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Growing up, I didn't always understand why my parents made me follow the rules that they did.
在成长的过程中，我并不总能理解为何我的父母让我遵循他们所遵循的规矩。
Like, why did I really have to mow the lawn?
比如，为什么我非要修剪草坪？
Why was homework really that important?
为什么家庭作业就这么重要？
Why couldn't I put jelly beans in my oatmeal?
为什么不能把软糖放在燕麦里边？
My childhood was abound with questions like this.
我的童年充斥着类似的问题。
Normal things about being a kid and realizing that sometimes,
这在孩童时期很正常，并且我意识到有的时候，
it was best to listen to my parents even when I didn't exactly understand why.
最好还是听父母的话，即使你并不理解为何他们要你这么做。
And it's not that they didn't want me to think critically.
并不是他们不希望我能够批判的思考。
Their parenting always sought to reconcile the tension
他们的教育方式总是寻求缓解矛盾，
between having my siblings and I understand the realities of the world,
让我和我的兄弟姐妹在看清现实世界的同时，
while ensuring that we never accepted the status quo as inevitable.
确保我们不会屈从于不可避免的现状。
I came to realize that this, in and of itself, was a very purposeful form of education.
我意识到这种方式本身是一种很有意义的教育。
One of my favorite educators, Brazilian author and scholar Paulo Freire,
我最爱的教育家之一，巴西作家和学者保罗·弗莱雷，
speaks quite explicitly about the need for education to be used as a tool for critical awakening and shared humanity.
曾公开说过对教育的需求要成为批判性意识和共享人性的工具。
In his most famous book, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed,"
在他最著名的《被压迫者教育学》一书中，
he states, "No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so."
他指出，“当一个人要阻止他人成为人时，他就不算是个真正意义上的人。”
I've been thinking a lot about this lately, this idea of humanity,
最近，我对这种人性的观点进行了很多思考，
and specifically, who in this world is afforded the privilege of being perceived as fully human.
特别是那些人，在这个世界上被赋予了特权成为了完整的人。
Over the course of the past several months, the world has watched as unarmed black men, and women,
在过去的几个月，在全世界的注目下，手无寸铁的黑人男子与妇女，
have had their lives taken at the hands of police and vigilante.
被警察和民间武装夺走了生命。
These events and all that has transpired after them have brought me back to my own childhood
这些事件所产生的影响，让我想起了我的童年，
and the decisions that my parents made about raising a black boy in America
以及我父母关于在美国抚养一个黑人孩子所作出的决定，
that growing up, I didn't always understand in the way that I do now.
在成长的过程中，我从未像现在这样理解他们的决定。
I think of how hard it must have been, how profoundly unfair it must have felt for them
我能想象当他们为了让我们能够在夜晚平安的回到家里，
to feel like they had to strip away parts of my childhood just so that I could come home at night.
而不得不剥夺我们的部分童年是多么艰难和不公平。
For example, I think of how one night, when I was around 12 years old, on an overnight field trip to another city,
例如，我想到在我12岁时，在去往另一个城市郊游的夜晚，
my friends and I bought Super Soakers and turned the hotel parking lot into our own water-filled battle zone.
我和朋友们都带了水枪，并把旅馆的停车场变成了水枪战场。
We hid behind cars, running through the darkness that lay between the streetlights, boundless laughter ubiquitous across the pavement.
我们躲在车后面，在街灯间的黑暗中穿梭，笑声传遍了整条街道。
But within 10 minutes, my father came outside, grabbed me by my forearm and led me into our room with an unfamiliar grip.
但还不到10分钟，我的父亲就走了出来，反常地紧紧抓住我的前臂，把我拉回到了房间。
Before I could say anything, tell him how foolish he had made me look in front of my friends, he derided me for being so naive.
在我还没来得及开口告诉他，他这么做让我在朋友面前多丢脸，他就开始嗤笑我太天真。
Looked me in the eye, fear consuming his face, and said,
他一脸后怕地看着我的眼睛说，
"Son, I'm sorry, but you can't act the same as your white friends.
“儿子，我很抱歉，但是你不能像你的白人朋友那样。
You can't pretend to shoot guns. You can't run around in the dark.
你不能假装自己在开枪。你不能在夜里乱跑。
You can't hide behind anything other than your own teeth."
一旦出事你没人可以保护你。”
I know now how scared he must have been, how easily I could have fallen into the empty of the night,
我现在知道了他当时是多么的害怕，我可能很容易就倒在这空荡荡的黑夜中，
that some man would mistake this water for a good reason to wash all of this away.
让别人把这水枪中的水，当做一个好的借口来清除掉我。
These are the sorts of messages I've been inundated with my entire life:
我的一生都淹没在这些信息中：
Always keep your hands where they can see them, don't move too quickly, take off your hood when the sun goes down.
把你的手放在他们能够看到的地方，动作不要太快，晚上把你的帽子摘下来。
My parents raised me and my siblings in an armor of advice,
我的父母为我和兄弟姐妹装备了一系列告诫，
an ocean of alarm bells so someone wouldn't steal the breath from our lungs, so that they wouldn't make a memory of this skin.
这无数警告只为我们能够平安活下来，而不需要因为肤色付出代价。
So that we could be kids, not casket or concrete.
这样我们才是活生生的孩子，而不是棺材或墓碑。
And it's not because they thought it would make us better than anyone else, it's simply because they wanted to keep us alive.
这并不是因为他们想让我们比别的孩子更优秀，他们只希望我们平安地活着。
All of my black friends were raised with the same message, the talk,
我所有的黑人朋友都在同样的信息和谈话中成长，
given to us when we became old enough to be mistaken for a nail ready to be hammered to the ground,
当我们到了能够轻易被人按倒在地上的年龄时，
when people made our melanin synonymous with something to be feared.
当人们把我们的肤色与恐惧对应起来时。
But what does it do to a child, to grow up knowing that you cannot simply be a child?
但是这么做对孩子的影响是什么，当在孩童时期就知道自己不能成为一个真正的孩子？
That the whims of adolescence are too dangerous for your breath, that you cannot simply be curious,
青春期的冲动会危及你的生命，你无法再有好奇心，
that you are not afforded the luxury of making a mistake,
你没有资格犯错误，
that someone's implicit bias might be the reason you don't wake up in the morning.
某人似有若无的偏见就可能是你没法活到第二天的原因。
But this cannot be what defines us.
但是这些并不是定义我们的因素。
Because we have parents who raised us to understand that our bodies weren't meant for the backside of a bullet,
因为我们的父母让我们知道，我们的身体并不意味着弹靶子，
but for flying kites and jumping rope, and laughing until our stomachs burst.
而意味着可以去放风筝和跳绳，并且笑到肚子疼。
We had teachers who taught us how to raise our hands in class, and not just to signal surrender,
我们的老师教会我们在课堂上举手发言，而不是举起双手以示投降，
and that the only thing we should give up is the idea that we aren't worthy of this world.
我们唯一应该摒弃的观念，就是我们不配在这个世界上生存。
So when we say that black lives matter, it's not because others don't,
我们说黑人的生命很重要，并不是因为别人的生命无关紧要，
it's simply because we must affirm that we are worthy of existing without fear, when so many things tell us we are not.
只是因为我们必须在一切都否定我们的时候，还能无畏无惧的生存下去。
I want to live in a world where my son will not be presumed guilty the moment he is born,
我想生活在这样一个世界，在那里，我的孩子不需要一出生就被假定有罪，
where a toy in his hand isn't mistaken for anything other than a toy.
在那里，孩子手上的玩具不会被误认为是其他东西。
And I refuse to accept that we can't build this world into something new,
我拒绝承认我们不能够让这个世界变得更美好，
some place where a child's name doesn't have to be written on a t-shirt, or a tombstone,
在这个世界，一个孩子的名字不需要被印在T恤或者被刻在墓碑上，
where the value of someone's life isn't determined by anything other than the fact that they had lungs,
一个人的生命价值不由除了呼吸之外的任何其他因素决定，
a place where every single one of us can breathe. Thank you.
一个我们每个人都能自由呼吸的地方。谢谢。
