异类之不一样的成功启示录 第198期:利用肤色来把玩地位

 　　My grandmother was a remarkable¹ woman. 我的祖母是一个很了不起的女人。

　　But it is important to remember that a steady upward path upon which the Fords embarked³ began with a morally complicated act. 但更重要的是，与福特家事业稳步上升的路径伴随着一个道德上比较复杂的行为：

　　William Ford² looked upon my great-great-great-grandmother with desire at a slave market in Alligator⁴ Pond and purchased her. 威廉·福特在鳄鱼塘的奴隶市场看到我的曾曾曾祖母时十分渴慕，并花钱把她买了下来。

　　The slaves who were not so chosen had short and unhappy lives. 那些没有被他人选中的奴隶，她们的结局基本上是渡过了一个短暂而不幸的人生。

　　In Jamaica, the plantation⁵ owners felt it made the most sense to extract the maximum possible effort from their human property while the property was still young. 在牙买加，农场主趁奴隶还年轻力壮，会完全把他们的劳动力榨取干——

　　To work their slaves until they they were either dead or useless, and then simply buy another round at the market. 直到他们毫无用处或死亡——这样才有意义，然后他们到奴隶市场再买一个回来。

　　They had no trouble with the philosophical⁶ contradiction of cherishing the children they had with a slave and simultaneously⁷ thinking of slaves as property. 宠爱他们与奴隶生的孩子，同时又把奴隶看成是自己的财产，对于这种矛盾，他们根本不会觉得麻烦。

　　William Thistlewood, the plantation owner, who catalogued his sexual exploits, 威廉姆·西斯特伍德是一位农场主，他与那位名叫菲比的奴隶维系了一生的性关系。

　　had a lifelong relationship with a slave named Phibbah, whom, by all accounts, he adored, and who bore him a son. 据说，他很爱她，而且菲比为他生了一个儿子。

　　But to his "field" slaves, he was a monster, 但对于其他那些在地里干活的奴隶，他就像一个恶魔。

　　whose preferred punishment for those who tried to run away was what he called "Derby's dose." 对于那些试图逃跑的奴隶，他用一种叫做“德贝的药”来惩罚：

　　The runaway⁸ would be beaten, salt pickle⁹, lime juice, and bird pepper rubbed into his or her open wounds. 那些逃跑的人被鞭挞，然后他们的伤口被撒上盐水、柠檬汁和辣椒水酒。

　　Anther slave would defecate into the mouth of miscreant¹⁰, who would then be gagged for four or five hours. 同时还让奴隶吃粪便，使他连续呕吐四、五个小时。

　　It's not surprising, then, that the brown-skinned class of Jamaica came to fetishize their lightness. It was their great advantage. 在那时,牙买加褐色皮肤的人崇拜浅色肤色并不奇怪。因为这是他们很大的优势。

　　They scrutinized¹¹ the shade of each other's skin and played the color game as ruthlessly in the end as the whites did. 他们仔细比较彼此肤色的深浅，像白人一样无情地利用肤色来把玩地位。

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

4 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

5 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

6 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

7 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

8 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

9 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

10 miscreant   

n.恶棍

参考例句：

• Local people demanded that the District Magistrate apprehend the miscreants.当地人要求地方法官逮捕那些歹徒。
• The days of a judge telling a miscreant to join the army or go to jail are over.由法官判一名无赖不去当兵就得坐牢的日子过去了。

11 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比