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King did not craft this conclusion from thin air. This was a lesson learned from experience.
这个结论并非金凭空捏造而来，而是真真切切的教训。
The brutality of the South and the hypocrisy of the country
南方的残暴和这个国家的虚伪
led him to conclude that the view of racial equality as a charitable enterprise distorted the principles of democracy itself
使他总结出了，种族平等是一项慈善事业这一观念不仅歪曲了民主原则，
and disfigured the moral character of those who believed the lie.
也损坏了那些相信了这一谎言的人的道德品质。
Nearly a year after his refusal to leave his bed, in August 1967,
1967年8月，在他拒绝下床将近一年之后，
King stated plainly "that the vast majority of white Americans are racists, either consciously or unconsciously."
金明确指出：“绝大多数美国白人都是种族主义者，不管是有意识还是无意识的。”
Eight months later, he would lie dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
就在他发表这一言论的八个月后，他就将死在洛林汽车旅馆的阳台上。
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. has been dead for 50 years now, and over this half-century his bones have been picked clean.
如今，马丁·路德·金已经离世50年了，在过去的半个世纪里，他的名声已经被洗得干干净净。
Conservatives invoke his name in defense of their vision of a color-blind society.
保守派用他的名字为他们对色盲人群的愿景辩护。
Liberals use him to authenticate their own politics.
自由主义者用他来验证他们自己的政治观点。
Black politicians yoke his legacy to their own ambitions.
黑人政治家们也将他的遗产和自己的野心绑定在一起。
In so many ways, King's life has been reduced to the lead character in a fable the nation tells itself about "the movement,"
从很多方面来看，马丁路德金的生命都已经沦为了某个传说的主角这一个形象，那是这个国家不断讲给自己的人民听的一个关于“黑人民权运动”的传说，
which begins with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and culminates with the 1963 March on Washington or in Selma in 1965.
那场运动爆发于1954年的布朗诉教育委员会案，到1963年华盛顿游行或1965年塞尔玛游行达到高潮。
It is a neat tale with Southern villains, heightened drama, tragic deaths and heroic triumph.
这是一个情节并不复杂的故事，讲述了南方的恶棍、夸张的戏剧、悲剧性的死亡和英雄的胜利。
It does not mention King's depression.
对金的抑郁却只字未提。
It does not reckon with what he told the Rev.D.E.King, that his work "has been in vain. The whole thing will have to be done away."
金博士对D.E.金神父的倾诉，说自己的努力“全都白费了。整个体系都必须取缔。”的话也没有提及。
Instead, it enlists King in fortifying the illusion of this nation's inherent goodness.
相反，它将金塑造成了一个强化这个国家拥有与生俱来的美德这一假象的形象。
It coddles the country from a damning reality.
继续纵容着这个现实已经如此糟糕的国家。
A genuine reckoning with the murdered preacher reveals a different story.
对这位被杀害的牧师进行诚实的考量却揭示了一个不同的故事。
In 1967 at Stanford University, as he toured the nation trying to rally support for what would become his Poor People's Campaign,
1967年在斯坦福大学时，当时他正奔波于全国各地，试图为后来的“穷人运动”争取民意，
King offered this assessment of the movement and the challenges ahead:
金就对这场运动及其未来的挑战做出了如下评价：
"(W)e must see that the struggle today is much more difficult.
“我们必须看到，今天的斗争要困难得多。
It's more difficult today because we are struggling now for genuine equality .
今天之所以更加困难，是因为我们是在为真正的平等而斗争。
(N)egroes generally live in worse slums today than 20 or 25 years ago.
今天的黑人生活的贫民窟还不如20-25年前的。
In the North, schools are more segregated today than they were in 1954 .
在北方，今天的学校的种族隔离问题比1954年的还要严重。
(T)he unemployment rate among whites at one time was about the same as the unemployment rate among Negroes.
曾经，白人的失业率和黑人的失业率差不多。
But today the unemployment rate among Negroes is twice that of whites.
如今，黑人的失业率已经变成了白人失业率的两倍。
And the average income of the Negro is today 50% less than whites."
平均收入却只有白人的一半。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
