Isabel Wilkerson returns to Boston College to speak of caste, at lecture co-sponsored by Winston Center
At the start of the fall semester, 普利策奖获奖记者和评论员伊莎贝尔·威尔克森再次与太阳城网赌平台社区合作. 十年前，她来山庄演讲她那本广受好评的书， 其他太阳的温暖:美国大迁徙的史诗故事. On September 8，她回来(虚拟)与600多名与会者谈论她的新书， Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Isabel Wilkerson
1994年，威尔克森成为第一位获得普利策新闻奖的黑人女性. 她以对那常被听到的声明的尖锐评论开始了她的演讲, “I don’t recognize my country,” when speaking about the current tension and tumult in America. 根据威尔克森的说法，我们有必要了解我们国家的“真实历史”.她把美国比作一个“已有疾病”的病人.这个诊断是她的书的核心——在这个国家，从一开始就存在种姓制度，一直延续到今天.
“This country is like a patient with heart disease,” said Wilkerson, 只是许多美国人直到最近才知道这种情况的存在，并在自己的国家面临着种族和种姓的残酷现实.
“A caste system, through its social controls and stigmas and other elements, embeds and foments division. 它让人们相信，那些被告知地位低于他们的人的幸福与他们无关,” said Wilkerson. “It affects policy, where people invest, how people vote, where people choose to live, send their children.她补充说，在疫情期间，种姓制度也“确实造成了生命的损失”——暗指低收入美国人(例如, 由于没有医疗保险或带薪病假，他们很难保证自己和家人的安全.
After Wilkerson’s remarks, Akua Sarr, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs, and Gautam Yadama, professor and dean of the School of Social Work, 与她一起在屏幕上展示学生在活动前和活动期间提交的问题.
One student pointed out that what they read in Caste was vastly different from what they learned in U.S. history class. 威尔克森因此强调，小学学生有必要学习这段不加修饰的历史, 这样他们以后读到的时候就不会感到震惊了 Caste, for example. “You're reading this book and you are thinking, 纳粹怎么可能真的转向美国，太阳城官网吉姆·克劳法，决定谁可以和谁结婚，太阳城官网移民法，决定谁可以成为美国人, who could gain citizenship in this country?”
另一名学生询问拆除邦联雕像的进展. 威尔克森警告说，这种象征性的胜利可能“给我们一种虚假的舒适感”. 这将是一种危险——认为我们已经通过清除那些令人讨厌的、让人想起更丑陋的东西来处理它, less savory parts of the history."
以下是威尔克森在讲座期间的进一步评论样本, which was part of the Lowell Humanities Series, co-sponsored by the Carroll School of Management’s Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics as well as the Office of the Provost, the Jesuit Institute, Boston College Law School, and the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America.
The beginning of the caste system: American slavery
“种姓本质上是一种人为的、武断的、等级分明的社会等级. It is what determines one’s standing, respect, benefit of the doubt, access to resources or the denial of access to resources.
"Competence, worthiness, intelligence, 一个人是会受到权威的保护还是会受到权威的攻击. 种姓可以被看作是我们划分的基础设施——我们用来在种姓制度中对人们进行排名和划分的任意数量的指标.
“这些因素可能是种族、宗教、语言、遗传能力、出生地. 在我们国家，早期殖民者用来划分和带领人们来决定谁是奴隶，谁是自由人，谁有权利，谁没有权利, not even over their own bodies, who would profit from a labor extracted from others, who would be reduced to a commodity, who could be bought, sold, 打赌获胜或作为结婚礼物送人是衡量种族的标准. It is what determined who could own property, 以及谁是财产——在美利坚合众国出现之前，用来给人们分配等级制度中继承的角色的中性的身体特征. 因此，奴隶制成为建立在贪婪和剥削之上的等级制度的基础, was succeeded by Jim Crow, and casts a shadow over the country to the current day.”
The fruits of slavery today
“Because not enough of us know our country's true history, too many people speak of slavery as a sad, dark chapter in our country's history, when in fact, it was the foundation of the political, social and economic order that we have inherited as Americans.
“African-Americans were enslaved for 246 years. That is 12 generations of people who were enslaved. 我们要在“祖父母”这个词后面加上多少个“伟人”，才能开始想象奴隶制持续了多长时间?
“It lasted for so long that it will not be until next year, 2022, 只要奴隶制还存在，美国就会是一个自由独立的国家.
“Very, 今天活着的人很少能活到非洲裔美国人获得自由的时候，因为非洲裔美国人曾经是奴隶. That will not happen until the year 2111; that is when African-Americans will reach parity between freedom and slavery.”
The top of the caste system and the riot at the Capitol
“我们今天还活着，怎么会在美国国会大厦里看到一面邦联旗?... 2021年，一名骚乱者将邦联旗传递得比罗伯特·E·肯尼迪(Robert E. Lee himself.
一段视频显示了国会大厦被暴徒清除后的场景. 在这个场景中，有一群看门人在横冲直撞后被请来清理. 他们穿着制服，弯腰拿着拖把和扫帚，脸上戴着面具. They were all Black. 有一个警察，白人警察，站在他们旁边监视他们. The only one barefaced and without a mask. 我立刻看到了那些被分配到400年的从属种姓的人. Still consigned to their historic role of serving, cleaning up after those programmed to see themselves as dominant, superior, supreme. Had people who looked like the janitors in that group, seen working late into the night, deigned to burst through police barricades, 屈尊闯入美国国会大厦——我们都知道结果会怎样. It is inconceivable. It is unthinkable. They would not have lived to tell.
“我们国家首都被围困的场景可能看起来像另一个国家，但这是我们的国家. 我们所看到的可能看起来像是另一个世纪，但它是我们的. This may have looked like a long-ago battle over justice, waged and presumably won back in another era, but it is ours still.”
Michaela Brant今年23岁，是卡罗尔太阳城网赌平台的出版助理. 她在莫里西文理学院学习英语和通信.