美国国家公共电台 NPR Civil Rights Activist Argues To Keep Confederate Monuments

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

In cities across the U.S., calls to take down Confederate monuments are growing louder ever since the deadly events in Charlottesville. One of the most dramatic monuments to the Confederacy is called Stone Mountain. It's in Georgia. It's sort of a Confederate Mt. Rushmore. It shows Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, all on horseback, carved into a mountainside.

Andrew Young is not joining calls to remove the Stone Mountain monument. He was on the frontlines of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and was with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the day he was assassinated¹.

ANDREW YOUNG: That is a tremendous carving², and I don't want to see that destroyed. I don't care who it is.

CHANG: Young went on to serve as a congressman³ from Georgia and a mayor of Atlanta.

YOUNG: This is a total distraction⁴ that is undercutting most of the progress we made. We made progress in the civil rights movement as 12, 13 percent of the population at most. We couldn't have made any change with that. In order to make change, we had to build a majority of at least 60 percent. We could build a majority around lunch counters. We could build a majority around jobs.

CHANG: I think it might be surprising to a lot of people to hear a civil rights activist⁵, such as yourself, say that you don't think these Confederate monuments should be taken down. I mean, a lot of Black Lives Matter activists⁶ would probably disagree with you.

YOUNG: But I'm saying, these are kids who grew up free. And they don't realize what's still enslaves them, and it's not those monuments.

CHANG: So am I understanding you correctly? Are you saying that these monuments should not come down, period? Or are you saying that we shouldn't waste time talking about it because there are far larger issues to be thinking about?

YOUNG: Well, I'll tell you what. What worries me is that this country will turn to the right so that it will be taking down Martin Luther King's statue next, when the racist⁷ majority takes over. And I'm saying that a minority cannot be provoking a racist majority that is still under-employed, under-educated and dying faster than we are, that the issue is life and death, not some stupid monuments.

CHANG: What should President Trump⁸ do to ease racial divisions in this country?

YOUNG: I don't think President Trump is prepared to deal with these issues.

CHANG: You don't think so?

YOUNG: Because he has not dealt with them, himself. I mean, he did not grow up in a place like President Carter, President Lyndon Johnson, President Clinton grew up in the South. Those are the issues that they dealt with.

CHANG: So you would leave Stone Mountain as it is.

YOUNG: I would only consider adding to it a freedom bell because Martin Luther King, in his speech, said, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia. He named that specifically.

CHANG: Andrew Young is the former mayor of Atlanta, a former congressman in Georgia and the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Thank you very much for joining us.

YOUNG: Thank you very much.

1 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

2 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

3 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

4 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 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。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。