UNIT 1 第一单元 社会群体

Lesson 1 Good News about Racial Progress

The remaining divisions in American society should not blind us to a half-century of dramatic change

By Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom

In the Perrywood community of Upper Marlboro, Md.1, near Washington, D.C., homes cost between $160,000 and $400,000. The lawns are green and the amenities appealing2—including a basketball court.

Low-income teen-agers from Washington started coming there. The teens were black, and they were not welcomed. The homeowners'association hired off-duty police as security3, and they would ask the ballplayers whether they “belonged”in the area. The association's newsletter noted the “eyesore”at the basketball court.4

But the story has a surprising twist: many of the homeowners were black too.5“We started having problems with the young men, and unfortunately they are our people, ”one resident told a reporter from the Washington Post. “But what can you do? ”

The homeowners didn't care about the race of the basketball players. They were outsiders—in-truders. As another resident remarked, “People who don't live here might not care about things the way we do. Seeing all the new houses going up, someone might be tempted.”

It's a telling story6. Lots of Americans think that almost all blacks live in inner cities. Not true. Today many blacks own homes in suburban neighborhoods—not just around Washington, but outside Atlanta, Denver and other cities as well.

That's not the only common misconception Americans have about race. For some of the misinformation, the media are to blame. A reporter in The Wall Street Journal, for instance, writes that the economic gap between whites and blacks has widened. He offers no evidence. The picture drawn of racial relations is even bleaker. In one poll, for instance, 85 percent of blacks, but only 34 percent of whites, agreed with the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.7That racially divided response made headline news.8Blacks and whites, media accounts9would have us believe, are still separate and hostile. Division is a constant theme, racism another.

To be sure, racism has not disappeared, and race relations could—and probably will—improve. But the serious inequality that remains is less a function of racism than of the racial gap in levels of educational attainment, single parenthood and crime.10The bad news has been exaggerated, and the good news neglected. Consider these three trends:

A black middle class has arrived. Andrew Young recalls the day he was mistaken for a valet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel11in New York City. It was an infuriating case of mistaken identity for a man who was then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

But it wasn't so long ago that most blacks were servants—or their equivalent(s). On the eve of World War II, a trivial five percent of black men were engaged in white-collar work of any kind, and six out of ten African-American women were employed as domestics.

In 1940 there were only 1,000 practicing African-American lawyers12; by 1995 there were over 32,000, about four percent of all attorneys.

Today almost three-quarters of African-American families have incomes above the government poverty line. Many are in the middle class, according to one useful index—earning double the government poverty level13; in 1995 this was $30,910 for a two-parent family with two children and$40,728 for a two-parent family with four children. Only one black family in 100 enjoyed a middle-class income in 1940; by 1995 it was 49 in 100. And more than 40 percent of black households also own their homes. That's a huge change.

The typical white family still earns a lot more than the black family because it is more likely to collect two paychecks. But if we look only at married couples—much of the middle class—the white-black income gap shrinks to 13 percent. Much of that gap can be explained by the smaller percentage of blacks with college degrees, which boost wages, and the greater concentration of blacks in the South, where wages tend to be lower.

Blacks are moving to the suburbs. Following the urban riots of the mid-1960s, the presidential Kerner Commission14concluded that the nation's future was menaced by “accelerating segregation”—black central cities and whites outside the core. That segregation might well blow the country apart, it said.

It's true that whites have continued to leave inner cities for the suburbs, but so, too, have blacks. The number of black suburban dwellers in the last generation has almost tripled to 10.6 million. In 1970 metropolitan Atlanta, for example, 27 percent of blacks lived in the suburbs with 85 percent of whites. By 1990, 64 percent of blacks and 94 percent of whites resided there.

This is not phony integration, with blacks moving from one all-black neighborhood into another. Most of the movement has brought African-Americans into neighborhoods much less black15than those they left behind, thus increasing integration. By 1994 six in ten whites reported that they lived in neighborhoods with blacks.

Residential patterns do remain closely connected to race. However, neighborhoods have become more racially mixed, and residential segregation has been decreasing.

Bigotry has declined. Before World War II, Gunnar Myrdal16roamed the South researching An American Dilemma, the now-classic book that documented17the chasm between the nation's ideals and its racial practices. In one small Southern city, he kept asking whites how he could find “Mr. Jim Smith, ”an African-American who was principal of a black high school. No one seemed to know who he was. After he finally found Smith, Myrdal was told that he should have just asked for “Jim.”That's how great was white aversion to dignifying African-Americans with “Mr.”Or “Mrs.”

Bigotry was not just a Southern problem. A national survey in the 1940s asked whether “Ne groes should have as good a chance as white people to get any kind of job.”A majority of whites said that “white people should have the first chance at any kind of job.”

Such a question would not even be asked today. Except for a lunatic fringe18, no whites would sign on to such a notion.19

In 1964 less than one in five whites reported having a black friend. By 1989 more than two out of three did. And more than eight of ten African-Americans had a white friend.

What about the last taboo?20In 1963 ten percent of whites approved of black-white dating; by 1994 it was 65 percent. Interracial marriages? Four percent of whites said it was okay in 1958; by 1994 the figure had climbed more than elevenfold, to 45 percent. These surveys measure opinion, but behavior has also changed. In 1963 less than one percent of marriages by African-Americans were racially mixed. By 1993, 12 percent were.

Today black Americans can climb the ladder to the top.21Ann M. Fudge is already there; she's in charge of manufacturing, promotion and sales at the $2.7-billion Maxwell House Coffee and Post Cereals divisions of Kraft Foods.22So are Kenneth Chenault, president and chief operating officer at American Express23, and Richard D. Parsons, president of Time Warner, Inc.24After the 1988 Democratic Convention25, the Rev. Jesse Jackson26talked about his chances of making it to the White House. “I may not get there, ”he said “But it is possible for our children to get there now.”

Even that seems too pessimistic. Consider how things have improved since Colin and Alma Powell27packed their belongings into a Volkswagen28and left Fort Devens, Mass., for Fort Bragg, N. C. “I remember passing Woodbridge, Va., ”General Powell wrote in his autobiography, “and not finding even a gas-station bathroom that we were allowed to use.”That was in 1962. In 1996 reliable polls suggest he could have been elected President.

Progress over the last half-century has been dramatic. As Coretta Scott King wrote not long ago, the ideals for which her husband Martin Luther King Jr. died, have become “deeply embedded in the very fabric of America29.”

From Reader's Digest, March, 1998

I. New Words

amenity [əˈmiːniti] n. 生活福利设施；便利设施

attainment [əˈteinmənt] n. 成就；造诣

aversion [əˈvəːʃən] n. a strong dislike

bigotry [ˈbigətri] n. 偏见；偏执

chasm [ˈkæzəm] n. a very big difference

domestic [dəˈmestik] n. a household servant

embed [imˈbed] v. to fix firmly

fabric [ˈfæbrik] n. a complex underlying structure

infuriating [inˈfjuərieitiŋ] a. very annoying

interracial [ˌintəˈreiʃəl] a. 人种间的，人种混合的misconception [ˈmiskənˈsepʃən] n. misunderstanding

paycheck [ˈpeitʃek] n. salary or wages

phony [ˈfəuni] a. informal false or not real

segregation [ˌsegriˈgeiʃən] n. 种族隔离

valet [ˈvælit] n. 男仆

II. Background Information

种族关系

美国是个多民族国家（multiracial country），种族成分极为复杂。美国的多种族现象是由白人殖民、征服土著、输入黑奴和自愿移民综合形成的。印第安人是美国大陆原来的主人。白人殖民者反宾为主，用武力和欺骗的方式从他们手中夺取大片土地，把他们逼入不毛之地。1846年到1848年，美国对墨西哥发动侵略战争，兼并（annexed）其一半以上领土。原先住有的8万墨西哥人大多成为美国公民。17、18世纪为了缓解南方农业劳动力的严重短缺，从非洲购入黑奴，到1780年美国奴隶劳动力增至53万。随着国内工商业发展，东部、西部引进了大量外来移民充当劳工。1965年美国取消了根据种族歧视实行了多年的移民限制，增加了非欧洲白人的名额，亚洲、拉美移民人数急剧增加。上述因素造成了现今美国的多血裔种族现象。

根据2008年5月的数据，美国人口总数为301,600,000，其中白人占65%，西班牙裔人占15%，非洲裔人占13.4%，亚裔人占5%，印第安人与阿拉斯加土著人占1.5%。

在很长时期，美国少数种族遭受白人种族主义者的歧视和压迫。黑人起先被用作奴隶。1865年南北战争胜利后，虽然黑人在法律上获得解放，但依然遭到不公待遇，甚至鞭打和杀害。印第安人遭遇白人殖民者多次大屠杀，幸存者被驱入贫瘠的“保留地”（reservations）。亚裔人受到排斥，充当苦力（coolies）。西班牙裔人被用作廉价劳力。

经过长时期的不屈不挠的斗争，少数种族逐步赢得了自由和权利。20世纪60年代的民权运动（the Civil Rights Movement）以来，他们的政治和经济地位有了明显的提高，不少人攀升到中层和上层阶级，有的担任州长、市长和大法官。在111届541名国会议员中，非洲裔人有42名，西班牙裔人有28名，亚裔人有8名。最为引人注目的是，非洲裔参议员奥巴马在2008年总统竞选中获得全胜，入主白宫。

然而，这一切并非意味着美国种族歧视全然消失。据最近调查，美国有40%的非洲裔人聚居在高度隔离的29个大都市的某些区域。非洲裔人中有67%在申请工作时，65%在租房时，50%在餐馆就餐时，43%在申请高校过程中遭遇歧视。司法部门对非洲裔人量刑往往过重。虽然他们占美国人口比例为13.4%，其中只有13%偶尔吸毒，但吸毒入狱人中他们所占的比例却高达74%。据统计，18—34岁男性非洲裔群体中有1/9被关在监狱。

事实说明，美国种族歧视仍然存在，只是表现的形式更加隐蔽罢了。

III. Notes to the Text

1. Md.—Maryland

2. the amenities appealing—生活设施舒适

3. hired off-duty police as security—雇用不当班警察作保安（The homeowners'association hired off-duty police as security personnel.）

4. The association's newsletter noted the“eyesore”at the basketball court. —协会通讯提到（社区）篮球场地上的“丑物”。（①newsletter—a small sheet of printed news sent regularly to a particular group of people; ②eyesore—here referring to those black teen-ager basketball players from other areas）

5. But the story has a surprising twist: many of the homeowners were blacks too. —但此事让人奇怪的是，社区的很多住户本身也是黑人。（twist—an unexpected change or development）

6. a telling story—a very convincing example

7. the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial—辛普森杀妻案的判决（辛普森为美国前著名黑人橄榄球运动员，1994年因其白人妻子及其男友之死被控涉嫌谋杀，1995年被无罪释放，但1997年民事诉讼中陪审团认为其对谋杀负有法律责任并判罚损害赔偿金数百万元。）

8. made headline news—to hit the headlines 成为显要新闻

9. media accounts—media reports

10. But the serious inequality that remains is less a function of racism than of the racial gap in levels of educational attainment, single parenthood and crime. —这种遗留下来的严重的不平等，与其说种族主义，还不如说是在教育程度、单亲和犯罪层面的种族差距所造成的结果。[a function (of)—a quality of fact which depends on and varies with another]

11. the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel—沃尔多夫旅馆

12. practicing lawyers—挂牌律师

13. poverty level —贫困水平（1996年美国联邦政府规定的贫困线：四口之家年收入为15,600美元。据统计，全国低于此贫困线的家庭共有3,930万，占人口总数的15.1%。）

14. presidential Kerner Commission—a commission headed by Kerner and established by the Congress for researching and reporting on the issue of urban violence resulting from segregation especially after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968

15. neighborhoods much less black—neighborhoods in which there live more non-black people

16. Gunnar Myrdal—贡纳·默达尔（1898—1987，瑞典经济学家，社会学家，下文的 An American Dilemma即为其所著的《美国难题：黑人问题与现代民主》）

17. document—v. to prove or record with documents

18. lunatic fringe—the people with the strongest or most unreasonable ideas or beliefs in a political or social group

19. ..., no whites would sign on to such a notion.—..., no whites would accept such an idea.

20. What about the last taboo? —The last taboo refers to interracial marriage that was once forbidden.

21. Today black Americans can climb the ladder to the top. —It means now black Americans can climb the social ladder to the top of the society.

22. Maxwell House Coffee and Post Cereals divisions of Kraft Foods—（伊利诺伊州北田市）卡夫食品有限公司的麦斯威尔咖啡和波斯特谷类食品网

23. American Express—美国运通公司

24. Time Warner, Inc.—时代华纳公司

25. Democratic Convention—民主党代表大会

26. the Rev. Jesse Jackson—杰西·杰克逊大人[the Rev.（the Reverend）—大人（对教士的尊称）]

27. Colin Powell—科林·鲍威尔（1989—1993年任美国参谋长联席会议主席，2001—2004年任美国国务卿）

28. Volkswagen—大众汽车

29. deeply embedded in the very fabric of America—已经深深地植根于美国社会结构之中（embed—to fix firmly and deeply in a solid object）

IV. Language Features

新闻英语特色

英语新闻报刊多种多样：有新闻报纸、新闻杂志，还有电子报纸（electronic newspaper，简称e-paper）和电子杂志（electronic magazine，简称e-zine）。报纸可细分为日报、晨报、晚报、半周报（semiweekly）、周报（weekly）和双周报（biweekly）、城市报（metropolitan newspaper）、郊区报（suburban newspaper）和乡村报（rural newspaper）、大报（quality newspaper）和通俗小报（tabloid）。

新闻英语主要受以下五个因素制约：大众性，节俭性，趣味性，时新性和客观性。

报刊是大众传媒，写作必须适合广大读者水平，语言必须通俗易懂。

报业十分珍惜版面，要求新闻写作人员在有限的篇幅内提供尽可能多的信息，读者看报珍惜时间，希望在很短的时间得到所要的信息，这就迫使新闻写作人员养成文字简洁的风格。

西方新闻界一向注重趣味性，报刊又面临电视、广播、网络传媒的巨大挑战，要稳住报业市场就得加强趣味性，因而新闻报道必须写得生动有趣。

时新性是新闻价值之一。新闻报道在提供最新消息的同时也传播了相关的新词。此外，不少新闻写作人员为了增加文章的吸引力，在语言上刻意求新，因而新闻英语具有新颖活泼的特色。

客观性是纯新闻报道所遵循的准则，没有客观性报道就要丢掉可信性，也就会失去读者。客观性要求新闻报道文字准确具体，避用情感词语和夸张手法。

初读美英报刊的人往往会遇到很多困难，主要是因为他们对报刊英语特点了解不够。譬如，新闻标题短小精悍，在句式和用词上都有相应的省略手段。又如，新闻报道为了节约篇幅，采用一系列手段浓缩、精练句式。较常见的有前置定语、名词定语、身份同位语前置、词性转化、借代、缩略词等。再如，为使语言生动、活泼，报刊常常使用比喻和成语活用手段。新闻刊物不仅是报导新闻的媒介，而且是“使用新词的庞大机器和杜撰新词的巨大工厂”。这些特点会给读者带来理解上的困难。为了帮助读者克服这些困难，本书把新闻英语特色分成若干细目，结合每篇课文，逐一进行介绍。

V. Analysis of Content

1. According to the author,___.

A. racism has disappeared in America

B. little progress has been made in race relations

C. media reports have exaggerated the racial gap

D. media accounts have made people believe that the gap between blacks and whites has become narrower

2. What the Kerner Commission meant by “accelerating segregation”was that___.

A. more and more whites and blacks were forced to live and work separately

B. more and more blacks lived in the central cities, and whites outside the core

C. more and more whites lived in the central cities, and blacks outside the core

D. nowadays more and more blacks begin to live in the suburbs

3. The last taboo in the article is about___.

A. political status of America's minority people

B. economic status of America's minority people

C. racial integration

D. interracial marriages

4. Gunnar Myrdal kept asking whites how he could find “Mr. Jim Smith, ”but no one seemed to know who he was, because___.

A. there was not such a person called Jim Smith

B. Jim Smith was not famous

C. the whites didn't know Jim Smith

D. the white people considered that a black man did not deserve the title of “Mr.”

5. In the author's opinion,___.

A. few black Americans can climb the ladder to the top

B. Jesse Jackson's words in this article seemed too pessimistic

C. Colin Powell could never have been elected President

D. blacks can never become America's President

VI. Questions on the Article

1. Why were those low-income teen-agers who came to the Perrywood community considered to be“the eyesore”?

2. What is the surprising twist of the story?

3. According to this article, what has caused much of the white-black income gap?

4. Why did the presidential Kerner Commission conclude that the nation's future was menaced by“accelerating segregation”?

5. Why wouldn't questions as “Should negroes have as good a chance as white people to get any kind of job? ”be asked today?

VII. Topics for Discussion

1. Does Obama's ascent to presidency mean that all the minority people in the U.S. have equal opportunities?

2. Do you think the article is unbiased? What do you think of the author's view on the African-Americans?