【英语语言学习】不同种族间的结亲姻缘

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE¹: I'm Karen Grigsby Bates and that, of course, is the theme song to "I Love Lucy," one of the most popular shows in the history of television. Its stars, redheaded Lucille Ball and her Cuban-American husband, Desi Arnaz, became TV icons². But they almost didn't get on TV.

 

Kathleen Brady is the author of "Lucille: the Life of Lucille Ball." Brady says the network that wanted Ball to star in her own sitcom³ was not interested in her husband.

KATHLEEN BRADY: CBS and the sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes, were adamantly⁴ opposed to this. They said that the American public would not accept Desi as the husband of a red-blooded, American girl.

BATES: Ball told the network they'd have both of them or neither and eventually, CBS gave in despite its reservations about Arnaz's Cuban heritage and, Brady says, something else.

BRADY: As we all know, Desi had a fairly strong accent.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "I LOVE LUCY")

DESI ARNAZ: (As Ricky Ricardo) What's the matter with the way I talk?

LUCILLE BALL: (As Lucy Ricardo) Well, I haven't told you this before, dear, but you speak with a slight accent.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

BATES: The show was a hit for six years, and more than a half-century later still runs in syndication, where lines like this have become famous:

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "I LOVE LUCY")

ARNAZ: (As Ricky) Lucy, I'm home.

BATES: Flash forward to the early '70s, where the war for civil rights had been waged, segregation⁵ had been abolished - on paper, anyway - and social upheaval⁶ convulsed several cities. Television got a little grittier when "All in the Family" debuted⁷ with a blue-collar philosopher named Archie Bunker. Archie was having a hard time keeping up with the country's rapid evolution. The Supreme⁸ Court had declared anti-miscegenation laws illegal when it decided⁹ Loving v. Virginia, and Archie, like a lot of America, was worried about the multihued future.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, ALL IN THE FAMILY")

CARROLL O'CONNOR: (As Archie Bunker) All this business of mixing the colors. You go on with that, the first thing you know, the whole world's going to be one color.

JEAN STAPLETON: (As Edith Bunker) Well, what's wrong with that, Archie?

O'CONNOR: (As Archie) Can't you use your head? How the hell are we going to tell each other apart?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

BATES: And to show that sentiment wasn't a one-way street, we get Archie's black neighbor, George Jefferson. George was not a kumbaya-kind of guy. So when he learns his son Lionel's fiancee has a white father, George explodes.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, ALL IN THE FAMILY")

SHERMAN HELMSLEY: (As George Jefferson) I don't want no white in-laws in my family.

MIKE EVANS: (As Lionel Jefferson) But they're going to be my in-laws, not yours.

HELMSLEY: (As George) But think, son, think. What about your children? What they going to be?

EVANS: (As Lionel) Well, boys and girls, I hope.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

BATES: Shows like this were helping¹⁰ America sort through its conflicted emotions and anxieties about our changing racial profile. While showing an interracial couple on the "Jeffersons" was considered daring in the mid-'70s, today interracial couples are, if not common, no big deal on TV. The WASP-y lead couple on ABC's popular medical drama "Grey's Anatomy¹¹" fell in love with an Ethiopian orphan¹² who came to their Seattle hospital for treatment.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GREY'S ANATOMY")

PATRICK DEMPSEY: (As Dr. Shepherd) we've been trying so hard to start a family, and she needs one...

BATES: So although George Jefferson would have been appalled¹³, little Zola joined the Shepherd household. Another family on the series has a Latina mom, whose wife is white, and a half-Latina daughter from a previous union. No big deal. The comedy "Modern Family" features a gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese daughter, and a blended family that has white, Latino and multiethnic members although here, race and ethnicity are usually used as a throwaway line. Here's Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, explaining why she's sulking.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MODERN FAMILY")

SOFIA VEGARA: (As Gloria Delgado-Pritchett) I shouldn't be so angry but I am Latin, so I get to feel whatever I want.

BATES: And by the way: nobody's complaining about Sophia Vegara's accent. Marcia Dawkins teaches the impact of race on society at the University of Southern California. She says seeing these different family configurations¹⁴ reflected in popular culture is a good thing for Americans.

MARCIA DAWKINS: Research certainly indicates that these type of images can sensitize viewing audiences to the existence of these types of families.

BATES: And sensitize them to some of the complicated challenges such families face. In NBC's drama "Parenthood," Jasmine and Crosby Braverman try to figure out how to tell their 8-year-old son, Jabbar, the meaning of a racial slur¹⁵. Jasmine insists on taking the lead in the talk. Crosby is irritated, but Jasmine says in this matter, her wishes outweigh¹⁶ his.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, PARENTHOOD")

DAX SHEPARD: (As Crosby Braverman) Because you're black, yeah, I feel like you've pulled rank.

JOY BRYANT: (As Jasmine Braverman) Baby, you have to respect the fact that I have an understanding on the subject that you don't. And the fact is, that word means something different to Jabbar because he's black.

BATES: Or technically¹⁷, biracial - which, Jasmine points out, won't do much to protect him from bias¹⁸. Having more visibility for interracial and interethnic families is important, says USC's Dawkins, but how they're shown is as important as the fact that they're shown.

DAWKINS: It's not just seeing these families that makes them believable, right? It's seeing how they interact with each other every day, what they're dealing¹⁹ with in terms of society, what possibilities they have, what special challenges they have as a family.

BATES: All things that make these TV families, at bottom, very much like the families watching them on the other side of the screen.

Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 icons   

n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像

参考例句：

• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons. 用图标来区分重要的文本项。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Daemonic icons should only be employed persistently if they provide continuous, useful status information. 只有会连续地提供有用状态信息的情况下，后台应用程序才应该一直使用图标。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 sitcom   

n.情景喜剧，（广播、电视的）系列幽默剧

参考例句：

• This sitcom is produced in cooperation with Hong Kong TV.这部连续剧是同香港电视台联合制作的。
• I heard that a new sitcom is coming out next season.我听说下一季会推出一个新的情境喜剧。

4 adamantly   

adv.坚决地，坚定不移地，坚强不屈地

参考例句：

• "Come over here,"he told her adamantly. “到这边来，”他对她坚定地说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His family were adamantly opposed to the marriage. 他的家人坚决反对这门亲事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

6 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

7 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

8 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

12 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

13 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 configurations   

n.[化学]结构( configuration的名词复数 )；构造；（计算机的）配置；构形（原子在分子中的相对空间位置）

参考例句：

• Such configurations, obtained theoretically by calculation, are called models of a star. 通过理论计算得到的恒星结构称为恒星模型。 来自辞典例句
• The other two configurations have overriding advantages for special applications. 其它两种接法对特殊应用具有突出的优点。 来自辞典例句

15 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。

16 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

17 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

18 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

19 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。