【正文】 re unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to e at the expense of my dreams。這種挫敗感遺傳到了他們的下一代那里 —— 年輕的黑人男子和越來越多的青年女子閑站街角，無所事事，或者是慵懶地躺在監(jiān)獄里，對未來不抱任何期望和期待。這種發(fā)泄其實沒有任何實際意義，相反，常常影響我們對實際問題的解決。在工資不變、國際競爭加劇的情況下，所謂機會實則成為了一個零和博弈，你的成功必定要以我的失敗為代價。脫口秀主持人和保守的時政評論員醉心于指責種族主義的言論多么荒唐，將關(guān)于種族不公正和不平等的合理討論歸于簡單的政治意趣或是種族主義的另一種表現(xiàn)。他們勤勤懇懇、任勞任怨，但最終卻眼睜睜地看著自己的工作機會被轉(zhuǎn)向國外，眼睜睜地看著自己一生積攢下來的退休金縮水。 我們有時也會在周日教堂的講臺或是條椅上聽到類似的情感表達。但是這些黑人并沒有屈服于嚴酷的環(huán)境，他們攜起手來披荊斬棘、克服困難，努力為自己的下一代闖出一條路來。 that the legacy of discrimination and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our munities。 when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. Like the anger within the black munity, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite pany. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped fe the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative mentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and shortterm greed。 how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would e after them. But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away。 problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some mentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another?！癢e the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars。 racially charged at a time when we need to e together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change。 we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students. Legalized discrimination where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to AfricanAmerican business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and ine gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural munities. A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other AfricanAmericans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds。 when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never mitted。 Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know what we have seen – is that Americ