奧巴馬的原罪（上）| 衛報
2019年新年的頭幾個小時，貝拉克·奧巴馬就任下一屆美國總統前數周，槍聲在加州奧克蘭響起。一個名叫約翰內斯·梅瑟爾的交通警察在公交站擊斃了一名22歲的黑人奧斯卡·格蘭特，這名黑人趴在地上，雙手被銬。
Dozens of witnesses, many of whom were returning to Oakland after New Year』s Eve celebrations, watched in horror. Somecapturedhis killing on smartphones. Shortly afterward, black Oakland exploded in palpable anger, with hundreds, then thousands of people taking to the streets, demanding justice.
數十名目擊者目瞪口呆，當時許多人在新年夜歡慶後回到奧克蘭。有人用智能手機拍下殺戮過程。很快，奧克蘭黑人群情激昂，開始數百人，後來達數千人走上街頭，呼籲正義。
Perhaps this outcry would have happened under any circumstance, but the brutality of Grant』s death in the few weeks before the country』s first black president was to take office felt like a shock of cold water.
這種憤怒大抵任何情況下都會爆發，可格蘭特暴死就發生在第一位黑人總統即將就任幾周前，這讓人感覺被潑了一盆冷水。
Police brutality had long been a fact of life in California, but the country was supposed to have entered into a post-racial parallel universe. The optimism that coursed through black America in 2008 seemed a million miles away.
警方的野蠻在加州已成家常便飯，可既然這個國家被認為進入了一個後種族的平行宇宙，2008年奔流在美國黑人中的樂觀主義如今看來卻遙不可及。
A local movement led by Grant』s family unfolded across the Bay Area to demand that prosecutors charge and try Mehserle. Protests, marches, campus activism, public forums and organizing meetings sustained enough pressure to force local officials to charge Mehserle with murder.
格蘭特家人領導的一個當地運動在整個灣區展開，他們要求檢察官起訴並審判梅瑟爾。抗議、遊行、大學活動、公共論壇和各種會議持續施壓，迫使當地官員以謀殺罪起訴梅瑟爾。
It was the first murder trial of a California police officer for a 「line of duty」 killing in 15 years. In the end, Mehserle, convicted of involuntary manslaughter, spent less than a year in prison, but the local movement foreshadowed events to come.
這是15年來加州警察首次因「執行公務」接受謀殺審判。最後，梅瑟爾被控過失殺人，在監獄呆了不到一年，但這一運動預示了即將發生的事。
As for President Obama, he turned out to be very different from candidate Obama, who had stage-managed his campaign to resemble something closer to a social movement. He had conjured much hope, especially among African Americans – but with great expectations came even greater disappointments.
總統奧巴馬和候選人奧巴馬全然不同，作為候選人的他曾讓競選活動走近社會運動，他喚起莫大的希望，尤其是非裔美國人，可希望越大，失望越大。
『Yes, we can』「是的，我們可以」
In the heated race for the 2008 Democratic nomination, Obama distinguished himself from the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton, by campaigning clearly against the war in Iraq and vowing to shut down the Guantánamo military internment camp.
2008年競爭激烈的民主黨提名中，奧巴馬與當權派候選人希拉里不同，他明確反對伊拉克戰爭，宣布要關閉關塔那摩軍事收容所。
As the campaign continued, he spoke of economic inequality and connected with young people who were underwhelmed at the prospect of voting for yet another old, white windbag in the form of John McCain.
隨著選戰繼續，他說到經濟不平等，和年輕人打成一片，年輕人不願投票選出麥凱恩那樣又一個滿嘴官話的老邁的白人。
Black people』s enthusiasm for the Obama campaign could not be reduced to racial solidarity. Obama electrified his audiences, as inthis speechfrom January 2008, after the New Hampshire primary: We』ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
黑人支持奧巴馬競選不能被歸結為種族團結。奧巴馬2008年1月新罕布希爾州初選後的這篇演講令聽眾激動不已。
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we』ve been told we』re not ready or that we shouldn』t try or that we can』t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: yes, we can.
可就在美國這個難以置信的故事中，希望從來都不是虛假的。當我們面對不可能之事，當我們被認為沒有準備好，或我們不該去嘗試也不能去嘗試時，一代又一代的美國人用一個簡單的道理加以回應，它統領著人民的精神：是的，我們可以。
Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
是的，我們可以。是的，我們可以。
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: yes, we can.
這個道理寫進了建國的文件中，它決定了民族的命運：是的，我們可以。
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: yes, we can.
奴隸和廢奴者在最黑暗的夜晚開闢自由之路時低聲傳誦著：是的，我們可以。
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: yes, we can … Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.
來自遙遠彼岸的移民和深入西部荒野的開拓者傳唱著：是的，我們可以……是的，我們可以治癒這個民族。是的，我們可以改正這個世界。是的，我們可以。
But it was only in March 2008 that Obama finally gave acomprehensive speech on race, in which he pulled off the feat of addressing the concerns of African Americans while calming the fears of white voters.
2008年3月，奧巴馬終於對種族做了全面的闡釋，演講中他承諾要回應非裔美國人的關切，同時安撫白人選民的擔憂。
Obama had been pressured for weeks to rebuke his pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, who had delivered a sermon titledGod Damn America, referring to the wrong the United States had committed in the world. Obama』s political enemies had unearthed the sermon and tried to attribute Wright』s ideas to Obama.
奧巴馬數周來一直受到壓力，敦促他譴責自己的牧師耶利米·懷特。懷特有一份佈道辭題目是《上帝詛咒美國》，談論美國在世界上犯的錯。奧巴馬的政敵翻出這份佈道，想把懷特的觀點加給奧巴馬。
Obama used his platform in Philadelphia to distance himself from Wright, whom he described as 「divisive」 and with a 「profoundly distorted view of this country」.
奧巴馬利用在費城演講的機會和懷特做了分割，他說懷特「意圖分裂」，「對這個國家的看法扭曲」。
He went on to contextualize Wright』s angry comments and condemnations as based on his having come of age in a US where legalized discrimination – where black people were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions or the police force or the fire department – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.
他又把懷特的憤怒言論和譴責放在語境中加以解釋，認為那基於他成長在一個歧視被合法化的美國，常常以暴力的方式讓黑人沒有產權，不給非裔美國人發放貸款，黑人房主無法獲得聯邦住宅管理局的按揭，黑人不準加入工會、警察局或消防隊，這意味著黑人家庭無法集聚饋贈給下一代的財富。
No one running for president had ever spoken so directly about the history of racism in government and society at large.
任何一個競選總統的人都未曾如此直白地講出政府和社會中存在的種族主義歷史。
Yet Obama』s speech also counseled that a more perfect United States required African Americans 「taking full responsibility for our own lives … by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.」
但奧巴馬還建議，一個更完美的美國需要非裔美國人「承擔自己生活中的全部責任……對父輩提出更多要求，花更多時間陪子女，為他們閱讀，讓他們明白當他們在自己生活中面臨挑戰和歧視時，他們永遠不能失望或憤世嫉俗，他們要一直相信他們可以書寫自己的命運。」
Obama couched his comments in the language of American progress and the vitality of the American dream, but the speech was remarkable nonetheless in the theater of American politics, where cowardice and empty rhetoric are the typical fare.
儘管奧巴馬仍然借用美國進步和美國夢的活力表達自己的觀點，可他的演講在充斥著懦弱和空談的美國政壇尤顯不凡。
In that sense Obama broke the mold, but he also established the terms upon which he would engage race matters: with dubious even-handedness, even in response to events that required decisive action on behalf of the racially aggrieved.
在那種意義上，奧巴馬打破了藩籬，可他也構建了應對種族問題的套路：曖昧、不偏不倚，即使應對那些種族權利被侵害而需要採取果斷行動的事也無所作為。
He spoke quite eloquently about the nation』s 「original sin」 and 「dark history」 but has repeatedly failed to connect the sins of the past to the crimes of the present, when racism thrives, when police stop-and-frisk, when subprime loans are reserved for black buyers, when public schools are denied resources, and when double-digit unemployment has become so normal that it barely registers a ripple of recognition.
談起國家的「原罪」和「黑歷史」，他滔滔不絕，可當種族主義抬頭，警察攔截搜查，黑人買方只能用次級貸款，公立學校缺少投入，兩位數的失業率如此普遍令人熟視無睹時，他從來無法將過去的原罪與當下的犯罪勾連起來。
Before Ferguson, Obama』s Philadelphia speech was as close as he had ever come to speaking truthfully about racism in the US, even though he presented himself as an interested observer, a thoughtful interlocutor between African Americans and the country as a whole, rather than a US senator with the political influence to effect the changes of which he spoke.
弗格森事件之前，奧巴馬的費城演講差不多是他對美國的種族主義最直言不諱的一次，雖然他稱自己是有所關切的觀察者、非裔美國人和整個國家之間一個深邃的對話者，而非一個打算通過政治影響力推動變革的美國參議員。
The 『informed observer』Obama would continue in his role as 「informed observer」 even as president.Obama has and will always poll high among African Americans, but that should not be mistaken for blind support for him or the policies he champions.
當了總統的奧巴馬還是那個「洞悉一切的觀察者」，他在非裔美國人中人氣很高，未來也是如此，可這並不等於他們會盲目支持他或他主張的政策。
As long as members of the Republican party treat Obama in a brazenly racist manner, black people will defend him because they understand that those attacks against Obama serve as a proxy for attacks on them.
只要共和黨人肆無忌憚地以種族主義方式對待奧巴馬，黑人就會捍衛他，因為他們明白這些對奧巴馬的攻擊實際上是對他們的攻擊。
Early in his administration, however, with the full effects of the recession still pulsing in black communities, conflict between the black president and his base could be detected. Black America was in the midst of an 「economic freefall」 as black wealth disappeared.As black unemployment was climbing into the high double digits, civil rights leaders asked Obama if he would craft policies to address black joblessness.
然而執政早期，經濟衰退仍然深刻影響著黑人社區，人們感覺得到這位黑人總統和他大本營之間的衝突。美國黑人處於「經濟自由落體」中，黑人財富蒸發殆盡。黑人失業率攀升至兩位數，民權領導人要求奧巴馬採取政策解決黑人沒有工作的問題。
Heresponded, 「I have a special responsibility to look out for the interests of every American. That』s my job as president of the United States. And I wake up every morning trying to promote the kinds of policies that are going to make the biggest difference for the most number of people so that they can live out their American dream.」
他回答說，「我有特別的責任照管每個美國人的利益，這是美國總統的工作。我每天早上醒來都想推動讓最多數人發生最大變化的政策，讓他們能夠實現自己的美國夢。」
It was a disappointing response, even if that disappointment did not manifest itself in his approval ratings. In 2011, with black unemployment above 13%, 86% of black Americans approved of the overall job the president was doing, but 56% expressed disappointment in the 「area of providing proper oversight for Wall Street and the big banks」.
這一回答令人失望，儘管失望之情並未反映在支持率中。2011年，黑人失業率高達13%，86%的黑人贊同總統的整體工作，可56%的人對「監管華爾街和大銀行方面」表示失望。
For African Americans, Obama』s presidency had been largely defined by his reluctance to engage with the ways that racial discrimination was blunting the impact of his administration』s recovery efforts.
對於非裔美國人而言，奧巴馬總統任期的主要特點是，他不願讓種族歧視削弱政府救助計劃。
Obama has not shown nearly the same reticence when publicly chastising African Americans for a range of behaviors that read like a handbook on anti-black stereotypes, fromparenting skillsand dietary choices to sexual mores and television-watching habits.
奧巴馬公開訓斥非裔美國人的一系列行為時可沒那麼含蓄，那聽起來像反對黑人的老套教科書，其中既包括育兒技巧、飲食選擇，也有性風俗和看電視的習慣。
There is something disingenuous in focusing on poor and working-class black people without any discussion about the ways that the criminal justice system has 「disappeared」 black parents from the lives of their children.
不談刑事司法體系讓黑人父母在孩子們的生命中「消失」，只針對窮人和黑人工人階級，這有點虛偽。
When Obama talks aboutabsentee black fathers, he never mentions the disparity in arrests and sentencing that is responsible for the disproportionate number of missing black men.
奧巴馬說黑人父親缺位時，從未提及逮捕和判刑要為黑人男性數量不成比例負責。
Few media discussions about Obama』s candidacy mentioned curbing the nation』s criminal justice system』s voracious appetite for black bodies: a million African Americans are incarcerated, and one in four black men between 20 and 29 are under the control of the criminal justice system.
對奧巴馬成為候選人的媒體討論中很少涉及遏制國家刑事司法系統對黑人的貪婪食慾：100萬非裔美國人被囚禁，四分之一20到29歲間的黑人受到刑事司法體系控制。
Over the course of his first term, Obama paid no special attention to the mounting issues involving law enforcement and imprisonment, even as Michelle Alexander』sThe New Jim Crowdescribed the horrors that mass incarceration and corruption throughout the legal system had inflicted on black families.
第一任期內，奧巴馬並未對執法和監禁等嚴重問題予以特別關注，即便米歇爾·亞歷山大的《新吉姆·克勞主義》一書中描述了大規模監禁和遍布司法系統的腐敗給美國黑人家庭造成的恐怖。
None of this began with Obama, but it would be naive to think that African Americans were not considering the destructive impact of policing and incarceration when they turned out in droves to elect him. His unwillingness to address the effects of structural inequality eroded younger African Americans』 confidence in the transformative capacity of his presidency.
這並非源於奧巴馬，以為非裔美國人成群結隊地去選舉他時沒考慮到警方和監禁的毀滅性影響，這也太過天真。他不願解決結構性不平等造成的後果，這削弱了更年輕的非裔美國人對總統能否帶來變革的信心。
The legacy of the 『American spring』「美國之春」的遺產
There was one moment when black America collectively came to terms with Barack Obama』s refusal to use his position as president to intervene on behalf of African Americans.
終於，美國黑人集體與奧巴馬對峙，當時奧巴馬拒絕以總統名義為非裔美國人出面干預。
Troy Davis was a black man on death row in the state of Georgia. It waswidely believedthat he had been wrongfully convicted, which would mean that in the fall of 2011 he was facing execution for a crime he had not committed.
特洛伊·戴維斯是喬治亞州的一名死刑犯。大家都認為他被冤枉了，這意味著2011年秋天，他會因自己沒有犯過的罪行被執行死刑。
Davis』s cries of innocence were not a voice in the wilderness: for years he and his sister, Martina Davis-Correia, had joined with anti-death-penalty activists to fight for his life and exoneration.
戴維斯的喊冤並非只在草野，多年來，他和妹妹瑪蒂娜·戴維斯-科里亞與反對死刑的活動者聯手為自己的生命而戰，爭取脫罪。
By September 2011, an international campaign was under way to have him removed from death row. The protests grew larger and more frantic as the death date crept closer. There were protests around the world; support from global dignitaries rolled in as the international movement to stop Davis』s execution took shape.
2011年9月，一個國際運動旨在把他從刑場救下來。執行日期將近，抗議日益壯大和強烈。世界各處都引發了抗議，來自全球名人的支持此起彼伏，試圖阻止對戴維斯執行死刑。
The European Union and the governments of France and Germany implored the United States to halt his execution, as did Amnesty International and the former FBI director William Sessions.
歐盟、法國政府以及德國政府懇求美國叫停執行，此外還有大赦國際和前聯邦調查局局長威廉·塞申斯。
A Democrat in the Georgia senate, Vincent Fort, called on those charged with carrying out the execution to refuse to do it: 「We call on the members of the Injection Team: Strike! Do not follow your orders! Do not start the flow of the lethal injection chemicals.」
喬治亞參議院的民主黨人文森特·福特呼籲負責執行死刑的人拒絕行刑：「我們呼籲注射隊成員：反抗！不要執行命令！不要注射致命化學物！」
As Davis』s execution drew near on the evening of 20 September, people from around the world waited for Obama to say or do something – but, in the end,he did nothing. He never even made a statement, instead sending press secretary Jay Carney to deliver a statement on his behalf, which simply noted that it was not 「appropriate」 for the president to intervene in a state-led prosecution.
9月20日晚間行刑時間臨近，全世界的人都等待奧巴馬做點什麼，可最後他什麼都沒做。他甚至都沒有發表一項聲明，只讓新聞官傑·卡尼替他發表聲明，只提到總統干預各州負責的檢控是「不合適的」。
In the end, the black president succumbed to states』 rights.
最終，這位黑人總統向州權低頭。
It was a moment of awakening for 「Generation O」 – and of newfound understanding of the limits of black presidential power, not because Obama could not intervene, as his handlers insisted, but because he refused to do so.
這是「奧世代」覺醒的時刻，他們對黑人總統權力的限度有了新的理解，不是奧巴馬不能干預，是他拒絕這樣做。
The Troy Davis protests were certainly not in vain. The day after the state of Georgia killed Davis, Amnesty International and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty called for a 「Day of Outrage」 in protest. More than a thousand people marched, eventually making their way to a small encampment on Wall Street that was calling itself 「Occupy Wall Street」.
特洛伊·戴維斯抗議並非徒勞無益。喬治亞州處決戴維斯的第二天，大赦國際和終止死刑運動呼籲舉行「暴行日」抗議。超過一千人走上街頭，一路走到華爾街，在那裡安營紮寨，他們自稱「佔領華爾街」。
The Occupy encampment had begun a week or so before Davis was killed, but it was in its fledgling stages. When the Troy Davis activists converged with the Occupy activists, the protesters made an immediate connection between Occupy』s mobilization against inequality and the injustice in the execution of a working-class black man.
佔領行為在戴維斯死前一周左右就開始了，但羽翼未豐。戴維斯活動者和佔領華爾街活動者合流後，抗議活動迅速把反對不公平的佔領行動和處決一名工人階級黑人的不公正結合起來。
After the march, many who had been activated by the protests for Davis stayed and became a part of the Occupy encampment on Wall Street. Thereafter, a popular chant on the Occupy marches was 「We are all Troy Davis」.
遊行之後，許多戴維斯抗議者成為佔領華爾街的一部分。後來佔領行動的一個口號是「我們都是特洛伊·戴維斯」。
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