Unit-12-A-Case-of-“Severe-Bias”课文翻译综合教程四.doc

Unit 12A Case of Severe BiasPatricia Raybon1 This is who I am not. I am not a crack addict. I am not a welfare mother. I am not illiterate. I am not a prostitute. I have never been in jail. My children are not in gangs. My husband doesnt beat me. My home is not a tenement. None of these things defines who I am, nor do they describe the other black people Ive known and worked with and loved and befriended over these forty years of my life. 2 Nor does it describe most of black America, period. 3 Yet in the eyes of the American news media, this is what black America is: poor, criminal, addicted, and dysfunctional. Indeed, media coverage of black America is so one-sided, so imbalanced that the most victimized and hurting segment of the black community a small segment, at best is presented not as the exception but as the norm. It is an insidious practice, all the uglier for its blatancy. 4 In recent months, I have observed a steady offering of media reports on crack babies, gang warfare, violent youth, poverty, and homelessness and in most cases, the people featured in the photos and stories were black. At the same time, articles that discuss other aspects of American life from home buying to medicine to technology to nutrition rarely, if ever, show blacks playing a positive role, or for that matter, any role at all.5 Day after day, week after week, this message that black America is dysfunctional and unwhole gets transmitted across the American landscape. Sadly, as a result, America never learns the truth about what is actually a wonderful, vibrant, creative community of people. 6 Most black Americans are not poor. Most black teenagers are not crack addicts. Most black mothers are not on welfare. Indeed, in sheer numbers, more white Americans are poor and on welfare than are black. Yet one never would deduce that by watching television or reading American newspapers and magazines. 7 Why do the American media insist on playing this myopic, inaccurate picture game? In this game, white America is always whole and lovely and healthy, while black America is usually sick and pathetic and deficient. Rarely, indeed, is black America ever depicted in the media as functional and self-sufficient. The free press, indeed, as the main interpreter of American culture and American experience, holds the mirror on American reality so much so that what the media say is is, even if its not that way at all. The media are guilty of a severe bias and the problem screams out for correction. It is worse than simply lazy journalism, which is bad enough; it is inaccurate journalism. 8 For black Americans like myself, this isnt just an issue of vanity of wanting to be seen in a good light. Nor is it a matter of closing ones eyes to the very real problems of the urban underclass which undeniably is disproportionately black. To be sure, problems besetting the black underclass deserve the utmost attention of the media, as well as the understanding and concern of the rest of American society. 9 But if their problems consistently are presented as the only reality for blacks, any other experience known in the black community ceases to have validity, or to be real. In this scenario, millions of blacks are relegated to a sort of twilight zone, where who we are and what we are isnt based on fact but an image and perception. Thats what it feels like to be a black American whose lifestyle is outside of the aberrant behavior that the media present as the norm. 10 For many of us, life is a curious series of encounters with white people who want to know why we are “different” from other blacks when, in fact, most of us are only “different” from the now common negative images of black life. So pervasive are these images that they arent just perceived as the norm, theyre accepted as the norm. 11 I am reminded, for example, of the controversial Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing and the criticism by some movie reviewers that the films ghetto neighborhood isnt populated by addicts and drug pushers and thus is not a true depiction. 12 In fact, millions of black Americans live in neighborhoods where the most common sights are children playing and couples walking their dogs. In my own inner-city neighborhood in Denver an area that the local press consistently describes as “gang territory” I have yet to see a recognizable “gang” member or any “gang” activity (drug dealing or drive-by shootings), nor have I been the victim of “gang violence”. 13 Yet to students of American culture in the case of Spike Lees film, the movie reviewers a black, inner-city neighborhood can only be one thing to be real: drug-infested and dysfunctioning. Is this my ego talking? In part, yes. For the millions of black people like myself ordinary, hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying Americans the medias blindness to the fact that we even exist, let alone to our contributions to American society, is a bitter cup to drink. And as self-reliant as most black Americans are because weve had to be self-reliant even the strongest among us still crave affirmation. 14 I want that. I want it for my children. I want it for all the beautiful, healthy, funny, smart black Americans I have known and loved over the years. 15 And I want it for the rest of America, too. 16 I want America to know us all of us for who we really are. To see us in all of our complexity, our subtleness, our artfulness, our enterprise, our specialness, our loveliness, our American-ness. That is the real portrait of black America that were strong people, surviving people, capable people. That may be the best-kept secret in America. If so, its time to let the truth be known.“强烈偏见”之实话实说帕特里夏雷本1 我不是通常想象的那种黑人。我不是吸食强效纯可卡因的瘾君子。我不是靠救济来生活的母亲。我不是文盲。我不是妓女。我从没蹲过大牢。我的孩子们没有混迹黑帮。我老公不会对我家暴。我家不住廉租房。这些都不能用来界定我，也不能描述我40年生命中认识、共事、热爱、交往的任何其他黑人。2 大多数美国黑人也与此无关。就这么回事。3 然而美国新闻媒体眼中的美国黑人恰恰如此：贫穷，有犯罪倾向，吸毒，与社会格格不入。千真万确，媒体关于美国黑人的报道如此片面，如此失衡，黑人群体中受伤最深、同时也是害人最深的那些人那顶多是一小部分人被描述成常态，而非例外。这真是用心险恶，这种做法因其肆无忌惮而格外丑陋。4 最近几个月，我观察到一系列媒体报道，主题是毒瘾婴儿1、帮派混战、行为暴虐的年轻人、贫困以及无家可归。多数情况下，报道和配图中的主角都是黑人。与此同时，关于美国生活的其他方面从买房置地到医药领域，从技术发展到营养健康极少见到甚至可以说没有见到黑人扮演积极正面的角色，甚至可以说，压根见不到他们扮演任何角色。5 日复一日，周复一周，这样的信息，即美国黑人与主流社会格格不入、非病即残，传遍美国各地。很遗憾，这样的结果就是美国从来就无法认识到黑人实际上是优秀、生机勃勃、创意无限的人民。6 大多数美国黑人不穷。大多数黑人青少年不是吸食强效纯可卡因的瘾君子。大多数黑人母亲不靠救济过活。事实上，单纯就数量而言，生活拮据、靠救济度日的美国白人比黑人更多。但是如果光看电视或阅读报章杂志，人们永远不会得出这个结论。7 但是，为什么美国媒体坚持玩这种鼠目寸光、错漏百出的图片游戏？在这种把戏中，美国白人永远健康向上、可爱动人、全面发展，而美国黑人永远疾病缠身、可怜巴巴、缺陷多多。千真万确，媒体笔下的黑人极少是有用之才，自给自足。千真万确，作为美国文化和美国经验的主要诠释者的自由媒体，高举反映美国现实的明镜，以至于他们说什么就是什么，即便事实真相大相径庭。媒体带有强烈偏见，这个问题亟待纠正。这个问题就是：这是比懒惰的新闻报道更严重的问题，新闻报道懒惰消极已经够糟糕了，现在的问题是，这是失实的新闻报道。8 对于像我自己这样的美国黑人，想被人看得起不仅仅是个虚荣心的问题。这也不仅仅是对城市下层社会现实问题视而不见的问题。毫无疑问，这个下