How we're honoring people overlooked by history | Amy Padnani

Translator: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

翻译人员: minrui luo 校对人员: psjmz mz

My name is Amy Padnani,

我是艾米·帕纳尼，

and I'm an editor on the obituaries desk at the "New York Times."

我是《纽约时报》负责讣文的编辑，

Or, as some friends call me, the angel of death.

有些朋友会称我为死亡天使。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

In fact, people will ask me,

事实上，大家会问我：

"Isn't it depressing, working on obituaries

“做讣文的工作，时时刻刻想着死亡，

and thinking about death all the time?"

不会很让人沮丧吗？“

But you know what I tell them?

猜猜我怎么回答他们？

Obits aren't about death, they're about life,

讣文的重点不是死，而是生，

they're interesting, they're relatable.

讣文是有趣的，能让人产生共鸣，

Often about something you never knew.

通常会写一些你不知道的事。

Recently, for example,

比如，最近，

we had the obit for the inventor of the sock puppet.

我们为袜子玩偶的发明者写了讣文。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Everyone knows what a sock puppet is,

大家都知道袜子玩偶，

but have you ever thought about who created it,

但你们曾经想过是谁发明的，

or what their life was like?

他们的生活是什么样子的吗？

Obits are a signature form of journalism.

讣文是新闻的一种招牌形式。

An art form, if you will.

也可说是种艺术形式。

It's an opportunity for a writer to weave the tale of a person's life

它是个让作者将一个人的人生故事

into a beautiful narrative.

编织成美丽描述的机会。

Since 1851,

从1851年起，

the "New York Times" has published thousands of obituaries.

《纽约时报》已经刊出了 数以千记的讣文。

For heads of state, famous celebrities,

对象包括州首长、知名的名人，

even the person who came up with the name on the Slinky.

甚至那位将螺旋弹簧玩具 取名为Slinky的人。

There's just one problem.

只有一个问题。

Only a small percentage of them

只有一小部分的讣文

chronicle the lives of women and people of color.

在记录女性和有色人种的人生。

That's the impetus behind a project I created

出于这个动机，我创立了一个项目，

called "Overlooked,"

叫做“被忽略者”，

which tells the stories of marginalized groups of people

目的是帮被边缘化的族群说故事，

who never got an obit.

他们从来没有讣文。

It's a chance for the newspaper to revisit its 168-year existence

这是个机会，能让报社 重温它168年的历史，

and fill in the gaps

去填补那些不论

for people who were, for whatever reason, left out.

因为什么理由而被排除的人的鸿沟。

It's a chance to right the wrongs of the past,

这是个可以修正过去错误的机会，

and to refocus society's lens on who is considered important.

让社会把焦点重新调整 到思考谁是重要的。

I came up with the idea when I first joined Obituaries in 2017.

我是在2017年刚加入讣文团队时 想出的这个点子。

The Black Lives Matter movement was at a rolling boil,

当时“黑人的命也重要”的活动 正如火如荼开展，

and the conversation on gender inequality had just started bubbling up again.

关于性别不平等的对话 又开始冒出来。

And at the same time, I wondered, as a journalist and as a woman of color,

同时，我很纳闷，身为记者 以及有色人种女性，

what could I do to help advance this conversation.

我要怎样做才能协助 促进这场对话？

People were coming out of the shadows

人们开始走出阴影，

to tell stories of injustices that they had faced,

说出他们遭遇到不公的故事，

and I could feel their pain.

我能感受到他们的痛苦。

So I noticed we would get these emails, sometimes, from readers,

我注意到，有时我们会 收到一些读者来信，

saying, "Hey, why don't you have more women and people of color

说：“嘿，为什么你们 不多刊载一些女性

in your obituaries?"

和有色人种的讣告？“

And I thought, "Yeah, why don't we?"

我心想：”是呀，为什么不？“

Since I was new to the team, I asked my colleagues,

因为我才刚进入团队， 我跑去问同事这件事，

and they said, "Well, the people who are dying today

而他们说：”现今过世的人，

are from a generation when women and people of color

在他们那个年代，女性和有色人种

weren't invited to the table to make a difference.

没有被邀请去一起创造不同。

Perhaps in a generation or two,

也许再过一、两个世代，

we'll start to see more women and people of color in our obituaries."

我们就会有更多女性 和有色人种的讣文。”

That answer just wasn't satisfying at all.

这答案一点也不让人满意。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I wanted to know: Where are all the dead women?

我想要知道：逝去的 女性都到哪去了？

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So I started thinking about how we hear about people who have died, right?

于是，我开始思考如何得知人的死讯？

第一的方式是由读者提交。

Number one way is through reader submissions.

And so I thought,

所以，我心想：

"Well, what if we were to look at international newspapers

“如果我们去看国际性的报纸

or scour social media?"

或搜寻社交媒体呢？”

It was around this time when ...

大约在此时……

Everything was swirling in my mind,

我脑中好多想法在转，

and I came across a website about Mary Outerbridge.

我刚好看了一个关于 玛丽奥特布里奇的网站。

She was credited with introducing tennis to America in 1874.

1874 年网球被引入美国是她的功劳。

我心想，哇，这个美国 最盛行的运动之一

And I thought, wow, one of the biggest sports in America

was introduced by a woman?

竟是由女性引入的？

Does anyone even know that?

有人知道这件事吗？

And did she get a New York Times obituary?

《纽约时报》有刊她的讣文吗？

Spoiler alert -- she did not.

剧透警告——答案是没有。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So then I wondered who else we missed.

接著，我开始纳闷 我们还漏了谁？

And it sent me on this deep dive through the archives.

为此，我埋首到档案资料库中。

我找到一些惊喜。

There were some surprises.

The pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells,

发起过对抗私刑的活动

who started the campaign against lynching.

的先驱记者艾达·威尔斯。

The brilliant poet Sylvia Plath.

出色的诗人希薇亚·普拉斯。

Ada Lovelace, a mathematician

数学家爱达·勒芙蕾丝，

now recognized as the first computer programmer.

如今被认可为第一位 电脑程序设计师。

So I went back to my team and I said,

于是对我的团队说：

"What if we were to tell their stories now?"

“如果我们现在来说 她们的故事呢？”

It took a while to get buy-in.

花了一点时间大家才买帐。

There was this concern that, you know,

显然，大家都会担心

the newspaper might look bad

报社可能会难堪，

because it didn't get it right the first time.

因为它在第一次时没有做对。

It was also a little weird to sort of look back at the past,

而且这样做有点怪，回看过去

rather than cover news stories of our day.

而不是报导现今的新故事。

But I said, "Guys, I really think this is worthwhile."

但我说：“各位， 我真的认为这很值得。”

一旦我的团队看到了它的价值，

And once my team saw the value in it,

they were all in.

他们全都加入了。

And so, with the help of a dozen writers and editors,

所以，在十多名 作家和编辑的协助下，

we launched on March 8, 2018,

我们在 2018 年 3 月 8 日发表

with the stories of 15 remarkable women.

并推出了十五位杰出女性的故事。

And while I knew that the work my team was doing was powerful,

虽然我知道我的团队 所做的事很强大，

但我并没料到反响也会同等强大。

I didn't expect the response to be equally powerful.

I had hundreds of emails.

我收到了数百封电子邮件。

They were from people who said,

来信的人写说道：

"Thank you for finally giving these women a voice."

“谢谢你们终于给了这些女性声音。”

They were from readers who said,

来信的读者写说：

"I cried on my way to work, reading these stories,

“我在上班的路上边读这些故事边哭，

because I felt seen for the first time."

因为这是我第一次感到被看见了。”

我的同事来信写道：

And they were from colleagues of mine, who said,

“我从没想过，有色人种女性

"I never thought a woman of color

would be allowed to achieve something like this

会被允许在《纽约时报》

at the 'New York Times.'"

达成这样的成就。”

I also got about 4,000 reader submissions

我还收到来自读者总共约四千个

suggesting who else we might have overlooked.

我们可能忽略掉的人的建议。

And some of those are my favorite stories in the project.

其中有些是这个项目中 我很喜欢的故事。

My all-time favorite is Grandma Gatewood.

我最爱的是盖特伍德祖母。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

She survived 30 years of domestic violence at the hands of her husband.

她在被丈夫家暴 长达三十年后活了下来，

One day, he beat her so badly, beyond recognition,

有一次，他把她打到不成人形，

he even broke a broomstick over her head,

甚至用帚柄打她的头， 直到帚柄断掉，

and she threw flour in his face in response.

她的回应是朝他的脸丢面粉。

But when the police arrived, they arrested her, not him.

但警察抵达时，他们逮捕 的是她，而不是他。

The mayor saw her in jail and took her into his own home

市长到监狱去看她，把她带到自己家中， 直到她可以振作起来。

until she could get back on her feet.

接著，有一天，她读到

Then, one day, she read this article in "National Geographic"

《国家地理杂志》的一篇文章，

about how no woman had ever hiked

提到没有任何女性

the Appalachian Trail in its entirety alone.

曾独自走完阿帕拉契小径。

And she said, "You know what? I'm going to do it."

她说：“你知道吗？让我来吧！”

Reporters caught wind of the old grandma who is hiking through the woods.

记者听到风声，得知有个 老奶奶在健行穿越树林。

And at the finish, they asked her,

在终点，他们问她：

"How did you survive so rough a place?"

“你是怎么撑过这么困苦的地方的？”

But they had no idea what she had survived before that.

他们并不知道她之前撑过怎样的情况。

So, "Overlooked" has become wildly successful.

于是，“被忽略者”获得了广泛的成功。

It's becoming a TV show now, on Netflix.

它即将被改编成电视剧在网飞上播出。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

I cannot wait to see this thing come to life.

我等不及看到它推出了。

Something like 25 different publishers have reached out to me

大概有25家出版商来找过我，

with interest in turning "Overlooked" into a book.

他们有兴趣以书的形式 出版“被忽略者”。

All of this clearly shows how timely and necessary this project is.

这一切都显示，这个计划推出 得多是时候，且多么必要。

It's also a reminder of how newspapers

它也有提醒作用，

报纸记录了我们的世界中 每天所发生的事，

document what's happening in our world every single day,

and we have to make sure not to leave out key people.

我们得要确保重要人物不被遗漏。

That's why, even though it's been so meaningful to look back in the past,

这就是为什么虽然回顾过去 是很有意义的，

I'm plagued with the lingering question:

但我仍然不断想一个问题：

"What about the future of obituaries --

“讣文的未来是什么——

how do I diversify those?"

我要如何做到多样化？”

That was my original problem, right?

那是我最初的问题，对吧？

So to start answering this question, I wanted to gather some information.

所以，为了回答这个问题， 我想要收集一些信息。

I went down to the sub-sub-basement level of the New York Times Building,

我跑到纽约时报大楼的 深层地下室，

to the archives.

去档案库。

We call it the morgue.

我们叫它停尸间。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And I asked for some guidance from our archivist there.

我向那裡的档案管理员询求指引。

He pointed me to a book called "New York Times Obituaries Index."

他介绍给我一本叫做 《纽约时报讣文索引》的书。

So we handed it to the New York Genealogical Society,

我们把书交给纽约家谱协会，

and they digitized it for us.

他们协助制作了电子书。

And then a programmer wrote up a program that scanned all those headlines

接著，一位程序设计师写了 一个程序来扫所有的标题，

for "Mr.," Mrs.," "Lady," "Sir," all the sort of gender-defining terms.

找出和性别相关的词，例如 “先生”、“太太”、“女士”。

And what we found was that from 1851 to 2017,

我们发现，从 1851 年到 2017 年，

only about 15 to 20 percent of our obits were on women.

只有 15%~20% 的讣文 是女性的讣文。

So next, I worked with a programmer to build this tool,

接著，我和一名程序设计师合作，

called the diversity analysis tool.

建造了一个多样性分析工具。

It's a very dry name, but bear with me, it's super helpful.

这名字很枯燥，但忍耐一下， 它非常有帮助。

It breaks down the percentage of our obits month to month, women to men.

它能将讣文细分成每个月， 从女性到男性，来计算百分比。

OK, if that doesn't sound like much to you,

如果你觉得这听起来没什么，

this is how I used to calculate it before.

我以前都是这么做的。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So I asked this programmer to program in a goal,

所以我请程序设计师 把目标值写进程序，

and that goal was 30 percent.

目标值是 30%。

From the year of "Overlooked's" launch, March of 2018,

从“被忽略者”推出的那一年， 2018 年 3 月，

to March of 2019,

到 2019 年 3 月，

I was hoping we could get to 30 percent of our obits on women.

我希望能达成 女性讣文占30%的目标。

It was a number we hadn't achieved in a 168 years,

这是 168 年来我们 都没有达到的数字，

and I'm happy to say we did it -- we got to 31 percent.

我很高兴告诉各位， 我们做到了——达到 31%。

(Applause)

（掌声）

It's awesome, but it's not enough.

那很棒，但还不够。

Next we're hoping to get to 35 percent,

接著，我们希望能达到 35%，

and then 40 percent, until we achieve parity.

接著 40%，直到和男性平等。

And then I'm hoping to partner with this programmer again,

接著，我希望能再和 这位程序设计师合作，

to build a similar tool to measure people of color in our obits.

写一个类似的工具来测量 有多少是有色人种的讣文。

That was something I wanted to do with "Overlooked" too,

我也想在“被忽略者”计划裡纳入

有色人种男性，

to include men of color,

而这也终于成真了， 我们有个特殊区块

and I finally got to do it with a special section

“黑人历史月”。

for Black History Month,

where we told the stories of about a dozen black men and women.

在这裡我们会诉说数十位 黑人男性和女性的故事。

Again, it was a really powerful experience.

同样的，这也是很强大的体验。

Many of these people had been slaves

这些人当中有许多曾经是奴隶，

or were a generation removed from slavery.

或是到那个世代才脱离奴隶制度。

A lot of them had to make up stories about their past

当中许多人需要捏造自己的过去

just to get ahead in life.

才能够在人生中前行。

And there were these patterns of their struggles

他们的挣扎有着相同的模式，

一而再再而三地出现。

that came up again and again.

Elizabeth Jennings, for instance,

比如，伊莉莎白·詹宁斯

had to fight for her right to ride

努力争取权力，

想要在纽约市乘坐 种族隔离的电车——

on segregated street cars in New York City --

a hundred years before Rosa Parks did the exact same thing with buses.

一百年后，罗莎·帕克斯做了 同样的事，只是换成了公车。

It was just a reminder of how far we've come,

这是在提醒我们 现在有了多少进步，

and how much more we still have left to do.

以及我们还有多少该去做的。

"Overlooked" is including other marginalized people as well.

“被忽略者”还要纳入 其他被边缘化的人。

Recently, we had the obit for the computer programmer Alan Turing.

最近，我们为程序设计师 艾伦·图灵写了讣文。

Believe it or not, this brilliant man never got an obituary,

信不信由你，这位才子 从来没有过讣文，

even though his work

即使他写的程序在二次世界大战中

decoding German messages during World War II

破解了德国的加密讯息，

helps end the war.

协助终结战争。

Instead, he died a criminal for his sexual orientation,

他反而因为性取向， 以罪犯的身分死去，

and he was forced to endure chemical castration.

还被迫忍受化学阉割。

Great things, like this obits project, do not come easily.

伟大的事，像这个讣文 计划，都很不容易。

There were a lot of fits and starts

当我努力试图说服大家

as I worked hard to convince people it was worth getting it off the ground.

这个项目很值得推行时， 也遇到很多波折。

There were moments when I faced great self-doubt.

有些时候，我也会强烈怀疑自己。

I wondered if I was crazy or if I was all alone,

我很纳闷我是否疯了 或是否孤立无援，

and if I should just give up.

该不该放弃？

When I've seen the reaction to this project,

当我看到公众对这个项目的反应，

I know I'm not at all alone.

我知道我并不孤单。

There's so many people who feel the way I do.

有很多人跟我有一样的感受。

And so yeah, not many people think about obituaries.

所以，是的，很少有人 会去思考讣文。

But when you do, you realize they're a testament to a human life.

但如果你去试著思考讣文， 会发现它们是人生的证明。

They're the last chance to talk about somebody's contribution on the world.

它们是谈论一个人在世界上 做了什麽贡献的最后机会。

They were also an example of who society deemed important.

它们也是说明社会重视 什么人的一个例子。

一百年后，

A hundred years from now,

somebody could be looking into the past to see what our time was like.

会有人回顾过去， 看看我们的时代是怎样的。

I'm lucky, as a journalist,

我很幸运，身为记者，

to have been able to have used this form of storytelling

我能够使用这种说故事的形式

to help shift a narrative.

来协助转变说故事的方式。

I was also able to get an established institution

我也让一间有信誉的机构

to question its own status quo.

能够去质疑它自己的现况。

Little by little, I'm hoping I can keep doing this work,

我希望我能一点一点 继续进行这项工作，

and continue refocusing society's lens

继续改变社会的焦点，

so that nobody else gets overlooked.

不要让任何人被忽略。

Thank you.

谢谢。

（掌声）

(Applause)