美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Heads Of The Colored People' Takes On The Pressures Of Being 'The Only One'

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

America has had its first black baseball player, its first black astronaut, its first black president. But after the first, the world is still full of onlys. Sometimes the onliness is existential, like being the only black student in a private school. Sometimes it's incidental - the only black woman in an hour-long yoga class. And those are the stories that preoccupy¹ author Nafissa Thompson-Spires.

NAFISSA THOMPSON-SPIRES: Because you are sort of a representative of what people see as black by virtue² of them not having had much exposure to it. There are all these additional pressures on top of the sort of standard pressures of being black in a white world.

CORNISH: Nafissa Thompson-Spires' debut³ short story collection is called "Heads Of The Colored People." And it's full of characters coping with those pressures, characters like Randolph, a black professor at a small college. He's exhausted⁴ from what he calls performing his status as an anti-stereotype as he tries to negotiate terms with a new office mate.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: He's unsure all the time. And there's a way that his lack of assurance is very much related to his black identity and his status as a mouthpiece all of the time, having to be a representative in this space.

CORNISH: Meaning he's always policing himself, right? He's like, I can't get too angry 'cause then I'll be the angry black guy, but I'm kind of angry right now (laughter)...

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Exactly.

CORNISH: ...And I don't know how to process that.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Right. So his friend Reggie talks about how the anger has to come out in some kind of way. And for Randolph it comes out in these really passive-aggressive antics with his office mate. But for Reggie, he mentions it comes out through nosebleeds all the time.

CORNISH: Another series of stories follows a woman named Fatima. When we meet her, she's a new student at a private elementary school. She and another girl named Christinia are bullying⁵ each other. And the story, "Belles⁶ Lettres," is told in letters between their mothers, which start out polite. And then...

THOMPSON-SPIRES: They escalate⁷ pretty intensely from accusations⁸ of killing⁹ rodents¹⁰ to paternity questions. It's basically two very highly educated black women playing the dozens in this kind of bougie form of the letter. That story actually came from sadly something slightly autobiographical. My mother sent me what she called a care packet that had a bunch of crap from my childhood in it. And there was a letter from my childhood bully's mother in there talking about what a terrible child I was, and that it was my fault and not her daughter's fault.

CORNISH: Yikes. So when you read this, were you like, oh, God, I remember these days?

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Oh, yes, I was - I called my mom immediately like, why did you send this to me? This is a terrible letter. But with some distance I thought, you know, this could really be funny. So I think that writing the story was somewhat cathartic¹¹. But definitely it doesn't feel good to see a grown woman saying that you have no social skills, which is basically what this mother was accusing me of.

CORNISH: What's bittersweet about this story is that these two young girls are the only black girls in their class, and they don't like each other.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Right. What Christinia is dealing¹² with, she's responding to Fatima coming into a school where she's been the only black girl, and now there are two of them, feeling some sense of competition with this other black girl. And so there's something beyond the hostility¹³ that's actually sad underneath¹⁴ it all.

CORNISH: What do you think that is?

THOMPSON-SPIRES: I do think it's self-hatred. I do think it's being unable to kind of detach your identity from the white gaze or defining yourself in relation to whiteness. And so she's now defining herself in relation to whiteness and against this other black girl. And it's too many things for a third-grader to deal with or to even kind of articulate.

CORNISH: This thing that these young girls have experienced with each other as children, it kind of carries over into their adulthood¹⁵ with one of them in particular when she finds herself in a similar situation, that she was the only one and now suddenly she's not the only one. And it made me think about the idea of, like, there's some privilege in being an individual instead of always having to feel like you're part of a group and a collective.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: There is some privilege in that. There's a sense that sometimes you can even blend in to the point where people forget that you are black. But then I think that also has a very dark side, which is that white friends or friends who are not of color find themselves saying things about black people and forgetting that we're black, too, and saying things like, you know, well, you're not like the other ones or...

CORNISH: Or the you're not black-black.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Exactly. You're not regular black. You know, you're like this other kind of black.

CORNISH: There was also a term for that kind of blending in that people used to say which was incognegro. Have you ever heard that? If there's - like, another person of color comes in the room, and there's a kind of person who will just, like, hope they don't notice each other.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: I've experienced that in a very negative sense. So it's sort of like if you grew up in Southern California, people don't tend to do the nod, the acknowledgement of other black people. But when I moved to the South, it was very important, it seemed like, for black people to be acknowledged by me and to acknowledge me.

CORNISH: 'Cause you'll hear about it if you don't.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Oh, yes, you will hear about it. And you will be called uppity, bougie, all kinds of things. And I get it now. Having grown up really isolated¹⁶ from other black kids, I've come to really appreciate just the visibility of other black people. Seeing a black person across the road for me makes me very happy sometimes. And I will do the nod. But that's not the way that I grew up.

CORNISH: In the end, do you feel like you have written the book you would have wanted to have read when you were the only one? If you had read stories like the ones you've written at that age, would you have felt less alone?

THOMPSON-SPIRES: I do think I would have felt less alone. I read a lot of humor. I read a lot of great literary fiction and satire¹⁷, which is the kind of fiction that I like the most. But I never saw myself reflected in any of those stories. I never saw black characters who were like me dealing with being the only one. I didn't even see a lot of black nerds, which in a lot of ways is what this collection is about - just black people who are into cosplay and into all kinds of stereotypically¹⁸ dorky things. And I wrote the stories I wish I could have been reading and seeing.

CORNISH: Well, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, thank you so much for speaking with us.

THOMPSON-SPIRES: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

CORNISH: And her debut story collection is called "Heads Of The Colored People."

1 preoccupy   

vt.使全神贯注，使入神

参考例句：

• But at the moment he had other things to preoccupy him.不过当时有另外的事情分了他的心。
• An intelligent man considers the prospect of failure,but he doesn't preoccupy himself with pointless worry.一个聪明的男人可以预见到失败，但他绝不会去无谓地担心。

2 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

3 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

4 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

5 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 belles   

n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女

参考例句：

• Every girl in Atlanta was knee deep in men,even the plainest girls were carrying on like belles. 亚特兰大的女孩子个个都有许多男人追求，就连最不出色的也像美人一样被男人紧紧缠住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Even lot of belles, remand me next the United States! 还要很多美女，然后把我送回美国！ 来自互联网

7 escalate   

v.(使)逐步增长(或发展)，(使)逐步升级

参考例句：

• It would tempt Israel's neighbors to escalate their demands.它将诱使以色列的邻国不断把他们的要求升级。
• Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.失败可能会导致其中一方将冲突升级。

8 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 rodents   

n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Rodents carry diseases and are generally regarded as pests. 啮齿目动物传播疾病，常被当作害虫对待。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some wild rodents in Africa also harbor the virus. 在非洲，有些野生啮齿动物也是储毒者。 来自辞典例句

11 cathartic   

adj.宣泄情绪的；n.泻剂

参考例句：

• His laughter was cathartic,an animal yelp that brought tears to his eyes.他哈哈大笑以宣泄情绪，声音如野兽般尖厉，眼泪都笑出来了。
• The drug had a cathartic effect.这药有导泻的作用。

12 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

13 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

14 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

15 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

16 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

17 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

18 stereotypically   

adv.带有成见地(stereotype的副词形式)

参考例句：