VOA标准英语2008年-Interracial Families Changing Americans' Attitu
时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(八月)
When Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was born to a white mother and a black father in 1961, marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in some parts of the United States. That's no longer the case, but as VOA's Susan Logue reports, public attitudes toward interracial families are still changing.
Charles Spearman and Nancy Burnett have been married for nine years and live in Virginia
Charles Spearman, who is black, has been married to Nancy Burnett, who is white, for nine years. "When we are outside in the community, we know other people perceive us as a black and white couple," Spearman says. "In the house, we're just a couple and we're thinking of the challenges and opportunities any couple would have."
In the Virginia suburb where they live, their marriage would have been illegal prior to 1967. That's when the U.S. Supreme 1 Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage violate the civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Richard and Mildred Loving, who were also residents of Virginia, had led that legal battle. "That was a lot of courage by that couple," Spearman says. "It was a testament 2 to love, courage and the legal profession to pave the way for the changes that have taken place in (the past) 40 years."
Spearman and Burnett, who were both previously 3 married, say if they had met earlier, they would have married then. But Burnett, who has a 21-year-old daughter from her first marriage, which was to a white man, says it might have been more challenging.
"I can't predict how my family at that time - whether they would have been able to accept that difference, that they now accept," she says. Burnett, who grew up in a small town in East Tennessee, says her family belonged to a country club where "you could not be a member if you were of color. All of the people who served and worked in the club were black and all of the people who were members were white."
Despite a change in laws, segregation 4 continues
Of course, that was 40 years ago and times have changed. Spearman says he feels quite welcome when the couple goes to Tennessee to visit with Burnett's family. But both say they don't see many blacks and whites mingling 5 socially, even in suburban 6 Washington,D.C.
"We will go to different places of worship and there is no racial mixture," Burnett says. "We live in a neighborhood that has one other family of color."
"It is quite visible that there is quite a bit of segregation," Spearman notes, "not so much intentionally 7 now, but it occurs."
Rachel Lerman, 40, knows what it is like to be the only person of color in her neighborhood. The daughter of a Nigerian father and a white American mother, Lerman was adopted and raised by a white Jewish couple in suburban Boston.
Lerman, who points out that she was born the same year the Lovings won there case in the U.S. Supreme Court, grew up in the midst of busing. "Black students were bused into the town where I grew up that was 99 percent white."
Although she was biracial, she chose to represent herself as black. "I look like a black person, and to a lot of people I was the only black person they knew, so for me I always felt black. Being biracial was something a lot of people did not get."
Celebrities 8 help change attitudes
Tiger Woods has said he is proud to be both African American and Asian
That is changing. Even before Americans became familiar with Barack Obama, Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry and golf superstar Tiger Woods, who are both multie-racial, were changing Americans' attitudes toward race.
"This concept of black and white is a very artificial construct in the United States," says Alex Diaz-Asper, Lerman's husband. "It never was just a black and white culture."
Diaz-Asper, whose family emigrated from Cuba to the United States, is fair-skinned.
"Americans are starting to recognize that we are not just two races, we are multiple races in this country," he says. "We always have been."
Raising the next generation of multi-cultural Americans
Alex Diaz-Asper and Rachel Lerman are raising their twin boys, Alejandro and Miguel with an emphasis on their Latino heritage
Diaz-Asper and Lerman have twin three-year-old boys, whom they are raising with a strong emphasis on Latino culture and language. Alejandro has curly dark hair, brown eyes and brown skin. Miguel has straight light-brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.
"Their unifying 9 identity is being Latin," Lerman says. "We do get reactions because of how they look, obviously being such a contrast. Usually it is people who are white who will say 'How did that happen? You've got one for Mom and one for Dad.'"
Such comments are rare in the multi-cultural Washington neighborhood where the family lives. Lerman believes both boys will have a more positive experience growing up than she did. "I'm hopeful they will feel more connected to American society in general than I did. And that they will feel less that they need to be an either-or."
In 2000, the U.S. Census 10 bureau took one step in that direction. For the first time, Americans filling out the Census survey forms were allowed to check more than one box to define their race. More than six and a half million Americans did. And in the eight years since then, 25 percent more Americans have identified themselves as belonging to two or more races.
- It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
- He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
- This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
- It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明,编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。
- The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
- Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
- Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初,许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
- They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。
- There was a spring of bitterness mingling with that fountain of sweets. 在这个甜蜜的源泉中间,已经掺和进苦涩的山水了。
- The mingling of inconsequence belongs to us all. 这场矛盾混和物是我们大家所共有的。
- Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
- There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。
- I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
- The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所,因此没有资格再获得提供住房。
- He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
- a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目
- In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外,他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
- There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题,把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。