Beyond the Melting Pot

種族熔爐熔了人種難歸類

By Tom Brady

Identity theft. Identity crisis. Gender identity. Racial identity. Self identity.
身分盜用，認同危機，性別認同，種族認同，自我認同。

The modern world has expanded our notion of identity and at times undermined our sense of belonging, to a family, a tribe, a culture or a nation. The connection can be the difference between poverty and a big payday.
現代世界已經擴大了我們對認同的見解，有時還會削弱我們對家庭、部落、文化或民族的歸屬感。而這種關聯可能產生貧窮潦倒或大發利市的天壤之別。

Indian tribes in California, enriched by casino profits, have been using blood laws to classify who can and cannot share in the booty. More than 2,500 tribal members, David Treuer wrote in The Times, were told they did not have enough Indian blood and so did not get a cut of the tribes’ windfall.
加州的印地安部落靠賭場利潤致富，一直用血統法則區分誰能分享紅利。紐約時報記者崔爾報導，有2500名以上的部落成員被告知印地安血統不夠純正，不能分享部落獲得的暴利。

The irony here, as Mr. Treuer points out, is that these so-called “blood quantum laws” were used as early as 1705 in Virginia to determine who would be classified as an Indian, which meant restricted rights.
可笑的是，這類所謂的「血統成分法則」，早在1705年便在維吉尼亞州用來決定誰被劃分為印地安人，而他們的權利將受到限制。

More than 300 years later, the United States census still tries to categorize people by race, and the census form has 15 choices, including “some other race.” In 2010, 18 million Latinos checked the “other” box, The Times reported.
三百多年後的今天，美國的人口普查仍試圖以種族來將人民分類，普查表格上有15個選項，包括「其他種族」在內。紐約時報說，2010年普查時有1800萬拉丁美洲裔美國人勾選「其他種族」一項。

“Many Latinos argue that the country’s race categories – indeed, the government’s very conception of identity – do not fit them,” Mireya Navarro wrote in The Times.
納瓦洛在紐約時報撰文指出：「許多拉美裔認為，這個國家的種族分類─其實是政府對認同的真正觀念─並不適合他們。」

The child of a Jewish father and a Mexican mother, Erica Lubliner has fair skin and green eyes. After her father died when she was 9, she grew up around her Mexican family, but she told The Times she was so “conflicted” about the race question that she left it blank.
艾莉嘉．魯布尼納父親是猶太裔，母親是墨西哥裔，有一雙碧眼及白晰的皮膚。當她九歲那年父親去世之後，便一直在墨西哥家庭裡成長；但他告訴紐時記者說，她對於自己的種族問題相當「掙扎」，因此她在種族的欄位上留白。

“Believe me, I am not a confused person,” Ms. Lubliner, a medical school graduate in her mid-30s, told The Times. “I know who I am, but I don’t necessarily fit the categories well.”
從醫學院畢業的魯布尼納現年35歲左右。他對紐時記者說：「相信我，我不是個頭腦不清楚的人。我知道我是誰，可是這種分類法未必適合我。」

Alejandro Farias, 23, whose ancestors came from the United States, Mexico and Portugal, and sees himself as Latino, also checked “some other race” on his census form.
23歲的法利亞斯祖先有美國人、墨西哥人和葡萄牙人，而他自認是拉美裔，但他在人口普查表上還是勾選了「其他種族」類。

“Race to me gets very confusing because we have so many people from so many races that make up our genealogical tree,” Mr. Farias told The Times.
法利亞斯對紐時記者說：「種族問題讓我非常困惑，因為我的家族譜系裡有太多來自各種不同民族的人。」

As one Times reader from Texas, Dawn Lewis, wrote in a letter to the editor after reading an article about the remixing of races in America: “We are not just a melting pot anymore; we have melted. As a teacher, I listened as my confused students whose families were a smorgasbord of race, religion and relationship were asked to fill in their ethnicity on standardized tests. Which bubble do you tell a child to fill in if his dad is African-American, mom is Hispanic, stepmom is white and half-sister is Asian?
一如德州的紐時讀者劉易士看過一篇有關美國種族再混合的文章後，寫信給紐時所說的：「我們不再只是個大熔爐了；我們已經熔化了。我是個老師，有些學生的家庭在種族、宗教及關係上簡直是個大拼盤，而他們告訴我在一些制式化的測驗上被要求填寫種族淵源。如果一個孩童的父親是非洲裔，母親是西班牙語裔，繼母是白人，同父異母或同母異父的姊妹是亞裔時，你該告訴他怎麼寫呢？」

“Our society needs to come to grips with reality: Americans are a product of our very diverse society. We don’t fit into a bubble dot anymore.”
「我們的社會需要掌握現實：美國人是我們這個非常多元社會裡的產物。我們不要依據這套虛幻的概念來對號入座。」

But part of our identity is tied up in which group or tribe we called our own.
不過在我們的認同之中，有一部分的確與我們自稱屬於何種群體或者是部族有關。

Mr. Treuer wrote that Indian tribes had their own ways of figuring out who was a member, usually based on language, residence and culture. In the case of his own tribe, the Ojibwe, it was a matter of choosing a side.
崔爾寫道，印地安部落有他們自己的方法來辨認誰是他們的族人，通常是以語言、居住地及文化為基礎。在他自己所屬的歐吉布威部落裡，這可是選邊站的問題。

“Especially when we were at war in the early 19th century, with the Dakota – our neighbors (many of whom were blood relatives) – who you were was largely a matter of whom you killed,” Mr. Treuer wrote.
他寫道：「尤其是當我們在19世紀初年與達科他部落交戰期間─達科他部落是我們的鄰居（許多人還跟我們是血親）─，你是誰基本上就跟你要殺誰是一碼事。」

“Personally, I think this is a more elegant way than many to figure out where you belong.”
「我個人認為，以這種方式決定你的身分，比許多其他方式來得講究。」

原文參照：
http://imcmsimages.mediacorp.sg/CMSFileserver/documents/006/PDF/20120226/2602NYP034.pdf

2012-02-28聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 任中原譯原文參見紐時週報三版左