文字實錄：奧巴馬首度公開談論馬丁案 罕見拋種族言論

美國白人協警齊默爾曼射殺黑人青年馬丁，卻被判無罪釋放，全美各地引發強烈反響和抗議活動。美國總統奧巴馬昨首度公開談論此事。他表示該判決讓人想到美國黑人經歷的種族歧視。馬丁可能就是35年前的自己，因為他個人作為一個美國黑人，也曾遭遇歧視。奧巴馬也説國家要做一些自我反省，並敦促美國人要重新思考種族問題。

這一言論被認為是奧巴馬擔任總統以來最大膽的種族言論，整個講話長達近20分鐘。

觀察者網摘譯奧巴馬部分發言如下：

來到這裏，我想首先告訴你們，傑伊·卡尼（Jay Carney，白宮新聞發言人——觀察者網注）正在為你們所有的問題做準備，並且非常期待這個環節。第二，我想讓你們知道，在未來的幾周內很明顯會有一系列議題——移民、經濟等等——我們會盡量安排一個更全面的新聞發佈會來解決你們的問題。

實際上，我今天站出來的原因不是回答問題，而是回應一件在過去一週引起廣泛關注的事件——特雷翁·馬丁案的判決。週日案件判決之後，我給了一個初步的説明。但是看到過去一週的爭論，我認為可能有必要進一步闡述一下我的想法。

首先，我想再一次把我連同米歇爾的心情和祈禱獻給馬丁的家人。他們在處理整個事件時，體現出了高度的從容和尊嚴感。我能想象他們所經受的痛苦，但他們出色地應對了一切。

其次，我想重申上週日所説的話，那就是，圍繞這個案子，將會有很多關於司法問題的爭論——我將讓所有的法律專家和評論者解決這些問題。法官秉着專業的態度審理此案，控辯雙方提出了他們的觀點，陪審團認為像這樣的案子需要理性的懷疑，然後再給出判決。一旦陪審團發話，我們的體系就照此運作。但是我確實想多説一點，關於事件的背景、人們的反應和感受。

奧巴馬首度公開談論馬丁案 涉及種族言論

你們都知道，當特雷翁·馬丁剛被槍殺時，我曾説馬丁的遭遇可能在我兒子身上發生。換個方式説就是，特雷翁·馬丁也可能就是35年前的我。你們在想為什麼，那是因為至少在非裔美國人當中，這個案件引發了他們很多遭受不公正待遇的痛苦回憶。我們要意識到，非裔美國人是從一種難以忘卻的經歷和歷史的角度來看待此案的。

在這個國家，很少有非洲裔美國男子——包括我本人——沒有過在商場購物時被跟蹤的經歷；在這個國家，很少有非洲裔美國男子沒有過在大街上行走時聽到旁人忙不迭鎖上汽車門的經歷，在我身上也曾發生過這樣的事，至少在我當參議員之前。在這個國家，很少有非洲裔美國人沒有過在坐電梯時一個婦女緊張地捂着自己的錢包並且屏住呼吸直到走出電梯為止的經歷。這經常發生。

我不想誇大其詞，但這一系列的經歷對黑人社區如何解讀馬丁案勢必產生影響，人們必然會聯想起這些經歷。非裔美國人也知道，我們過去在執行刑法方面，有一段種族歧視的歷史——從執行死刑到實施禁毒法，都出現過。這段歷史，最終在人們如何解讀馬丁案的過程中產生了影響。

美國的非裔年輕人捲入刑事司法系統的幾率高得不成比例，他們成為暴力受害者和施暴者的幾率也高得不成比例。在這些問題上，非裔美國人並不是天真得一無所知。現在並不是要為這些事實找藉口——儘管黑人們確實從歷史背景的角度來解讀這些事實。他們明白，發生在美國貧困黑人社區的一些暴力事件源自於這個國家暴力的過去，我們在這些社區看到的貧困和混亂都可以追溯到美國那段艱難的歷史。

所以，有時候低人一等的感受讓他們更加沮喪。很多非洲裔美國男孩被投向異樣的眼光，但理由卻是：瞧，已經有數據表明美國的非裔男孩更暴力——拿這個作藉口來看待受到不公正待遇的男孩只會引起傷痛。

非裔美國人也不是不知道，從統計數據來看，像特雷翁·馬丁這樣的人更可能被同齡人槍殺。所以人們理解非洲裔美國男孩面臨的重重阻礙。但如果遺忘、甚至抹殺那段特定的社會歷史背景，他們會很沮喪。如果是一個白人少年捲入相同的案子，我認為無論是結果還是善後都可能會完全不同。

現在，對我和大多數人的問題是，我們如何看待這個事件？我們如何從這件事中吸取教訓，然後朝着積極的方向發展？我能理解人們遊行示威和抗議，一些人只是要推動事情發展，儘管仍然是暴力的。如果我看到暴力，我會提醒人們這隻會進一步讓馬丁和他的家人蒙羞。但是，除了抗議示威，問題是，我們能否做一些實質性的事情呢？

……

讓我最後再申明一點，儘管整個事件讓很多人倍感艱辛，但我不希望大家忽視一個事實——事情總體上正在變好。種族問題正在一代一代地改善。**這並不是説我們已處“後種族主義社會’，也不是説種族歧視已經消除。**但是當我和瑪麗亞及薩沙交談、聽他們的朋友説話、看他們交流時，我發現他們這一代在（種族）問題上比我們要好，比過去的我們更是進步許多。我在全國各地都見證了這一點。

被齊默爾曼殺死的17歲黑人青年馬丁

 

 

  以下為英文全文：

I wanted to come out here, first of all, to tell you that Jay is prepared for all your questions and is very much looking forward to the session. The second thing is I want to let you know that over the next couple of weeks, there’s going to obviously be a whole range of issues -- immigration, economics, et cetera -- we’ll try to arrange a fuller press conference to address your questions.

The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week -- the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling. I gave a preliminary statement right after the ruling on Sunday. But watching the debate over the course of the last week, I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.

First of all, I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers, as well as Michelle’s, to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they’ve dealt with the entire situation. I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it.

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there’s going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case -- I’ll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues. The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a case such as this reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury has spoken, that’s how our system works. But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling.

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.

There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me -- at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.

And I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear. The African American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws -- everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

Now, this isn’t to say that the African American community is naïve about the fact that African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system; that they’re disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact -- although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. They understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.

And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.

I think the African American community is also not naïve in understanding that, statistically, somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys. But they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it and that context is being denied. And that all contributes I think to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.

Now, the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family. But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do.

I know that Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it’s important for people to have some clear expectations here. Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government, the criminal code. And law enforcement is traditionally done at the state and local levels, not at the federal levels.

That doesn’t mean, though, that as a nation we can’t do some things that I think would be productive. So let me just give a couple of specifics that I’m still bouncing around with my staff, so we’re not rolling out some five-point plan, but some areas where I think all of us could potentially focus.

Number one, precisely because law enforcement is often determined at the state and local level, I think it would be productive for the Justice Department, governors, mayors to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.

When I was in Illinois, I passed racial profiling legislation, and it actually did just two simple things. One, it collected data on traffic stops and the race of the person who was stopped. But the other thing was it resourced us training police departments across the state on how to think about potential racial bias and ways to further professionalize what they were doing.

And initially, the police departments across the state were resistant, but actually they came to recognize that if it was done in a fair, straightforward way that it would allow them to do their jobs better and communities would have more confidence in them and, in turn, be more helpful in applying the law. And obviously, law enforcement has got a very tough job.

So that’s one area where I think there are a lot of resources and best practices that could be brought to bear if state and local governments are receptive. And I think a lot of them would be. And let’s figure out are there ways for us to push out that kind of training.

Along the same lines, I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it -- if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.

I know that there’s been commentary about the fact that the “stand your ground” laws in Florida were not used as a defense in the case. On the other hand, if we’re sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms even if there’s a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see?

And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these “stand your ground” laws, I’d just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

Number three -- and this is a long-term project -- we need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African American boys. And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?

I’m not naïve about the prospects of some grand, new federal program. I’m not sure that that’s what we’re talking about here. But I do recognize that as President, I’ve got some convening power, and there are a lot of good programs that are being done across the country on this front. And for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials and clergy and celebrities and athletes, and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young African American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed -- I think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obviously a tragic situation. And we’re going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that.

And then, finally, I think it’s going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching. There has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven’t seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have. On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there’s the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin, but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

And let me just leave you with a final thought that, as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better. Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. It doesn’t mean we’re in a post-racial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But when I talk to Malia and Sasha, and I listen to their friends and I seem them interact, they’re better than we are -- they’re better than we were -- on these issues. And that’s true in every community that I’ve visited all across the country.

And so we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues. And those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature, as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. But we should also have confidence that kids these days, I think, have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did; and that along this long, difficult journey, we’re becoming a more perfect union -- not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.