英語文化掃雷：這些話在美國千萬不能說

林書豪

Everyone wants a piece of Jeremy Lin. From Linsanity to Lin-credible then Va-Lin-tine, news headlines have been trying to find wordplays to match the new sensation on the NBA court with his meteoric shoot to stardom。

人人都想跟林書豪扯上點(diǎn)關(guān)系。從“林瘋狂”、“林不思議”，到“情林節(jié)”，新聞標(biāo)題中變著花樣地玩著文字游戲，來描述這位一夜成名的NBA新星。

However, “A Chink in the Armor”， a news headline that blamed Lin for his team’s loss of a game, is obviously a turnoff which threw a PR disaster at ESPN, one of world’s major sports network. It also cost an editor his job. The charge is racism。

然而，一條指責(zé)林書豪導(dǎo)致他所在球隊(duì)輸?shù)舯荣惖男侣剺?biāo)題——“盔甲上的中國佬”卻令人大倒胃口，也將身為全球最大的體育新聞網(wǎng)之一的娛樂體育節(jié)目電視網(wǎng)身陷公關(guān)危機(jī)。一位編輯甚至被炒了魷魚，罪名是使用種族主義詞匯。

The case again reminds Americans that while the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, a wrong choice of word might ignite a bomb。

這一事件讓美國人再次意識(shí)到，雖然美國憲法第一修正案確保了言論的自由，但錯(cuò)誤的措辭可能會(huì)引起軒然大波。

It’s also a warning to people outside the country who engage in international communications。

這也為其他國家從事國際交流的人士敲響了警鐘。

Racism

種族主義

Put aside the context, the phrase “Chink in the armor” means the weak point in a supposedly strong defense. It is somewhat similar to “a fly in the ointment”。

如果不考慮具體語境，“盔甲上的破綻”這句短語指的是本該萬無一失的防御中出現(xiàn)的弱點(diǎn)，有點(diǎn)類似于“軟膏里的蒼蠅”這個(gè)短語(意為一粒老鼠屎壞了一鍋粥或令人掃興的人或事物)。

The phrase is often deployed in sports writing to describe a player’s weakness which affects the whole team。

這一短語經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)在體育報(bào)道中，用來形容因?yàn)槟澄魂?duì)員的弱勢(shì)而導(dǎo)致整個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)受影響。

But the word is also a racial slur against Chinese people。

但同時(shí)Chink這個(gè)詞也是對(duì)中國人帶有種族主義的誹謗。

With Lin’s Chinese heritage, the “Chink in the armor” was soon bombarded for its racial implication. To quiet public fury, ESPN issued an apology: “We regret and apologize for this mistake。”

由于林書豪的中國背景，這則題為“盔甲上的破綻(Chink在俚語中，貶義指中國佬)”的報(bào)道因帶有種族主義色彩，很快招致人們炮轟。為平息眾怒，ESPN公開道歉：“我們對(duì)這一錯(cuò)誤表示遺憾和歉意。”

Political correctness

政治正確性

Racist comment is taboo. But there are many more minefields that people try to avoid in daily life to avoid public offense。

帶有種族主義色彩的評(píng)論是一大禁忌。但日常生活中存在更多的雷區(qū)，人們需要盡量回避以免引發(fā)眾怒。

Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers in 2005 explained why there were fewer female scientists in elite universities. He put it down to different innate ability between men and women。

在2005年，哈佛大學(xué)前任校長勞倫斯 薩莫斯(音譯)在解釋了為何頂尖大學(xué)中女性科學(xué)家人數(shù)較少這一問題時(shí)。他將其歸因于男女天生有別。

This caused a furor. Summers issued an apology: “I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women。”

此舉引發(fā)轟動(dòng)。薩莫斯公開致歉說：“我錯(cuò)誤地用那樣的方式說話，無意地發(fā)出了錯(cuò)誤的信號(hào)，讓有才能的女性感到受挫。”

Interpretations of history can cause offense. A French politician was sentenced to jail recently for remarks about the Nazi occupation of France。

詮釋歷史也會(huì)觸怒公眾。最近，法國一位政治家就因其關(guān)于納粹占領(lǐng)法國的言論而被判入獄。

His remarks were considered “politically incorrect”。

他的言論被認(rèn)為是“政治上不正確的”。

In the book A Short History of Political Correctness, Ruth Perry explains that in order to cause minimum offense to race, gender, age, profession, religion, culture, disability and so on, political correctness, as an umbrella, functions as a social consensus on language, policy, behavior and other ideas to ensure no social group suffers from discrimination。

在《政治正確性簡史》一書中，魯茲 帕瑞(音譯)解釋說，政治正確性是一把保護(hù)傘，作為就語言、政治、行為及其他思想而達(dá)成的社會(huì)共識(shí)，以確保所有社會(huì)群體不受歧視，最大程度上減小對(duì)宗族、性別、年齡、職業(yè)、宗教、文化、殘疾的冒犯。

Thus any ignite violation of social taboos and political correctness could cause damage。

因此任何違反社會(huì)禁忌以及政治正確性的導(dǎo)火索都可能帶來傷害。

“We live in a culture in which a breach of political correctness is criminal,” said Leo Schwartz in the Columbia Daily Spectator last week。

“在我們所處的文化之中，違反政治正確性即是犯罪。”里奧 施瓦茲(音譯)于上周的《哥倫比亞觀察家》中如是說。

Taboo-buster

禁忌語大掃除

Don’t joke about bombs: A new taboo due to the US’ war on terrorism. Remember Chandler Bing in Friends? He is detained for a joke. In real life, the consequences could be far worse。

不要拿炸彈來開玩笑：這是美國反恐戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)所產(chǎn)生的最新禁忌語。記得《老友記》中的錢德 賓(音譯)嗎?他因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)玩笑而被扣押。在實(shí)際生活中，其后果可能更嚴(yán)重。

Nigger: A taboo and very offensive word to call a black person. Although black brothers call each other nigger, you can’t。

Nigger(意為黑鬼)：這是一個(gè)禁忌語，而且對(duì)黑人一種十分不敬的稱謂。盡管黑人兄弟間彼此這樣稱呼，但你不行。