallace)。

That frightening reality seems almost unthinkable to us now.

这种可怕的现实对我们现在来说几乎是不可想象的。

The civil rights movement made America, if not perfect, certainly better.

民权运动使美国即使不是完美的，也肯定变得更好。

In addition, the other major social movements of the latter half of the twentieth century -- feminism, the nation's treatment of other minority groups, even the anti-war effort -- were all tied in some way to the spirit that was set free by the quest for African American equality.

此外，二十世纪后半叶的其他主要社会运动——女权主义、国家对待其他少数群体的方式，甚至反战努力——都在某种程度上与追求非裔美国人平等所释放的精神联系在一起。

Those other movements may have occurred in the absence of the civil rights struggle but the fight for black equality came first and helped to shape the way in which other groups of people came to think of themselves and to raise their desire for equal treatment.

这些其他运动可能是在没有民权斗争的情况下发生的，但争取黑人平等的斗争是第一位的，并帮助塑造了其他群体看待自己的方式，并提高了他们对平等待遇的渴望。

And further, many of the tactics that were used by these other groups were developed in the civil rights movement.

此外，这些其他团体使用的许多策略都是在民权运动中发展起来的。

And today the link between the black experience and this country is still very evident.

如今，黑人经历与这个国家之间的联系仍然非常明显。

While the problems that continue to afflict the black community may be more severe, they are an indication of where the rest of the nation may be if corrective measures are not taken.

虽然继续困扰黑人社区的问题可能更加严重，但它们表明，如果不采取纠正措施，全国其他地区可能会陷入困境。

Our inner cities are still too conversant with crime but the level of fear generated by that crime, now found in once quiet, and now electronically padlocked suburbs is alarming and further demonstrates that our past, our present and our future are linked.

我们的内城区仍然对犯罪习以为常，但这种犯罪所产生的恐惧程度，现在出现在曾经安静、现在电子挂锁的郊区，令人震惊，并进一步表明我们的过去、现在和未来是相互联系的。

It is not safe for this nation to assume that the unaddressed social problems in the poorest parts of our country can be isolated and will not ultimately affect the larger society.

对于这个国家来说，认为我国最贫困地区未解决的社会问题可以被孤立并且最终不会影响更大的社会是不安全的。

Black history is extremely important because it is American history.

黑人历史极其重要，因为它是美国历史。

Given this, it is in some ways sad that there is the need for a black history month.

鉴于此，需要设立一个黑人历史月在某种程度上是令人遗憾的。

Though we are still all enlarged by our study of and knowledge of the roles played by blacks in American history, and though there is a crying need for all of us to know and to acknowledge the contributions of black Americans, a black history month is still a testament to the problem that has afflicted African Americans throughout our stay in this country.

尽管我们仍然通过对黑人在美国历史中所扮演的角色的研究和了解而扩大了视野，尽管我们所有人都迫切需要了解并承认美国黑人的贡献，但黑人历史月仍然证明了我们在这个国家逗留期间困扰非裔美国人的问题。

Black history is given a separate, and unequal, treatment by our society in general and by our educational institutions in particular.

我们的整个社会，特别是我们的教育机构，对黑人历史给予了单独和不平等的对待。

As a former American history major I am struck by the fact that such a major part of our national story has been divorced from the whole.

作为一名前美国历史专业学生，我对我们国家故事的如此重要部分与整体脱节感到震惊。

In law, culture, science, athletics, industry and other fields, knowledge of the roles played by blacks is critical to an understanding of the American experiment.

在法律、文化、科学、体育、工业和其他领域，了解黑人所扮演的角色对于理解美国的实验至关重要。

For too long we have been too willing to segregate the study of black history.

长期以来，我们太愿意隔离黑人历史的研究。

There is clearly a need at present for a device that focuses the attention of the country on the study of the history of its black citizens.

目前显然需要一种将国家注意力集中到黑人公民历史研究上的装置。

But we must endeavor to integrate black history into our culture and into our curriculums in ways in which it has never occurred before so that the study of black history, and a recognition of the contributions of black Americans, becomes commonplace.

但我们必须努力将黑人历史以前所未有的方式融入我们的文化和课程中，以便对黑人历史的研究和对美国黑人贡献的认可变得司空见惯。

Until that time, black history must remain an important, vital concept.

在那之前，黑人历史必须仍然是一个重要的、生机勃勃的概念。

But we have to recognize that until black history is included in the standard curriculum in all of our schools and becomes a regular part of all of our lives, it will be viewed as a novelty, relatively unimportant and not as weighty as �true� American history.

但我们必须认识到，在黑人历史被纳入我们所有学校的标准课程并成为我们所有人生活的常规部分之前，它将被视为新鲜事物，相对不重要，也不像“真实的”美国历史那么重要。

I, like many in my generation, have been fortunate in my life and have had a great number of wonderful opportunities.

我和我这一代的许多人一样，一生都很幸运，拥有很多美好的机会。

Some may consider me to be a part of black history.

有些人可能认为我是黑历史的一部分。

But we do a great disservice to the concept of black history and black history recognition if we fail to understand that any success that I have had, cannot be viewed in isolation.

但是，如果我们不能理解我所取得的任何成功都不能孤立地看待，那么我们就会对黑人历史和黑人历史承认的概念造成极大的损害。

I stood, and stand, on the shoulders of many other black Americans.

我一直站在许多其他美国黑人的肩膀上。

Now, admittedly, the identities of some of these people, through the passage of time, have become lost to us -- the men, and the women, who labored long in fields, who were later legally and systemically discriminated against, who were lynched by the hundreds in the past century and others who have been too long denied the fruits of our great American culture.

现在，诚然，随着时间的流逝，我们已经失去了其中一些人的身份——这些人长期在田里劳作，后来受到法律和系统的歧视，他们在上个世纪被数百人处以私刑，还有其他人长期被剥夺了我们伟大的美国文化的果实。

The names of too many of these people, these heroes and heroines, are lost to us.

我们已经失去了太多这些人、英雄和女英雄的名字。

But the names of others of those people should strike a resonant chord in the historical ear of all in our nation: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.

但这些人中其他人的名字应该在我们国家所有人的历史耳朵中引起共鸣：弗雷德里克·道格拉斯（Frederick Douglass），W.E.B.

DuBois, Walter White, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Charles Drew, Paul Robeson, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Vivian Malone, Rosa Parks, Marion Anderson, Emmit Till.

杜波依斯、沃尔特·怀特、兰斯顿·休斯、马丁·路德·金、马尔科姆·X、乔·路易斯、杰基·罗宾逊、查尔斯·德鲁、保罗·罗伯森、拉尔夫·埃里森、詹姆斯·鲍德温、托妮·莫里森、维维安·马龙、罗莎·帕克斯、马里昂·安德森、埃米特·蒂尔。

These are just some of the people who should be generally recognized and are just some of the people to whom all of us, black and white, owe such a debt of gratitude.

这些只是一些应该得到普遍认可的人，也是我们所有人，无论黑人还是白人，都欠下这样一份感激之情的一些人。

It is on their broad shoulders that I stand as I hope that others in the future will stand on my more narrow ones.

我站在他们宽阔的肩膀上，同时我希望未来的其他人也能站在我更狭窄的肩膀上。

Black history is a subject worthy of study by all our nation's people.

黑人历史是值得全国人民研究的课题。

Blacks have played a unique, productive role in the development of America.

黑人在美国的发展中发挥了独特的、富有成效的作用。

Perhaps the greatest strength of this nation is the diversity of its people and to truly understand this country one must have a knowledge of its constituent parts.

也许这个国家最大的优势在于其人民的多样性，要真正了解这个国家，必须了解其组成部分。

But an unstudied, not discussed and ultimately misunderstood diversity can become a divisive force.

但未经研究、讨论并最终被误解的多样性可能会成为一种分裂力量。

An appreciation of the unique black past, acquired through the study of black history, will help to lead to understanding and true compassion in the present, where it is still so sorely needed, and to a future where all of our people are truly valued.

通过研究黑人历史而获得的对独特黑人过去的欣赏，将有助于在现在仍然迫切需要理解和真正的同情心，并在未来我们所有人都受到真正的重视。

Book/CDs by Michael E.

Michael E. 的书籍/CD

Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008) Research Note : Transcription by Diane Wiegand Video Note : Color enhanced, AI upscaled from 328p to 576p and frame interpolated from 30fps to 60fps Page Updated : 1/4/2 4 U.S. Copyright Status : Text = Public domain.

Eidenmuller，McGraw-Hill 出版 (2008) 研究笔记：由 Diane Wiegand 转录 视频笔记：色彩增强、AI 从 328p 升级到 576p，帧从 30fps 插值到 60fps 页面更新时间：1/4/2 4 美国版权状态：文本 = 公共领域。

Audio and Video = Uncertain.

音频和视频 = 不确定。

� Copyright 2001-Present.

� 版权所有 2001 年至今。

American Rhetoric.

美国修辞学。