1、Unit 7 Id Rather Be Black than FemaleShirley Chisholm1.Being the first black woman elected to Congress has made me some kind of phenomenon. There are nine other blacks in Congress; there are ten other women. I was the first to overcome both handicaps at once. Of the two handicaps, being black is muc

2、h less of a drawback than being female.2.If I said that being black is a greater handicap than being a woman, probably no one would question me. Why? Because “we all know” there is prejudice against black people in America. That there is prejudice against women is an idea that still strikes nearly a

3、ll men and, I am afraid, most women as bizarre.3.Prejudice against blacks was invisible to most white Americans for many years. When blacks finally started to “mention” it, with sit-ins, boycotts, and freedom rides, Americans were incredulous. “Who, us?” they asked in injured tones. “Were prejudiced

4、?” It was the start of a long, painful reeducation for white America. It will take years for whites including those who think of themselves as liberals to discover and eliminate the racist attitudes they all actually have. 4.How much harder will it be to eliminate the prejudice against women? I am s

5、ure it will be a longer struggle. Part of the problem is that women in America are much more brainwashed and content with their roles as second-class citizens than blacks ever were. 5.Let me explain. I have been active in politics for more than twenty years. For all but the last six, I have done the

6、 work all the tedious details that make the difference between victory and defeat on election day while men reaped the rewards, which is almost invariably the lot of women in politics. 6.It is still women about three million volunteers who do most of this work in the American political world. The be

7、st any of them can hope for is the honor of being district or county vice-chairman, a kind of separate-but-equal position with which a woman is rewarded for years of faithful envelope stuffing and card-party organizing. In such a job, she gets a number of free trips to state and sometimes national m

8、eetings and conventions, where her role is supposed to be to vote the way her male chairman votes. 7.When I tried to break out of that role in 1963 and run for the New York State Assembly seat from Brooklyns Bedford Stuyvesant, the resistance was bitter. From the start of that campaign, I faced undi

9、sguised hostility because of my sex. 8.But it was four years later, when I ran for Congress, that the question of my sex became a major issue. Among members of my own party, closed meetings were held to discuss ways of stopping me. 9.My opponent, the famous civil-rights leader James Farmer tried to

10、project a black, masculine image; he toured the neighborhood with sound trucks filled with young men wearing Afro haircuts, dashikis, and beards. While the television crews ignored me, they were not aware of a very important statistic, which both I and my campaign manager, Wesley MacD. Holder, knew.

11、 In my district there are 2.5 women for every man registered to vote. And those are organized in PTAs, church societies, card clubs, and other social and service groups. I went to them and asked their help. Mr. Farmer still doesnt quite know what hit him. 10. When a bright young woman graduate start

12、s looking for a job, why is the first question always: “Can you type?” A history of prejudice lies behind that question. Why are women thought of as secretaries, not administrators? Librarians and teachers, but not doctors and lawyers? Because they are thought of as different and inferior. The happy

13、 homemaker and the contented darky are both stereotypes produced by prejudice. 11.Women have not even reached the level of tokenism that blacks are reaching. No women sit on the Supreme Court. Only two have held Cabinet rank, and none do at present. Only two women hold ambassadorial rank. But women

14、predominate in the lower-paying, menial, unrewarding, dead-end jobs, and when they do reach better positions, they are invariably paid less than a man gets for the same job. 12.If that is not prejudice, what would you call it?13.A few years ago, I was talking with a political leader about a promisin

15、g young woman as a candidate. “Why invest time and effort to build the girl up?” he asked me. “You know shell only drop out of the game to have a couple of kids just about the time were ready to run her for mayor.” 14.Plenty of people have said similar things about me. Plenty of others have advised

16、me, every time I tried to take another upward step, that I should go back to teaching, a womans vocation, and leave politics to the men. I love teaching, and I am ready to go back to it as soon as I am convinced that this country no longer needs a womans contribution. 15.When there are no children g

17、oing to bed hungry in this rich nation, I may be ready to go back to teaching. When there is a good school for every child, I may be ready. When we do not spend our wealth on hardware to murder people, when we no longer tolerate prejudice against minorities, and when the laws against unfair housing

18、and unfair employment practices are enforced instead of evaded, then there may be nothing more for me to do in politics. 16.But until that happens and we all know it will not be this year or next what we need is more women in politics. Because we have a very special contribution to make. I hope that

19、 the example of my success will convince other women to get into politics and not just to stuff envelopes, but to run for office. 17.It is women who can bring empathy, tolerance, insight, patience, and persistence to government the qualities we naturally have or have had to develop because of our su

20、ppression by men. The women of a nation mold its morals, its religion, and its politics by the lives they live. At present, our country needs womens idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else. 1.我是首位當(dāng)選國會議員的黑人婦女，這使我成了一種獨(dú)特的現(xiàn)象。美國國會中還有九位黑人議員，十位女性議員,而我是首位同時逾越雙重障礙的議員。在這兩道障礙之中，

21、身為黑人要比身為女人的障礙小很多。 2. 如果我說黑人面對的障礙要比女人更大，大概沒有人會懷疑。這是為什么？因?yàn)椤?眾所周知 ”，美國對黑人有歧視 。若說對女性有歧視，這會令幾乎所有男人恐怕還有大多數(shù)女人都覺得不可思議。 3. 很多年來，多數(shù)美國白人對歧視黑人的現(xiàn)象視而不見。最后，當(dāng)黑人們通過靜坐示威、聯(lián)合抵制和自由乘車游行等方式“挑起”這個問題時，美國白人覺得驚異萬分?！罢l，是我們嗎？”他們委屈地問道， “我們在歧視他們？” 對美國白人來說，這個漫長痛苦的再教育過程剛剛開始。很多年以后，白人包括那些自以為是自由主義者的人才會發(fā)現(xiàn)并消除他們實(shí)際存在的種族主義思想。4. 而消除女性歧視的困難要大

22、多少？我堅(jiān)信這將是一場更為曠日持久的斗爭，部分原因是，與黑人相比，美國女性不 僅被更徹底地洗腦，而且也更加安于她們次等公民的角色。 5. 請?jiān)试S我解釋一下。我活躍政界二十余年。除了最后六年，我一直在努力工作 干那些枯燥乏味但卻能影響競選勝負(fù)的雜活可收獲獎賞的卻是男人，這幾乎就是政界女性永遠(yuǎn)不變的命運(yùn)。6. 恰恰又是女性大約有三百萬女性志愿者在美國政界做著大部分這類工作。她們中任何人頂多指望能有幸當(dāng)選區(qū)副主席或縣副主席。這種“區(qū)分但平等”的職位是一名女性多年任勞任怨地干著裝信件、組織牌局之類的雜活之后所能獲 得的。最高獎勵 。擔(dān)任此職務(wù)之后，她可以享受公費(fèi)出差、參加州或全國性會議或代表大會的待遇

23、，而她的既定角色就是按男會長的投票方式去投票。 7. 1963年，當(dāng)我試圖突破這種角色，代表布魯克林的貝德福德斯圖維桑特參加紐約州眾議院席位競選時，遭到了強(qiáng)烈的反對。競選伊始，我便遇到了針對我的性別的毫無掩飾的敵意。8. 四年之后，當(dāng)我競選國會議員時，性別才真正成了我的主要障礙。我所在黨派的成員還召開了秘密會議，討論如何阻止我參加競選。 9. 我的競爭對手、著名人權(quán)運(yùn)動領(lǐng)袖詹姆士法默努力向大眾展示一個黑人男子漢的形象；他坐著帶有擴(kuò)音器的卡車在選區(qū)里巡回，車上載滿了留著非洲發(fā)式、穿著短袖花套衫、留著胡子的年輕人。電視臺的攝制人員對我視而不見，但他們對一個非常重要的數(shù)據(jù)毫不知情，而對此我和我的競選經(jīng)紀(jì)人韋斯利麥克唐納霍爾德卻很清楚。我所在的這個選區(qū)內(nèi)，登記投票的男女選民的比例是1:2.5。而且那些婦女都是有組織的，這其中包括教師家長協(xié)會、教會團(tuán)體、撲克牌俱樂部以及其他社會服務(wù)團(tuán)體。我去向她們尋求幫助。法默先生到現(xiàn)在仍然不知道自己敗因何在。10. 當(dāng)年輕優(yōu)秀的女大學(xué)畢業(yè)生找工作時，為什么第一個問題總是“你會打字嗎？” 這個問題的背后是一部對女性的歧視史。女性為什么被認(rèn)定是秘書，而非管理者？為什么她們只能當(dāng)圖書館管理員和教師，不能當(dāng)