OP-ED COLUMNIST
Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech
NICHOLAS KRISTOF November 15, 2015
專欄作者
美國大學為什麼越來越不寬容？
紀思道 2015年11月15日
On university campuses across the country, from Mizzou to Yale, we have two noble forces colliding with explosive force.
在全美各地的大學校園裡，從密蘇里到耶魯，我們看到兩股高尚的力量在激烈碰撞。
One is a concern for minority or marginalized students and faculty members, who are often left feeling as outsiders in ways that damage everyone’s education. At the University of Missouri, a black professor, Cynthia Frisby, wrote, “I have been called the N-word too many times to count.”
其中之一是對少數族裔和邊緣化師生問題的關注。這些人往往覺得受到了排斥，而這會對每個人的教育不利。在密蘇里大學，黑人教授辛西婭·弗里斯比(Cynthia Frisby)寫道，「我總是能聽到N打頭的那個字眼（意指『黑鬼』——譯註），次數多得數不清。」
The problem is not just racists who use epithets but also administrators who seem to acquiesce. That’s why Mizzou students — especially football players — used their clout to oust the university system’s president. They showed leadership in trying to rectify a failure of leadership.
問題不光是出言不遜的種族主義者，還有對此沉默不語的學校管理層。正因為如此，密蘇里的學生——尤其是橄欖球隊的成員——利用自身的影響力逼迫總校長下了台。在儘力糾正領導層不作為這件事上，他們展示了領導力。
Daniel Brenner for The New York Times
在密蘇里大學，攝影記者蒂姆·戴與支持「學生關切1950」運動的人群在媒體權限問題上發生對抗。
But moral voices can also become sanctimonious bullies.
然而，道德的聲音也可以變成偽善的欺凌。
“Go, go, go,” some Mizzou protesters yelled as they jostled a student photographer, Tim Tai, who was trying to document the protests unfolding in a public space. And Melissa Click, an assistant professor who joined the protests, is heard on a video calling for “muscle” to oust another student journalist (she later apologized).
「滾、滾、滾，」密蘇里大學的一些抗議者一邊推搡學生攝影記者蒂姆·戴(Tim Tai)，一邊大喊。蒂姆·戴當時試圖記錄下公共空間里正在發生的抗議活動。從一則視頻中可以聽到，參與抗議的助理教授梅利莎·克利克(Melissa Click)召喚人群中的「肌肉人」趕走另一名學生記者（她後來進行了道歉）。
Tai represented the other noble force in these upheavals — free expression. He tried to make the point, telling the crowd: “The First Amendment protects your right to be here — and mine.”
蒂姆·戴代表了此類動蕩事件之中的另一股高尚力量——言論自由。他當時試圖提出這一點，向人群喊道：「憲法第一修正案保護你們在這裡的權利——也保護我的權利。」
We like to caricature great moral debates as right confronting wrong. But often, to some degree, it’s right colliding with right.
我們喜歡把道德方面的大辯論塑造成對錯之爭。但在某種程度上，事情往往是對對之爭。
Yes, universities should work harder to be inclusive. And, yes, campuses must assure free expression, which means protecting dissonant and unwelcome voices that sometimes leave other people feeling aggrieved or wounded.
的確，大學管理層應當更努力地提高包容性。的確，校園裡也必須保障言論自由。這就意味着，保護那些有時會讓別人感覺憤怒或受傷的刺耳而討厭的聲音。
On both counts we fall far short.
在這兩方面，我們都還差得很遠。
We’ve also seen Wesleyan students cut funding for the student newspaper after it ran an op-ed criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement. At Mount Holyoke, students canceled a production of “The Vagina Monologues” because they felt it excluded transgender women. Protests led to the withdrawal ofCondoleezza Rice as commencement speaker at Rutgers and Christine Lagarde at Smith.
This is sensitivity but also intolerance, and it is disproportionately an instinct on the left.
這既是行事敏感，又是不容異見。它更多地在左派身上體現為一種本能。
I’m a pro-choice liberal who has been invited to infect evangelical Christian universities with progressive thoughts, and to address Catholic universities where I’ve praised condoms and birth control programs. I’m sure I discomfited many students on these conservative campuses, but it’s a tribute to them that they were willing to be challenged. In the same spirit, liberal universities should seek out pro-life social conservatives to speak.
我本人是支持女性擁有墮胎選擇權的自由主義者，卻曾數次受邀去基督教福音派大學傳播進步理念，在去天主教大學演講時讚揚安全套和避孕項目。我肯定讓這些保守派學校的不少學生如坐針氈，但這也是對他們願意迎接質疑的一種致敬。同樣地，自由派大學也應該邀請支持胎兒生命權的社會問題保守派前去演講。
More broadly, academia — especially the social sciences — undermines itself by a tilt to the left. We should cherish all kinds of diversity, including the presence of conservatives to infuriate us liberals and make us uncomfortable. Education is about stretching muscles, and that’s painful in the gym and in the lecture hall.
從更宏觀的角度看，學術界——尤其是社會科學領域——通過左傾對自身造成了損害。我們應該珍視所有的多樣性，包括讓我們自由派憤怒、不適的那種保守派的存在。教育的宗旨應是像拉伸肌肉一樣。不管是在健身房裡，還是在階梯教室里，這種拉伸都是令人痛苦的。
One of the wrenching upheavals lately has unfolded at Yale. Longtime frustrations among minority students boiled over after administrators seemed to them insufficiently concerned about offensive costumes for Halloween. A widely circulated videoshowed a furious student shouting down one administrator, Prof. Nicholas Christakis. “Be quiet!” she screams at him. “It is not about creating an intellectual space!”
近期的激烈事件中，有一起發生在耶魯。少數族裔學生認為校方沒有對一些無禮的萬聖節服飾表達足夠的關切，他們的長期不滿情緒繼而爆發。廣為流傳的一則視頻顯示，一名憤怒不已的學生用喊叫的方式壓倒了管理員尼古拉斯·克里斯塔基斯教授(Nicholas Christakis)的聲音。「閉嘴！」她衝著他喊。「這跟創造什麼知識空間沒有關係！」
A student wrote an op-ed about “the very real hurt” that minority students feel, adding: “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.” That prompted savage commentary online. “Is Yale letting in 8-year-olds?” one person asked on Twitter.
一名學生撰寫了一篇專欄文章，描述少數族裔學生感受到的「非常真實的傷害」，文中還表示，「我不想爭論。我想談談自己的痛苦。」這篇文章在網上引發了激烈的評論。「耶魯大學開始招收8歲的小孩了？」一個人在Twitter上問道。
The Wall Street Journal editorial page denounced “Yale’s Little Robespierres.” It followed up Wednesday with another editorial,warning that the P.C. mind-set “threatens to undermine or destroy universities as a place of learning.”
I suggest we all take a deep breath.
我建議我們都深吸一口氣。
The protesters at Mizzou and Yale and elsewhere make a legitimate point: Universities should work harder to make all students feel they are safe and belong. Members of minorities — whether black or transgender or (on many campuses) evangelical conservatives — should be able to feel a part of campus, not feel mocked in their own community.
密蘇里大學和耶魯大學以及其他地方的抗議者們表達了一種合理的觀點：大學應該更加努力，以確保學生們更有安全感和歸屬感。它應該讓少數群體——不管是黑人、跨性別人士，還是基督教福音主義保守派（在很多校園裡他們都並非主流）——感到自己是學校的一部分，而非在自己的社區被人嘲笑。
The problems at Mizzou were underscored on Tuesday whenthere were death threats against black students. What’s unfolding at universities is not just about free expression but also about a safe and nurturing environment.
周二，密蘇里大學出現了一些針對黑人學生的死亡威脅，讓那裡的問題進一步加重。正在各個大學上演的問題，不只和言論自由有關，還關乎一個安全、能滋養人的環境。
Consider an office where bosses shrug as some men hang nude centerfolds and leeringly speculate about the sexual proclivities of female colleagues. Free speech issue? No! That’s a hostile work environment. And imagine if you’re an 18-year-old for whom this is your 24/7 home — named, say, for a 19th-century pro-slavery white supremacist.
試想如果是老闆在一些男性張貼插頁裸照或意淫女同事的性癖好時不加理會。它是言論自由問題嗎？不是。那是一個充滿敵意的工作環境。再想像一下，你是一個18歲的學生，你每天24小時都要待着的地方，是以一個支持奴隸制的19世紀白人至上主義者命名的。
My favorite philosopher, the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, argued that there was a deep human yearning to find the One Great Truth. In fact, he said, that’s a dead end: Our fate is to struggle with a “plurality of values,” with competing truths, with trying to reconcile what may well be irreconcilable.
我最喜歡的哲學家、已故的以賽亞·伯林(Isaiah Berlin)認為，人類有一種深層的渴望，想找到唯一的真理。但他表示，實際上這是一個死胡同：我們的命運是和「多元價值觀」作鬥爭，與不同的真理作鬥爭，是試着調和那些完全不可調和的。
That’s unsatisfying. It’s complicated. It’s also life.
這無法讓人滿意。它有些複雜。但這就是人生。
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