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

Translator: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

My name is Amy Padnani,

我是艾咪•帕納尼，

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

負責《紐約時報》訃文的編輯。

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

或者，有些朋友會稱我為死亡天使。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

In fact, people will ask me,

事實上，大家會問我：

"Isn't it depressing, working on obituaries

「做訃文的工作， 時時刻刻想著死亡，

and thinking about death all the time?"

不會很讓人沮喪嗎？」

But you know what I tell them?

猜猜我怎麼回答他們？

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

訃文的重點不是死，而是生，

they're interesting, they're relatable.

訃文是有趣的，讓人能體會的。

Often about something you never knew.

通常會寫一些你不知道的事。

Recently, for example,

比如，最近，

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

我們為襪子玩偶的發明者寫了訃文。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Everyone knows what a sock puppet is,

大家都知道襪子玩偶，

but have you ever thought about who created it,

但你們曾經想過是誰發明的，

or what their life was like?

他們的生活是什麼樣子的嗎？

Obits are a signature form of journalism.

訃文是極具新聞報導特色的文體。

An art form, if you will.

也可說是種藝術形式。

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

它讓作者有機會 將一個人的人生故事

編織成美麗的描述。

into a beautiful narrative.

Since 1851,

從 1851 年起，

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

《紐約時報》已經刊出了 數以千計的訃文。

For heads of state, famous celebrities,

對象包括元首、名人，

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

甚至那位將螺旋彈簧玩具 取名為 Slinky 的人。

There's just one problem.

只有一個問題。

Only a small percentage of them

只有一小部分的訃文

chronicle the lives of women and people of color.

是在記錄女性和有色人種的人生。

That's the impetus behind a project I created

出於這個動機，

我創立了叫做「被忽略」的計畫，

called "Overlooked,"

which tells the stories of marginalized groups of people

目的是幫被邊緣化的族群說故事，

who never got an obit.

他們從來沒有訃文。

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

這是個機會，讓報社能 重溫它 168 年的歷史，

and fill in the gaps

為那些不論因為什麼理由 而被排除的人，

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

將間隙補起來。

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

這是個可以修正過去的錯誤的機會，

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

重新調整社會的焦點， 重新思考誰是重要的。

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

我是在 2017 年剛加入 訃文團隊時想出這個點子。

The Black Lives Matter movement was at a rolling boil,

當時「黑命貴」活動 正如火如荼展開，

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

關於性別不平等的談話 又開始冒出來。

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

同時，我很納悶， 身為記者以及有色人種女性，

what could I do to help advance this conversation.

我要怎麼做才能協助 促進這種談話？

People were coming out of the shadows

大家開始走出陰影，

to tell stories of injustices that they had faced,

說出他們遭遇到不公的故事，

and I could feel their pain.

我能感受到他們的痛苦。

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

我注意到，有時我們 會收到一些讀者來信，

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

說：「嘿，為什麼你們不多刋載

一些女性和有色人種的訃文？」

in your obituaries?"

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

我心想：「是啊，為什麼不？」

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

因為我才剛進入團隊， 我跑去問同事這件事，

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

而他們說：「現今過世的人，

are from a generation when women and people of color

在他們生活的年代，

女性和有色人種 不會被邀請一起創造不同。

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

Perhaps in a generation or two,

也許再過一、兩個世代，

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

我們就會有更多女性 和有色人種的訃文。」

That answer just wasn't satisfying at all.

這答案一點也不讓人滿意。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

我想要知道：死掉的 女性都到哪去了？

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

所以，我開始思考， 我們如何得知人的死訊？

Number one way is through reader submissions.

排名第一的方式是由讀者提交。

And so I thought,

所以，我心想：

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

「如果我們去看國際性的報紙

or scour social media?"

或搜尋社交媒體呢？」

It was around this time when ...

大約在此時……

Everything was swirling in my mind,

我腦中好多想法在轉，

and I came across a website about Mary Outerbridge.

我剛好看了一個關於 瑪麗•奧特布里奇的網站。

She was credited with introducing tennis to America in 1874.

1874 年網球被引入 美國是她的功勞。

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

我心想，哇，這是美國 最盛行的運動之一，

was introduced by a woman?

竟是由女性引入的？

Does anyone even know that?

有人知道這件事嗎？

And did she get a New York Times obituary?

《紐約時報》有刊她的訃文嗎？

Spoiler alert -- she did not.

警告，有雷——答案是沒有。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So then I wondered who else we missed.

接著，我開始納悶還漏了誰？

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

為此，我埋首到檔案資料庫中。

There were some surprises.

我找到一些驚喜。

The pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells,

先驅記者艾達•威爾斯

who started the campaign against lynching.

發起一個反私刑的活動。

The brilliant poet Sylvia Plath.

出色的詩人希薇亞•普拉斯。

Ada Lovelace, a mathematician

數學家愛達•勒芙蕾絲

now recognized as the first computer programmer.

如今被公認是首位電腦程式設計師。

So I went back to my team and I said,

我回去告訴我的團隊：

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

「如果我們現在來說 她們的故事呢？」

It took a while to get buy-in.

花了一點時間大家才買帳。

There was this concern that, you know,

你們知道的，大家都會擔心

the newspaper might look bad

報社可能會難堪，

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

因為它在第一次時沒有做對。

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

而且這樣做有點怪， 因為我們回頭看過去，

rather than cover news stories of our day.

而不是報導現今的新故事。

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

但，我說：「各位， 我真的認為這很值得。」

And once my team saw the value in it,

一旦我的團隊看到了它的價值，

they were all in.

他們全都加入了。

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

所以，在十多名作家 和編輯的協助下，

we launched on March 8, 2018,

我們在 2018 年 3 月 8 日發表，

with the stories of 15 remarkable women.

推出十五位傑出女性的故事。

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

雖然我知道我的團隊 所做的事很強大，

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

但我並沒有預期到 得到的反應也會同等強大。

I had hundreds of emails.

我收到數百封電子郵件。

They were from people who said,

來信的人寫說：

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

「謝謝你們終於 給了這些女性聲音。」

They were from readers who said,

來信的讀者寫說：

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

「我去上班的路上 邊讀這些故事邊哭，

because I felt seen for the first time."

因為這是我第一次 感到被看見了。 」

And they were from colleagues of mine, who said,

我的同事來信，寫說：

"I never thought a woman of color

「我從沒想過，有色人種女性

would be allowed to achieve something like this

會被允許在《紐約時報》 達成這樣子的成就。」

at the 'New York Times.'"

I also got about 4,000 reader submissions

我還收到來自讀者的建議，

總共有大約四千個 我們可能忽略掉的人。

suggesting who else we might have overlooked.

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

其中有一些是這個計畫中 我很喜歡的故事。

My all-time favorite is Grandma Gatewood.

我最愛的是蓋特伍德祖母。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

她被丈夫家暴了三十年後倖存下來。

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,

他甚至用帚柄打她的頭， 打到帚柄斷掉，

and she threw flour in his face in response.

她的反應是朝他的臉丟麵粉。

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

但警察抵達的時候， 他們逮捕的是她，不是他。

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

市長到監獄去看她， 把她帶到他自己的家中，

until she could get back on her feet.

直到她能再站起來。

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

接著，有一天，她讀到 《國家地理雜誌》的一篇文章，

about how no woman had ever hiked

提到沒有任何女性曾經

the Appalachian Trail in its entirety alone.

單獨健行走完過阿帕拉契小徑。

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

她說：「你知道嗎？讓我來吧！」

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

記者聽到風聲，得知 老祖母在健行穿越樹林。

And at the finish, they asked her,

在終點，他們問她：

"How did you survive so rough a place?"

「你是怎麼撐過 這麼困苦的地方？」

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

但他們不知道她之前 撐過怎樣的情況。

So, "Overlooked" has become wildly successful.

所以，「被忽略」獲得廣大的成功。

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

它即將變成網飛上的電視節目。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

(Applause)

（掌聲）

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

大概有二十五家出版商來找過我，

with interest in turning "Overlooked" into a book.

他們有興趣將「被忽略」 出版成書。

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

這一切都顯示，這個計畫 推出得多是時候，且多麼必要。

It's also a reminder of how newspapers

它也有提醒作用，

報紙記錄了我們的世界中 每天所發生的事，

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

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

我們得要確保 沒有重要的人被遺漏。

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

那就是何以回顧過去雖然有意義，

I'm plagued with the lingering question:

但我仍然不斷想著一個問題：

"What about the future of obituaries --

「訃文的未來是什麼——

how do I diversify those?"

我要如何做到多元化？」

That was my original problem, right?

那是我最原始的問題，對吧？

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

所以，為了開始回答這個問題， 我想要收集一些資訊。

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

我跑到紐約時報大樓 地下室之下再下兩層，

to the archives.

去檔案庫。

We call it the morgue.

我們叫它停屍間。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And I asked for some guidance from our archivist there.

我向那裡的檔案管理員詢求指引。

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

他介紹我一本書， 叫做《紐約時報訃文索引》。

So we handed it to the New York Genealogical Society,

我們把書交給紐約宗譜協會，

and they digitized it for us.

他們協助將書做數位化。

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

接著，一位程式設計師寫了 一個程式來掃過所有的標題，

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

找出和性別相關的詞，例如 「先生」、「太太」、「女士」。

And what we found was that from 1851 to 2017,

我們發現，從 1851 年到 2017 年，

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

只有 15% 至 20% 的訃文 是女性的訃文。

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

接著，我和一名程式設計師合作，

called the diversity analysis tool.

建造了一個多樣性分析工具。

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

這個名字很枯燥，但忍耐一下， 因為它很有幫助。

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

它能將訃文細分成每個月， 女性和男性，並計算百分比。

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

如果你覺得這聽起來沒什麼，

this is how I used to calculate it before.

我以前的做法是這樣。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So I asked this programmer to program in a goal,

所以我請程式設計師 把目標值寫進程式，

and that goal was 30 percent.

目標值是 30%。

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

從「被忽略」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.

我希望能達成 30% 的訃文 是女性的訃文。

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

這是 168 年來我們 都沒有達到的數字，

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

我很高興告訴各位， 我們做到了——達到 31%。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

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

那很棒，但還不夠。

Next we're hoping to get to 35 percent,

接著，我們希望能達到 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 再和這位程式設計師合作，

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

寫一個類似的工具來測量 有多少是有色人種的訃文。

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

我也想在「被忽略」計畫裡 納入有色人種男性，

to include men of color,

而這也終於成真了，我們有個 特殊區塊「黑人歷史月」。

and I finally got to do it with a special section

for Black History Month,

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

在這裡我們會訴說數十位 黑人男性和女性的故事。

Again, it was a really powerful experience.

同樣的，這也是很強大的體驗。

Many of these people had been slaves

這些人當中有許多曾經是奴隸，

or were a generation removed from slavery.

或是到那個世代才脫離奴隸制度。

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

當中許多人得要捏造自己的過去，

just to get ahead in life.

才能夠在人生中向前行。

And there were these patterns of their struggles

他們的掙扎有著相同的模式，

that came up again and again.

一而再再而三地出現。

Elizabeth Jennings, for instance,

比如，伊莉莎白•詹寧斯 努力爭取權力，

had to fight for her right to ride

想要在紐約市乘坐 種族隔離的電車——

on segregated street cars in New York City --

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

一百年後，羅莎•帕克斯做了 同樣的事，只是換成公車。

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

這只是在提醒我們 現在有了多少進步，

and how much more we still have left to do.

以及還有多少有待我們去做。

"Overlooked" is including other marginalized people as well.

「被忽略」還要納入 其他被邊緣化的人。

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

我們最近為程式設計師 艾倫•圖靈寫了訃文。

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

信不信由你，這位才子 從來沒有被刊上訃文，

even though his work

即使他寫的程式在二次世界大戰中 破解了德國的加密訊息，

decoding German messages during World War II

helps end the war.

協助終結戰爭。

Instead, he died a criminal for his sexual orientation,

他反而因為性向， 以罪犯的身分死去，

and he was forced to endure chemical castration.

他還被迫忍受化學閹割。

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

偉大的事，像這個訃文計畫， 都很不容易。

There were a lot of fits and starts

當我努力試圖說服大家 這個計畫很值得推行時，

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

也遇到很多波折。

There were moments when I faced great self-doubt.

有些時候，我也會強烈懷疑自己。

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

我很納悶我是否瘋了 或是否孤立無援，

and if I should just give up.

我該不該放棄？

When I've seen the reaction to this project,

當我看到這個計畫的反應，

I know I'm not at all alone.

我知道我並不孤單。

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

有好多人跟我有一樣的感受。

And so yeah, not many people think about obituaries.

沒錯，很少人會去思考訃文。

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

但如果你去試著思考訃文， 會發現它們是人生的證明。

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

它們是談論一個人在世界上 做了什麼貢獻的最後機會。

They were also an example of who society deemed important.

它們也是個例子， 說明社會重視什麼人。

A hundred years from now,

一百年後，

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

會有人回顧過去， 看看我們的時代是怎樣的。

I'm lucky, as a journalist,

我很幸運，身為記者，

to have been able to have used this form of storytelling

我能夠使用這種說故事的形式

to help shift a narrative.

來協助轉變說故事的方式。

I was also able to get an established institution

我也讓一間有信譽的機構

to question its own status quo.

能夠去質疑它自己的現況。

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

我希望我能一點一點 繼續進行這項工作，

and continue refocusing society's lens

繼續改變社會的焦點，

so that nobody else gets overlooked.

不要讓任何人被忽略。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）