2020年经济学人 约翰逊专栏--种族歧视用语(1)

Books & arts

文艺板块

Johnson

约翰逊专栏

Justice and just slips

公平与失言

The battle against racist¹ language is too important to trivialise

反对种族主义用语十分重要，不容轻视

Back in 2002 The Economist² mused³ about the rise of Brazil’s left-wing president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “The meaning of Lula”, ran the cover line, prompting a great deal of mail—much of it from amused South Asian readers who wrote to say that the meaning of “lula” in Urdu is “penis”.

早在2002年，《经济学人》就曾剖析过巴西左翼候任总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦的崛起。当时的封面标题是“卢拉的意义”。为此我们收到了大量的邮件，其中很多信件来自于南亚的读者，他们觉得我们的标题很好笑，并在邮件中写道，在乌尔都语中，“lula”的意思是“生殖器”。

Amused—not outraged⁴. It would have been absurd not to cover a soon-to-be president because his name is naughty in Urdu. Yet another complaint about a verbal coincidence, involving the trace of a graver kind of obscenity, recently had serious consequences at the business school of the University of Southern California (USC). Greg Patton, who teaches communication, was describing how repeating “erm, erm” can undermine a speaker’s effectiveness. He noted⁵ that other languages have similar pause-fillers; Chinese people, he mentioned, use the equivalent of “that, that, that”, or in Mandarin⁶, “nei ge, nei ge, nei ge”.

他们是觉得很好笑，而并不是被激怒了。如果仅仅是因为一位即将上任的总统的名字在乌尔都语中有下流的意味，就不加以报道的话，那也太荒谬了。但是，最近发生了另外一起有关发音巧合的投诉事件，这次的事件涉及到的猥亵程度更深，而且在南加州大学商学院造成了严重的后果。格雷格·巴顿是教授传播学的老师，他在课堂上描述重复使用“呃，呃”是如何削弱说话者的有效性的。他指出，其他语言也有类似的填充词。他提到，中国人会相应地使用“那个，那个，那个”，用普通话说就是“内个，内个，内个”。

Then came the whirlwind. An anonymous⁷ complaint from an unknown number of black students said that their “mental health has been affected”. The dean of the business school removed Mr Patton from the class, excoriating⁸ him in a leaked letter: “It is simply unacceptable for faculty⁹ to use words in class that can marginalise, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students.”

巴顿的课掀起了轩然大波。一些数量未知的黑人学生写了封匿名投诉信，表示他们的“心理健康受到了影响”。商学院院长对巴顿进行了停课处理，在一封外泄的信中，他对巴顿进行了严厉的批评：“我们完全无法接受教师在课堂上使用一些边缘化的词语来有损并伤害我们学生的心理安全。”

Veterans of these brouhahas will recall a case from 1999 in which a Washington official was disciplined for using “niggardly” in a meeting. (The word probably comes from medieval Scandinavia and is unrelated to the racial slur¹⁰.) Philip Roth turned a true story from 1985 into the crux¹¹ of his book “The Human Stain” (2000). A professor inquires after two missing students, wondering aloud if they are “spooks”, meaning ghosts. But that term is also an old anti-black insult. The students are black (as, secretly, is he), and the fracas¹² ends his career.

经历过这些闹剧的老手会想到1999年的一个案例，当时一名华盛顿官员因为在会议中使用了“吝啬的”一词而受到纪律处分。（这个词可能源于中世纪的斯堪的纳维亚半岛，且与种族歧视无关）。菲利普·罗斯则将1985年发生的真实事件作为关键改编成了《人性污点》一书，于2000年出版。书中一名教授询问两名缺课的学生，大声质问他们是否是“spooks”，意为幽灵。但“spooks”同时也是很久以前就出现的，带有侮辱之意的歧视黑人的词汇。因为他的学生们都是黑人（他自己也有着黑人血统，但没有公之于众），这次纠纷给他的职业生涯画上了句号。

Firestorms like the one at USC are set to become more frequent. America and other countries are wrestling with a history of racism¹³, and language is part of those reckonings. Some renamings and reframings are justifiable¹⁴, even overdue¹⁵. Others hit the wrong target, but do little damage. In a few counter-productive cases, aspersions are cast on well-intentioned people.

类似南加州大学发生的争议风暴事件会发生的更加频繁。美国和其他国家正在全力解决种族歧视这一历史遗留问题，而语言也是那些进行清算的问题之一。有些表达的重新命名和重新架构合乎情理，甚至早就该进行。有些表达遭到了错误的打击，但也没有造成什么严重后果。然而，在一些案例中却适得其反，明明是出于善意的人却遭到了诽谤。

1 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 mused   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• \"I wonder if I shall ever see them again, \"he mused. “我不知道是否还可以再见到他们，”他沉思自问。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"Where are we going from here?\" mused one of Rutherford's guests. 卢瑟福的一位客人忍不住说道：‘我们这是在干什么？” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

4 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

7 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

8 excoriating   

v.擦伤( excoriate的现在分词 )；擦破（皮肤）；剥（皮）；严厉指责

参考例句：

• He listened to her excoriating on the telephone. 他听到电话里她在叫骂。 来自互联网

9 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

10 slur   

v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音

参考例句：

• He took the remarks as a slur on his reputation.他把这些话当作是对他的名誉的中伤。
• The drug made her speak with a slur.药物使她口齿不清。

11 crux   

adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点

参考例句：

• The crux of the matter is how to comprehensively treat this trend.问题的关键是如何全面地看待这种趋势。
• The crux of the matter is that attitudes have changed.问题的要害是人们的态度转变了。

12 fracas   

n.打架；吵闹

参考例句：

• A couple of mobsters were rubbed out in a fracas with the law.几个暴徒在与警方喧闹的斗争中丧命。
• The police were called in to stop the fracas.警察奉命去制止骚乱。

13 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

14 justifiable   

adj.有理由的，无可非议的

参考例句：

• What he has done is hardly justifiable.他的所作所为说不过去。
• Justifiable defense is the act being exempted from crimes.正当防卫不属于犯罪行为。

15 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。