NBA明星的高超演讲NBA stars’ powerful call for an end to racial violence

The world of sport, we are often told (though always to inward laughter), is “above politics”. So there was an electric moment when, at the beginning of this year’s ESPY¹ (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) awards last week, four black basketball stars stood shoulder to shoulder to deliver a speech about just that.

我们经常被告知（尽管总是伴随着内心的暗笑），体育世界是“超越政治”的。不久前举行的ESPY（年度卓越体育表现奖）颁奖典礼开始时，4名黑人篮球明星并肩站立，发表了一场关乎政治的演讲。这一幕因此令人振奋。

They called for an end to racial profiling by the police and gun violence in black communities — and for athletes and other leaders to lead the way in putting aside retaliatory² anger and instead work on rebuilding trust.

他们呼吁终结警察的种族定性和黑人社区的枪支暴力，并号召运动员和其他领袖带头放下寻求报复的愤怒情绪，转而致力于重建信任。

LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade³ stood in sombre black suits and delivered a four-part speech addressing the anger over gun violence and racial profiling that has sparked violence on US streets. They did not mention, I suspect deliberately⁴, “Black Lives Matter” or any other single protest movement. That — like the black power salutes⁵ from the podium that scandalised the 1968 Olympics — might have played into the hands of political opponents.

勒布朗•詹姆斯(LeBron James)、卡梅洛•安东尼(Carmelo Anthony)、克里斯•保罗(Chris Paul)、德维恩•韦德(Dwyane Wade)穿着暗色的黑西装，发表了由4个部分组成的演讲，针对近来在美国街头引发暴力的对枪支暴力和种族定性的愤怒。他们没有提到“黑人的命也是命”(Black Lives Matter)或者其他任何抗议运动，我怀疑这是有意为之。就像1968年奥运会的领奖台上某些运动员作出黑人力量敬礼、给那届奥运会留下污名一样，肯定那些激进的运动可能正中政治对手的下怀。

But the message they delivered was all the more effective for being so general. And in terms of technique, here was an unusual and very striking move: to divide up a single speech between four speakers.

但是，他们所传达的信息恰恰因为笼统而有效。就演讲技巧而言，他们采取了一种不寻常，但十分引人注目的举动，将一篇演讲分配给4名演讲者。

It literalised the idea that these athletes — “the four of us talking to our fellow athletes with the country watching” — were speaking with one voice; offering a united front. And they were, very consciously, “representing”.

这体现出了这些运动员在用同一个声音说话；他们站在统一的战线上——“我们四个人向其他运动员喊话，而全国观众都在看着”。而且他们很有“代表”意识。

As Mr Paul said: “We stand before you as fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, uncles — and in my case, as an African-American man and the nephew of a police officer.” Again, careful positioning: to foreground being the nephew of a police officer is to state that your fight is not with the police.

就如保罗所说的：“我们以父亲、儿子、丈夫、兄弟、叔伯的身份站在你们面前——就我个人而言，我是一个非裔美国人，也是一名警官的侄子。”再一次，这体现出他们的精心定位：首先摆明自己是一名警官的侄子，说明你无意与警察为敌。

The speeches deftly⁶ deployed⁷ the classic figures of oratory⁸. Mr Anthony used an epistrophic tricolon when he said: “The problems are not new. The violence is not new. And the racial divide definitely is not new.” So did Mr Wade when he said: “The racial profiling has to stop. The shoot-to-kill mentality⁹ has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop.” Mr James used anaphora when he said it was the duty of athletes to “help rebuild [communities], help strengthen them, help change them”.

他们的演讲娴熟地运用了经典的演讲术。安东尼使用了结句反复的三行平行结构，他说：“这些问题不是新的。这些暴力不是新的。而种族隔阂当然也不是新的。”韦德也运用了这一手法，他说：“种族定性必须停止。动辄开枪而且往死里打的心态必须停止。忽视黑人和棕色人士价值的做法必须停止。”詹姆斯运用了首语重复的手法，他说，“帮助重建（社区），帮助加强它们，帮助改变它们”是运动员的责任。

By echoing each other stylistically, they gave an impression of unity¹⁰ at the level of the language itself.

通过在风格上相互呼应，他们在语言本身的层面上给人一种统一的印象。

They did something else clever, too. They used the incantatory power of a bare list of names. In Mr Paul’s section of the speech he named the victims of violence. “Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner¹¹. Laquan McDonald. Alton Sterling¹². Philando Castile.”

他们还干了一些聪明的事情。他们罗列了一串人名，从中汲取了一种咒语般的力量。在保罗演讲的部分，他列出了暴力的受害者的姓名。“特雷文•马丁(Trayvon Martin)、迈克尔•布朗(Michael Brown)、塔米尔•赖斯(Tamir Rice)、埃里克•加纳(Eric Garner)、拉坎•麦克唐纳(Laquan McDonald)、奥尔顿•斯特林(Alton Sterling)、菲兰多•卡斯蒂尔(Philando Castile)。”

A list of names can be a very powerful way of invoking¹³ pathos¹⁴ and solidarity¹⁵. On the first anniversary of the terror attacks on the US in 2001, for instance, the ceremony at Ground Zero consisted of a solemn recitation of the names of the dead; it took two-and-a-half hours. Marble war memorials, from the battlefields of France to the National Mall in Washington, draw power from the same thing.

罗列一串人名是激发感染力、促使众人同心的非常有力的方式。比如，2001年“9/11”恐怖袭击一周年纪念时，在世贸中心遗址(Ground Zero)举行的仪式就包含了庄严地念出每一名死者的姓名的环节；这个过程持续了两个半小时。从法国的战场到华盛顿的国家广场，大理石战争纪念碑也通过同样的方法汲取力量。

Mr Paul then went on to name — co-opting them to the cause — previous luminaries¹⁶ of sport who had some emancipatory¹⁷ role: “Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe”. Those names resonate and command respect: they also include a gay white woman. Here, with care and precision and judiciousness¹⁸, was an attempt to make the broadest possible appeal to human fraternity and tolerance¹⁹.

保罗接着罗列了此前曾在一定程度上推进解放事业的体育明星的名字——目的是将这些人纳入到这项事业中：“杰西•欧文斯(Jesse Owens)、杰基•鲁滨逊(Jackie Robinson)、穆罕默德•阿里(Muhammad Ali)、约翰•卡洛斯(John Carlos)和汤米•史密斯(Tommie Smith)、卡里姆•阿卜杜勒-贾巴尔(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)、吉姆•布朗(Jim Brown)、比利•琼•金(Billie Jean King)、阿瑟•阿什(Arthur Ashe)”。这些名字让人产生共鸣，并且令人肃然起敬：其中还包括一位同性恋白人女性。在这里，他们以一种谨慎、精准和睿智的方式，尝试最大范围地激发人类的博爱和宽容。

The speech enacted²⁰, then, what all speeches at some level are trying to do. It said: this is who we the speakers are, and this is who you, the audience, are. We are not divided.

因此，这篇演讲所做的正是所有的演讲在某种层面上都试图实现的事情。它在说：这就是我们这些演讲者的本色，也是你们作为观众的本色。我们之间并无隔阂。