Brittney Cooper: The racial politics of time | TED

翻译人员: Garett Tok 校对人员: Jiawei Ni

What if I told you that time has a race,

若我告诉你们，时间有个种族，

a race in the contemporary way that we understand race

一个我们在美国所了解与分类的种族，

in the United States?

你们会有什么想法？

Typically, we talk about race in terms of black and white issues.

通常，我们谈种族时会分“黑”与“白”事件来商量。

In the African-American communities from which I come,

在我来自的非裔美国人社区里，

we have a long-standing multi-generational joke

我们有个代代相传的笑话

关于我们所称的“CP时间”

about what we call "CP time,"

or "colored people's time."

或“有色人种时间”。

Now, we no longer refer to African-Americans as "colored,"

虽然我们现在已不称非裔美国人为“有色人种”，

but this long-standing joke

但这关于我们到教堂，

about our perpetual lateness to church,

到聚会，到家庭活动，

to cookouts, to family events

and even to our own funerals, remains.

甚至到自己的葬礼都迟到的笑话还存在。

I personally am a stickler for time.

我本身很注重时间。

It's almost as if my mother, when I was growing up, said,

好似我在长大的时候，妈妈向我强调说：

"We will not be those black people."

“我们不会与其他‘黑人’一样。”

So we typically arrive to events 30 minutes early.

就这样，我们去哪里都通常早到三十分钟。

But today, I want to talk to you more about the political nature of time,

可今天， 我想与你们探讨的是时间的政治性质，

for if time had a race,

因为时间若有个种族，

it would be white.

那时间肯定是白色人种。

White people own time.

白色人种是时间的主人。

I know, I know.

我知道，我知道。

Making such "incendiary statements" makes us uncomfortable:

这些“挑衅的陈述”会让我们不舒服。

Haven't we moved past the point where race really matters?

我们不早已化解了种族的区分了吗？

Isn't race a heavy-handed concept?

种族毕竟是个粗鲁的概念，

Shouldn't we go ahead with our enlightened, progressive selves

而明智，英明的我们，是不是应该

and relegate useless concepts like race to the dustbins of history?

把种族这类无用的概念给丢掉呢？

How will we ever get over racism if we keep on talking about race?

若我们一直谈种族，我们怎能希望克服种族主义呢？

Perhaps we should lock up our concepts of race in a time capsule,

也许我们得把所拥有的种族概念放进时间胶囊里，

bury them and dig them up in a thousand years,

把它埋葬。

等到一千年后， 当我们变得更开明，

peer at them with the clearly more enlightened,

当我们不再以种族分类时， 再研究我们对种族所有的概念。

raceless versions of ourselves that belong to the future.

But you see there,

但你们看，

that desire to mitigate the impact of race and racism shows up

减轻种族主义的影响是由我们

in how we attempt to manage time,

如何管理时间,

in the ways we narrate history,

如何叙述历史，

in the ways we attempt to shove the negative truths of the present

如何把消极的真相埋进历史，

into the past,

如何议论证明理想的未来

in the ways we attempt to argue that the future that we hope for

是我们现在所居住的世界，所看得出的。

is the present in which we're currently living.

Now, when Barack Obama became President of the US in 2008,

当贝拉克·奥巴马在2008年担任美国总统时，

many Americans declared that we were post-racial.

美国人大部分宣布美国以克服了种族观念。

I'm from the academy

我来自的学派迷恋着什么东西都得加个“后”。

where we're enamored with being post-everything.

We're postmodern, we're post-structural, we're post-feminist.

我们是后现代，后结构，后女权主义者。

"Post" has become a simple academic appendage

“后”这个字以成为了一个简单的字首。

that we apply to a range of terms

所有个“后”字的词代表了我们之前的状况。

to mark the way we were.

But prefixes alone don't have the power to make race and racism

可单单一个字首是没有能够把种族概念与种族主义

a thing of the past.

完全消失的能力。

The US was never "pre-race."

美国向来就有种族观念。

So to claim that we're post-race when we have yet to grapple with the impact

因此， 当我们还没完全了解到种族区分

of race on black people, Latinos or the indigenous

在黑人，拉丁美洲人，和土著的影响，

要宣称自己已成为了 一个“后种族概念”的社会可不诚实。

is disingenuous.

Just about the moment we were preparing to celebrate

就当我们准备庆祝

our post-racial future,

我们“后种族概念”的未来，

our political conditions became the most racial they've been

我们的政治环境是近50年

in the last 50 years.

最关注种族的政治环境。

So today, I want to offer to you three observations,

所以今天，我想把关于 时间的过去，现在，与未来的

about the past, the present and the future of time,

三个观察与你们分享，

as it relates to the combating of racism and white dominance.

因为它对克服白色主义与种族主义有个联系。

First: the past.

首先，谈过去。

Time has a history,

时间有个历史，

and so do black people.

黑人也有个历史。

But we treat time as though it is timeless,

但我们把时间当成永恒，

as though it has always been this way,

好似一向来都是这样，

as though it doesn't have a political history

好似它与

bound up with the plunder of indigenous lands,

土著的土地掠夺，

土著的种族灭绝

the genocide of indigenous people

与非洲人的家园被偷走无关。

and the stealing of Africans from their homeland.

When white male European philosophers

当欧洲白种男性思想家

first thought to conceptualize time and history, one famously declared,

起初想到把时间与历史概念化，其中一个宣布：

"[Africa] is no historical part of the World."

“非洲在世界历史上没位子。”

He was essentially saying

他的含义是

that Africans were people outside of history

非洲人在历史没部分，

who had had no impact on time

对时间没影响，

or the march of progress.

对进展没贡献。

This idea, that black people have had no impact on history,

这“黑人对历史没影响”的想法

is one of the foundational ideas of white supremacy.

是白色至上的基本思想之一。

It's the reason that Carter G. Woodson created "Negro History Week" in 1926.

也是卡特·伍德森在1926年创造“黑人历史周”的原因。

It's the reason that we continue to celebrate Black History Month

也是我们在美国每二月份庆祝“黑人历史月”的原因。

in the US every February.

Now, we also see this idea

我们也看得出一种概念说

that black people are people either alternately outside of the bounds of time

黑人只能在时间的边界外面

or stuck in the past,

或被卡在过去的概念，

in a scenario where, much as I'm doing right now,

在一个好似现在的情形，

a black person stands up and insists that racism still matters,

有个黑人站起来，坚持种族主义值得我们的关注，

and a person, usually white,

而有个人，通常一个白人

says to them,

问他：

"Why are you stuck in the past?

”你们为什么还卡在过去的概念？“

Why can't you move on?

"为何不能走向未来？

We have a black president.

我们已经有个黑人总统，

We're past all that."

很明显看得出我们早已克服了种族主义。”

William Faulkner famously said,

威廉·福克納曾经说过，

"The past is never dead.

“历史不是死的。历史根本还没过去。”

It's not even past."

But my good friend Professor Kristie Dotson says,

但我好朋友克莉斯蒂·多森教授说

"Our memory is longer than our lifespan."

“我们的记忆比我们的寿命长。”

We carry, all of us,

我们都背着

family and communal hopes and dreams with us.

家庭与社区的希望与梦想。

We don't have the luxury of letting go of the past.

我们没法放下过去。

But sometimes,

可有时，

our political conditions are so troubling

我们的政治状态让人忧虑，

that we don't know if we're living in the past

让我们不知道现在是活在过去

or we're living in the present.

还是活在现在。

Take, for instance, when Black Lives Matter protesters

比如所，当“黑人的命也是命”抗议者

go out to protest unjust killings of black citizens by police,

出去抗议警方不公正的杀死黑人公民，

and the pictures that emerge from the protest

所拍出来的照片好似有可能是在五十年前拍的。

look like they could have been taken 50 years ago.

The past won't let us go.

历史可不放过我们。

But still, let us press our way into the present.

研究了历史，就得看看现在的情况。

At present, I would argue

我认为当今

that the racial struggles we are experiencing

所经验的种族挣扎

are clashes over time and space.

是关于时间与空间的挣扎。

What do I mean?

这是什么意思呢？

Well, I've already told you that white people own time.

我已告诉你们白人是时间的主人。

Those in power dictate the pace of the workday.

他们有权控制工作日的步伐，

They dictate how much money our time is actually worth.

有权控制时间与金钱的价值。

And Professor George Lipsitz argues

而乔治·利比茨教授认为

that white people even dictate the pace of social inclusion.

白人甚至有控制社会包容步伐的权利。

They dictate how long it will actually take

他们控制少数种族需要多长的时间

for minority groups to receive the rights that they have been fighting for.

才能得到所争取的基本权利。

Let me loop back to the past quickly to give you an example.

让我很快地从历史中举个列子。

If you think about the Civil Rights Movement

若你们想想看， 人民权利运动领导“自由”的喊叫

and the cries of its leaders for "Freedom Now,"

they were challenging the slow pace of white social inclusion.

是挑战白人社会包容的慢步伐。

By 1965, the year the Voting Rights Act was passed,

1965年，投票权法案终于被执行，

there had been a full 100 years

非裔美国人得到了投票的权利，

between the end of the Civil War

and the conferral of voting rights on African-American communities.

可这个时刻离南北战争已经有整整一百年。

Despite the urgency of a war,

虽然社会的分裂是导致战争的主要原因之一，

it still took a full 100 years for actual social inclusion to occur.

但却需要了整整一百年才得到所欲求的社会包容。

Since 2012,

而自2012年，

conservative state legislatures across the US have ramped up attempts

美国保守州的立法团体设法

to roll back African-American voting rights

去掉非裔美国人的投票权利。

by passing restrictive voter ID laws

他们执行限制性的选民法律，

and curtailing early voting opportunities.

缩短早期投票的机会。

This past July, a federal court struck down North Carolina's voter ID law

去年七月份，联邦法庭驳回了 北卡罗来纳的选民法律，

saying it "... targeted African-Americans with surgical precision."

说所执行的法律“特地对准非裔美国人，”

Restricting African-American inclusion in the body politic

限制非裔美国人的融入

is a primary way that we attempt to manage and control people

是我们管理与控制时间与人的主要方式。

by managing and controlling time.

But another place that we see these time-space clashes

但有我们也在如亚特兰大，布鲁克林里

is in gentrifying cities like Atlanta, Brooklyn,

费城，新奥尔良和华盛顿特区

Philadelphia, New Orleans and Washington, DC --

这些住着代代黑人的城市里

places that have had black populations for generations.

见证了同类的时间-空间的挣扎。

But now, in the name of urban renewal and progress,

可现在，以城市化与进展之名，

these communities are pushed out,

以“把他们带进21世纪”的理由，

in service of bringing them into the 21st century.

黑人渐渐被推出他们所居住的地方。

Professor Sharon Holland asked:

雪伦·荷兰教授问道：

What happens when a person who exists in time

当一个只存在时间的人遇到一个只存在空间的人

meets someone who only occupies space?

会发生什么事？

These racial struggles

这些种族挣扎

are battles over those who are perceived to be space-takers

都是被视为空间占位者的人与

and those who are perceived to be world-makers.

被视为世界创作者的人的战争。

Those who control the flow and thrust of history

控制历史走向的人，

are considered world-makers who own and master time.

被视为时间的主人，世界的创造者。

In other words: white people.

换句话来讲：这些人是白人。

But when Hegel famously said that Africa was no historical part of the world,

但当黑格尔著名的说非洲不属于世界的历史，

he implied that it was merely a voluminous land mass

他默示非洲只是片体积大的土地

taking up space at the bottom of the globe.

在地球的底部占位子。

Africans were space-takers.

默示非洲人是空间占位者。

So today, white people continue to control the flow and thrust of history,

因此今天白人继续控制时间的走向，

while too often treating black people as though we are merely taking up space

而黑人被视为单单的空间占位者，

to which we are not entitled.

而且所占位的空间不属于我们。

Time and the march of progress is used to justify

时间与进展被用来辩解

a stunning degree of violence towards our most vulnerable populations,

我们对弱势群体暴力的一大部分。

who, being perceived as space-takers rather than world-makers,

这些弱势群体被视为 空间占位者而不是世界创造者，

are moved out of the places where they live,

被逼出所居住的地方，

in service of bringing them into the 21st century.

以把他们带入21世纪。

Shortened life span according to zip code is just one example of the ways

当生命根据邮编而缩短或加长，

that time and space cohere in an unjust manner

我们可以看出黑人得到不公平的时空凝聚

in the lives of black people.

的例子之一。

Children who are born in New Orleans zip code 70124,

新奥尔良邮编70124的社区里有93%白人，

which is 93 percent white,

而里面居住的孩子

can expect to live a full 25 years longer

可以比居住在新奥尔良邮编70112，

than children born in New Orleans zip code 70112,

一个60%黑人的社区，

which is 60 percent black.

长活25年。

Children born in Washington, DC's wealthy Maryland suburbs

被生进华盛顿的富有马里兰郊区

can expect to live a full 20 years longer

比生进市中心邻里的孩子

than children born in its downtown neighborhoods.

长活20年。

Ta-Nehisi Coates argues

塔-纳伊西·科特说道：

that, "The defining feature of being drafted into the Black race

“逃不掉的时间抢劫是黑人的特征。”

is the inescapable robbery of time."

We experience time discrimination,

我们经历的时间歧视，

he tells us,

not just as structural,

不只是社会结构里的歧视，

but as personal:

但也是私人的歧视：

in lost moments of joy,

在所失去的欢乐时光，

lost moments of connection,

所失去与人联系的时刻，

lost quality of time with loved ones

所失去与亲人的宝贵时光，

and lost years of healthy quality of life.

与所失去的健康生活水平显明。

In the future, do you see black people?

你们所想象的未来有黑人的位置吗？

Do black people have a future?

黑人有未来吗？

What if you belong to the very race of people

如果你们属于一向来与时间竞争的种族，

who have always been pitted against time?

你们会做什么呢？

What if your group is the group for whom a future was never imagined?

如果你们属于一个被忽略的种族， 你们会做什么呢？

These time-space clashes --

这些时间-空间的挣扎，

between protesters and police,

抗议者与警方之间，

between gentrifiers and residents --

外人与居民之间 ，

don't paint a very pretty picture

描述出一个美国对黑人

of what America hopes for black people's future.

一个很惨淡的未来。

If the present is any indicator,

若现今状况是个指示，

our children will be under-educated,

非裔美国人的孩子会继续接受匮乏的教育，

health maladies will take their toll

疾病会持续存在，

and housing will continue to be unaffordable.

房租会继续增加。

So if we're really ready to talk about the future,

所以如果我们真正的准备谈一下未来，

perhaps we should begin by admitting that we're out of time.

也许我们应该先承认我们没时间了。

We black people have always been out of time.

我们黑人一向来没有时间。

Time does not belong to us.

时间不属于我们。

Our lives are lives of perpetual urgency.

我们的生命永远存在紧迫感。

Time is used to displace us,

时间被利用来位移我们，

or conversely, we are urged into complacency

或不断地叫我们有点耐心，

through endless calls to just be patient.

催我们放松心情。

But if past is prologue,

但如果过去是个序幕，

let us seize upon the ways in which we're always out of time anyway

那么，让我们抓住每一天，

to demand with urgency

以紧急的心态

freedom now.

要求我们的自由。

I believe the future is what we make it.

我相信未来是由我们来创造。

But first, we have to decide that time belongs to all of us.

但我们得先了解到：时间是我们大家的。

No, we don't all get equal time,

不，我们所拥有的时间都不一样，

but we can decide that the time we do get is just and free.

但我们可以以公正的方式 利用我们的时间。

We can stop making your zip code the primary determinant

我们可以停止让邮编成为我们寿命的

of your lifespan.

主要影响因素之一。

We can stop stealing learning time from black children

我们可以停止以过度驱逐

through excessive use of suspensions and expulsions.

从黑人孩子的身上偷走宝贵的学习时间。

We can stop stealing time from black people

我们可以停止以过度监禁

through long periods of incarceration for nonviolent crimes.

从黑人偷走时间。

The police can stop stealing time and black lives

警方可以控制所用的势力

through use of excessive force.

以避免偷走黑人的时间和性命。

I believe the future is what we make it.

我相信未来是由我们来创造。

But we can't get there on colored people's time

可我们不能仅靠有色人种的时间，

or white time

白人的时间，

or your time

你的时间，

or even my time.

甚至我的时间，来达到理想的未来。

It's our time.

时间，是我们的。

Ours.

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）