Unit 7 I&39;d Rather Be Black than Female 课文翻译

Unit 7

I’d Rather Be Black than Female

Shirley Chisholm

1. Being the first black woman elected to Congress has made me some kind of phenomenon. There are nine other blacks in Congress; there are ten other women. I was the first to overcome both handicaps at once. Of the two handicaps, being black is much less of a drawback than being female.

2. If I said that being black is a greater handicap than being a woman, probably no one would question me. Why? Because “we all know” there is prejudice against blac k people in America. That there is prejudice against women is an idea that still strikes nearly all men — and, I am afraid, most women — as bizarre.

3. Prejudice against blacks was invisible to most white Americans for many years. When blacks finally star ted to “mention” it, with sit-ins, boycotts, and freedom rides, Americans were incredulous. “Who, us?” they asked in injured tones. “We’re prejudiced?” It was the start of a long, painful reeducation for white America. It will take years for whites — including those who think of themselves as liberals — to discover and eliminate the racist attitudes they all actually have.

4. How much harder will it be to eliminate the prejudice against women? I am sure it will be a longer struggle. Part of the problem is that women in America are much more brainwashed and content with their roles as second-class citizens than blacks ever were.

5. Let me explain. I have been active in politics for more than twenty years. For all but the last six, I have done the work —all the tedious details that make the difference between victory and defeat on election day —while men reaped the rewards, which is almost invariably the lot of women in politics.

6. It is still women — about three million volunteers — who do most of this work in the American political world. The best any of them can hope for is the honor of being district or county vice-chairman, a kind of separate-but-equal position with which a woman is rewarded for years of faithful envelope stuffing and card-party organizing. In such a job, she gets a number of free trips to state and sometimes national meetings and conventions, where her role is supposed to be to vote the way her male chairman votes.

7. When I tried to break out of that role in 1963 and run for the New York State Assembly seat from Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant, the resistance was bitter. From the start of that campaign, I faced undisguised hostility because of my sex.

8. But it was four years later, when I ran for Congress, that the question of my sex became a major issue. Among members of my own party, closed meetings were held to discuss ways of stopping me.

9. My opponent, the famous civil-rights leader James Farmer tried to project a black, masculine image; he toured the neighborhood with sound trucks filled with young men wearing Afro haircuts, dashikis, and beards. While the television crews ignored me, they were not aware of a very important statistic, which both I and my campaign manager, Wesley MacD. Holder, knew. In my district there are 2.5 women for every man registered to vote. And those are organized — in PTAs, church societies, card clubs, and other social and service groups. I went to them and asked their help. Mr. Farmer still doesn’t quite know what hit him.

10. When a bright young woman graduate starts looking for a job, why is the first question always: “Can you type?” A history of prejudice lies behind that question. Why are women thought of as secretaries, not administrators? Librarians and teachers, but not doctors and lawyers? Because they are thought of as different and inferior. The happy homemaker and the contented darky are both stereotypes produced by prejudice.

11. Women have not even reached the level of tokenism that blacks are reaching. No women sit on the Supreme Court. Only two have held Cabinet rank, and none do at present. Only two women hold ambassadorial rank. But women predominate in the lower-paying, menial, unrewarding, dead-end jobs, and when they do reach better positions, they are invariably paid less than a man gets for the same job.

12. If that is not prejudice, what would you call it?

13. A few years ago, I was talking with a political leader about a promising young woman as a candidate. “Why invest time and effort to build the girl up?” he asked me. “You know she’ll only drop out of the game to have a couple of kids just about the time we’re ready to run her for mayor.”

14. Plenty of people have said similar things about me. Plenty of others have advised me, every time I tried to take another upward step, that I should go back to teaching, a woman’s vocation, and leave politics to the men. I love teaching, and I am ready to go

back to it as soon as I am convinced that this country no longer needs a woman’s contribution.

15. When there are no children going to bed hungry in this rich nation, I may be ready to go back to teaching. When there is a good school for every child, I may be ready. When we do not spend our wealth on hardware to murder people, when we no longer tolerate prejudice against minorities, and when the laws against unfair housing and unfair employment practices are enforced instead of evaded, then there may be nothing more for me to do in politics.

16. But until that happens — and we all know it will not be this year or next — what we need is more women in politics. Because we have a very special contribution to make. I hope that the example of my success will convince other women to get into politics — and not just to stuff envelopes, but to run for office.

17. It is women who can bring empathy, tolerance, insight, patience, and persistence to government —the qualities we naturally have or have had to develop because of our suppression by men. The women of a nation mold its morals, its religion, and its politics by the lives they live. At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.

1. 我是首位当选国会议员的黑人妇女，这使我成了一种独特的现象。美国国会中还有九位黑人议员，十位女性议员,而我是首位同时逾越双重障碍的议员。在这两道障碍之中，身为黑人要比身为女人的障碍小很多。

2. 如果我说黑人面对的障碍要比女人更大，大概没有人会怀疑。这是为什么？因为“ 众所周知”，美国对黑人有歧视。若说对女性有歧视，这会令几乎所有男人——恐怕还有大多数女人——都觉得不可思议。

3. 很多年来，多数美国白人对歧视黑人的现象视而不见。最后，当黑人们通过静坐示威、联合抵制和自由乘车游行等方式“挑起”这个问题时，美国白人觉得惊异万分。“谁，是我们吗？”他们委屈地问道，“我们在歧视他们？” 对美国白人来说，这个漫长痛苦的再教育过程刚刚开始。很多年以后，白人——包括那些自以为是自由主义者的人——才会发现并消除他们实际存在的种族主义思想。

4. 而消除女性歧视的困难要大多少？我坚信这将是一场更为旷日持久的斗争，部分原因是，与黑人相比，美国女性不仅被更彻底地洗脑，而且也更加安于她们次等公民的角色。

5. 请允许我解释一下。我活跃政界二十余年。除了最后六年，我一直在努力工作——干那些枯燥乏味但却能影响竞选胜负的杂活——可收获奖赏的却是男人，这几乎就是政界女性永远不变的命运。

6. 恰恰又是女性——大约有三百万女性志愿者——在美国政界做着大部分这类工作。她们中任何人顶多指望能有幸当选区副主席或县副主席。这种“区分但平等”的职位是一名女性多年任劳任怨地干着装信件、组织牌局之类的杂活之后所能获得的。最高奖励。担任此职务之后，她可以享受公费出差、参加州或全国性会议或代表大会的待遇，而她的既定角色就是按男会长的投票方式去投票。

7. 1963年，当我试图突破这种角色，代表布鲁克林的贝德福德·斯图维桑特参加纽约州众议院席位竞选时，遭到了强烈的反对。竞选伊始，我便遇到了针对我的性别的毫无掩饰的敌意。

8. 四年之后，当我竞选国会议员时，性别才真正成了我的主要障碍。我所在党派的成员还召开了秘密会议，讨论如何阻止我参加竞选。

9. 我的竞争对手、著名人权运动领袖詹姆士·法默努力向大众展示一个黑人男子汉的形象；他坐着带有扩音器的卡车在选区里巡回，车上载满了留着非洲发式、穿着短袖花套衫、留着胡子的年轻人。电视台的摄制人员对我视而不见，但他们对一个非常重要的数据毫不知情，而对此我和我的竞选经纪人韦斯利·麦克唐纳·霍尔德却很清楚。我所在的这个选区内，登记投票的男女选民的比例是1:2.5。而且那些妇女都是有组织的，这其中包括教师家长协会、教会团体、扑克牌俱乐部以及其他社会服务团体。我去向她们寻求帮助。法默先生到现在仍然不知道自己败因何在。

10. 当年轻优秀的女大学毕业生找工作时，为什么第一个问题总是“你会打字吗？” 这个问题的背后是一部对女性的歧视史。女性为什么被认定是秘书，而非管理者？为什么她们只能当图书馆管理员和教师，不能当医生和律师？因为人们认定她们与男人不仅有差异，而且比他们低等。快乐的家庭主妇和开心的黑人都是被这种歧视定型化的人物。

11. 妇女甚至还没有达到黑人正在达到的。象征性的平等水平。最高法院没有女法官；只有两名妇女曾担任过内阁职位，而现在则无一人在位；我们的驻外大使中只有两位女性。但是妇女却担任着绝大多数低薪职务，干着卑微低贱、没有意义且毫无前途的工作。即便她们获得更好的职位，她们的薪酬也总是比做同样工作的男性要低。

12. 若说这不是歧视，那你说是什么？

13. 几年前，我向一位政治领袖谈及提名一位有前途的青年女性当候选人的事。“干吗非要花费时间和精力去培养一个女的？”他问我，还说：“你清楚她会在我们让她竞选市长时选

择退出，去生儿育女。”

14. 有关我，不少人也说过类似的话。每当我试图在政治上更上一层楼的时候，许多人会劝我回去教书，说那才是妇女的职业，应该把政治留给男人。我热爱教书，在我确信这个国家再也不需要女人作贡献时，我就会立即回去教书。

15. 当这个富裕的国家里没有孩子饿着肚子上床睡觉时，我也许会回去教书；当每个孩子都能上好学校就读时，我也许会回去教书。当我们不再将财富耗费在军事装备上以杀戮人民时，当我们不再容忍对少数族群的歧视时，当惩治住房不公和雇佣不公的法律得以实施而非规避时，那时我在政界也就无事可做了。

16. 但在此之前——我们都知道这既不是今年也不是明年——我们需要更多的妇女投身于政治，因为我们女人可以作出特殊的贡献。我希望自己成功的例子能说服其他妇女投身政治——不仅是装信件，而是竞选职位。

17. 也正是妇女将同情、宽容、远见、耐心和坚毅带到了政府之中——这是我们与生俱来或者是在男权压制下不得不培养出来的品质。一个国家的妇女通过她们自己的生活塑造着国家的道德、宗教和政治。当前，或许我们国家在政治上比在其他任何方面都更需要妇女的理想和决心。

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