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I listened to every word he spoke. But my mind was really on something else. I knew at that moment that I would reject all of the offers. I stood there silently surprised by what an easy conclusion it was. Having prepared for so many years to teach, having trained myself to do nothing else, I had hesitated out of practical fear. But now that it was made, the decision came with relief. I immediately knew I had made the right choice.
我听着他说的每个字，但是我的思绪其实在其他事情上。在那一刻我知道我要拒绝所有的工作邀约。我站在那里沉默了，惊叹于这个结论竟如此简单。我为做老师准备了那么多年，一直在培养自己做一名老师，却因为实际的恐惧而一直犹豫。如今我终于下了决心，欣慰地做出了决定。我当即就知道自己做了正确的选择。
My colleague continued talking and I realized that he was simply right. Affirmative Action programs are unfair to white students. But as I listened to him assert his rights, I thought of the seriously disadvantaged. How different they were from white, middle-class students who come armed with the testimony of their grades and aptitude scores and self-confidence to complain about the unequal treatment they now receive. I listened to them. I do not want to be careless about what they say. Their rights are important to protect. But inevitably when I hear them or their lawyers, I think about the most seriously disadvantaged, not simply Mexican-Americans, but of all those who do not ever imagine themselves going to college or becoming doctors: white, black, brown. Always poor. Silent. They are not plaintiffs before the court or against the misdirection of Affirmative Action. They lack the confidence (my confidence!) to assume their right to a good education. They lack the confidence and skills a good primary and secondary education provides and which are prerequisites for informed public life. They remain silent.
我的同事继续说着，我知道他是对的。平权法案项目对白人学生是不公平的。然而当我听着他主张自己的权利时，我想起了那些严重的弱势群体。中产阶级的白人学生们拿着成绩证明和能力倾向测试分数抱怨着他们现在所受到的不公平待遇，那些弱势群体与他们是多么的不同。我听着他们的话。我不想对他们所说的漠不关心。他们的权利很重要，需要保护。但是当我听着他们或他们的律师说的时候，我不可避免地想起了那些最弱势的群体，不仅仅是墨西哥裔美国人，而是所有那些从未想过自己会上大学或者成为博士的人们：白人、黑人、棕色人种。他们一直贫穷着，沉默着。他们并不是法庭前或反对平权法案误用的控诉者。他们缺少去取得接受良好教育的权利的自信心（我的自信心）。他们缺少好的小学和初中教育提供的 自信心和技能，这些是知晓公众生活的先决条件。他们只能保持沉默。
The debate drones on and surrounds them in stillness. They are distant, faraway figures like the boys I have seen peering down from freeway overpasses in some other part of town.
他们在喋喋不休的争论中保持沉默。他们是来自远处的身影，就像我从高速公路立交桥上眯着眼往下看所看到的城里其他地区的男孩们。
