The Legacy of Liberalism 自由主义的遗产 作者：Thomas Sowell @ 2014-11

译者：Luis Rightcon(@Rightcon)

来源：National Review， http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392842/legacy-liberalism-thomas-sowell The current problems facing blacks in America owe more to the Great Society than to slavery. 美国黑人目前所面临的问题更多要归结于 “ 大社会 ” 的理念，而不是奴隶制 Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said there were “phrases that serve as an excuse for not thinking.” One of these phrases that substitute for thought today is one that depicts the current problems of blacks in America as “a legacy of slavery.”

最高法院大法官Oliver Wendell Holmes曾说，使用某些习语是“停止思考的借口”。当今的一个代替思考的此类习语，就是将美国黑人眼下面临的问题描述为“奴隶制的遗毒”。 New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof asserts that there is “overwhelming evidence that centuries of racial subjugation still shape inequity in the 21st century” and he mentions “the lingering effects of slavery.” But before we become overwhelmed, that evidence should be checked out.

《纽约时报》作者Nicholas Kristof 断言：“有压倒性的证据显示，几个世纪以来的种族奴役依旧塑造着21世纪的不平等”，他也提到了“徘徊不散的奴隶制影响”。但在我们被这些证据“压倒”之前，应对它们进行仔细的检验。

The evidence offered by Mr. Kristof in the November 16 issue of the New York Times seems considerably short of overwhelming, to put it charitably. He cites a study showing that “counties in America that had a higher proportion of slaves in 1860 are still more unequal today.” Has he never heard statisticians’ repeated warnings that correlation is not causation?

Kristof先生在11月16日的纽约时报上提供的证据看起来——说得好听一点——相当的缺乏“压倒性”。他引用了一项研究指出“美国那些在1860年保有更多奴隶人口的县今天仍然（比其他地方）更不平等。”他难道没有听过统计学家一直重复的关于相关性并非因果性的警告么？

The South long remained a region that blacks fled by the millions — for very good reasons. But, in more recent years, the net migration of blacks has been from the North to the South. No doubt they have good reasons for that as well.

历史上数百万黑人一直在逃离美国的南部各州，他们有很充足的理由。但是，在近些年里，黑人净流动的方向是从北向南的。毫无疑问，他们一定也有很好的理由这么做。

But there is no reason to believe that blacks today are unaware of the history of slavery or of the Jim Crow era in the South. Indeed, there are black “leaders” who seem to talk about nothing else. Yet blacks who are moving back to the South seem more concerned with the present and the future than with the past.

但是我们没有理由相信当今黑人会不知道有关黑奴的历史，或是Jim Crow时期的南部【 译注：Jim Crow时期系指1876-1965年，其间美国南方各州陆续制订种族隔离法，这些法律被统称为Jim Crow法 】。的确，有很多黑人“领袖”每天谈论的都是以上这些黑历史。然而朝南方移居的黑人们看起来更关心现在和未来，而不是过去。

Kristof’s other “overwhelming” evidence of the current effects of past slavery is that blacks do not have as much income as whites. But Puerto Ricans do not have as much income as Japanese Americans. Mexican Americans do not have as much income as Cuban Americans. All sorts of people do not have as much income as all sorts of other people, not only in the United States, but in countries around the world. And most of these people were never enslaved.

Kristof关于过去奴隶制对现代影响的另外一个“压倒性”的证据是黑人的收入比白人要少。但是波多黎各人的收入也比不上日裔美国人。墨西哥裔美国人的收入也比不上古巴裔美国人。不仅仅是在美国，在全世界任何一种人都和另一种人的收入不一样。而这些人里的绝大多数都不曾被奴役。

If we wanted to be serious about evidence, we might compare where blacks stood a hundred years after the end of slavery with where they stood after 30 years of the liberal welfare state. In other words, we could compare hard evidence on “the legacy of slavery” with hard evidence on the legacy of liberals.

如果我们想要严肃地对待证据，我们应该将生活在奴隶制结束100年后的黑人与在自由派的福利国家生活了30年之后的黑人做比较。换句话说，我们可以比较一下“奴隶制的遗毒”和自由派的遗产。

Despite the grand myth that black economic progress began or accelerated with the passage of the Civil Rights laws and “War on Poverty” programs of the 1960s, the cold fact is that the poverty rate among blacks fell from 87 percent in 1940 to 47 percent by 1960. This was before any of those programs began.

尽管盛行的谬见声称，在1960年代民权法案通过和“对贫困宣战”项目实行后，黑人在经济地位上才开始进步或是开始加速进步。冰冷的事实却是黑人的贫困率从1940年的87%下降到了1960年的47%。而这是在任何相关法案或项目实行之前就已经发生了的。

Over the next 20 years, the poverty rate among blacks fell another 18 percentage points, compared to the 40-point drop in the previous 20 years. This was the continuation of a previous economic trend, at a slower rate of progress, not the economic grand deliverance proclaimed by liberals and self-serving black “leaders.”

在之后的20年里，黑人贫困率又下降了18%。相对应的，之前的20年里的降幅是40个百分点。这只是一个之前经济趋势的延续，只是进度放缓了，而并非自由派和自谋私利的黑人“领袖”所宣称的伟大经济援救的成效。

Ending the Jim Crow laws was a landmark achievement. But, despite the great proliferation of black political and other “leaders” that resulted from the laws and policies of the 1960s, nothing comparable happened economically. And there were serious retrogressions socially.

种族隔离制度的结束是一个里程碑式的成就。但是， 1960年代的法律和政策，除了导致政治上或是其他方面的黑人“领袖”数量激增之外，在经济上并没有什么与之相称的成就，而在社会问题上则有严重的倒退。

Nearly a hundred years of the supposed “legacy of slavery” found most black children being raised in two-parent families in 1960. But thirty years after the liberal welfare state found the great majority of black children being raised by a single parent.

在1960年代，生活在近百年的所谓“奴隶制遗毒”影响下的绝大多数黑人儿童是由双亲家庭抚养长大的。然而在自由主义福利国家建成30年之后，我们发现大多数黑人儿童是由单亲家庭抚养长大的。

The murder rate among blacks in 1960 was one-half of what it became 20 years later, after a legacy of liberals’ law-enforcement policies. Public-housing projects in the first half of the 20th century were clean, safe places, where people slept outside on hot summer nights, when they were too poor to afford air conditioning. That was before admissions standards for public-housing projects were lowered or abandoned, in the euphoria of liberal non-judgmental notions. And it was before the toxic message of victimhood was spread by liberals. We all know what hell holes public housing has become in our times. The same toxic message produced similar social results among lower-income people in England, despite an absence of a “legacy of slavery” there.

自由派的执法政策留下的遗产是，1980年代的黑人谋杀率提高到了20年前的两倍。公共住房项目在20世纪前半叶是干净而安全的地方，是人们在炎热夏夜无法负担空调费用时在外的居所。那时候公共住房项目对于住户的接纳标准还未被昏了头的自由派出于“不评判”的理念而降低或完全废除。而且当时自由派所鼓吹的有关黑人受害者身份的有毒思想还未被广泛传播。我们都清楚公共住房项目在我们的时代里成了怎样的黑暗地狱。同样的有毒思想在低收入的英国人身上也体现出了同样的社会效应，尽管在那里没有任何“奴隶制的遗毒”。

If we are to go by evidence of social retrogression, liberals have wreaked more havoc on blacks than the supposed “legacy of slavery” they talk about. Liberals should heed the title of Jason Riley’s insightful new book, Please Stop Helping Us .

如果我们追寻社会倒退的证据，就会发现，自由派给黑人造成的破坏要比他们口中所谓的“奴隶制遗毒”严重的多。自由派应当听听Jason Riley在他富有洞察力的新书的标题中提出的建议，《不要再帮助我们了》。

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