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培養英語閱讀習慣和思維，不依賴全文翻譯
Will protesters in American cities bring progress, or set back the cause they champion?
One hundred thousand Americans are dead from a virus. A feat of space flight demonstrates American ingenuity. In cities across the country, protests sparked by racial injustice are showing an ugly side of America to the world. In November voters must choose between a Republican running on a law-and-order platform, and an uninspiring vice-president running for the Democrats. The year is 1968. It is also 2020.
In 1968 the virus was flu and the space mission Apollo 8. But the injustice had the same corrosive effect. As James Baldwin wrote in the early 1960s, racism 「compromises, where it does not corrupt, all the American efforts to build a better world — here, there or anywhere.」 Today more than 350 cities nationwide erupted after George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, was killed by a white police officer. For nearly nine agonising minutes, deaf to Mr Floyd’s pleas and the growing alarm of the crowd, the officer choked the life out of him.
No wonder the spark ignited a bundle of kindling lying nearby. The fire this time is burning for the same reasons it has so often in the past: that many African-Americans still live in places with the worst schools, the worst health care and the worst jobs; that the rules apply differently to black people; the fact, rammed home by covid-19, that whenever America suffers misfortune, black America suffers most; a sense that the police are there to keep a lid on a city’s poor, even as they protect wealthy suburbs. And, yes, the sheer intoxication that comes from belonging to a crowd that has suddenly found its voice, and which demands to be heard.
The cycle of injustice, protest, riot and conservative reaction has come round many times since 1968. So many, that it would be easy to conclude that police violence and racial inequality in America are just too hard a problem to fix. Yet such pessimism is unwarranted. It is also counter-productive.
Activists sometimes charge that the entire criminal-justice system is racist. Police unions protect their members, including the rotten ones. In recent days a police car has rammed protesters and officers have assaulted people on the street. But the system is made up of thousands of jurisdictions and police departments. They are not all the same. For every Minneapolis, where some thuggish officers went on 「warrior」 courses and saw themselves as an occupying force, there is a Camden, New Jersey. Camden’s police force was so broken that in 2013 it was disbanded and the city started afresh. Its police chief was this week able to march with peaceful protesters through their city.
Policing America is hard because America is more violent than any other rich country and its citizens more heavily armed. About 50 police officers are murdered while doing their job each year. But the sustained falls in crime over the past three decades have made room for less war like law enforcement—by training officers to diffuse confrontation, not seek it, and by making them accountable whenever they use force. Many police departments, including Camden, have already taken this chance to turn themselves round. Others have not, partly because the federal government under President Donald Trump has eased the pressure for change. But the police and prosecutors are under local democratic control. They can be made to embrace reform if enough people vote for it.
Pessimism is self-defeating, too. It is a short step from thinking that America’s original racial sin is so deep that it cannot be overcome, to thinking that smashing and burning things is justified, because it is the only way to get attention. Yet if today’s protests slide into persistent rioting, as in 1968 after Martin Luther King’s assassination, the harm they cause could be felt most keenly in African-American districts. Those people who can leave will. The left-behind will be worse off, as home values plunge and jobs and shops disappear. The police may withdraw, leading to an increase in crime, which in turn may eventually bring more violent policing. The scars will be visible for decades.
Across the country, black leaders, who have seen this happen before, are telling protesters not to undermine their cause. 「A protest has purpose,」 said Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, condemning the vandalism in her city. In recent days protesters have heeded that and have been trying to restrain those who just want to start a fire — some of them white troublemakers.
Black leaders also understand how riots can wreck a political cause. When neighbourhoods are ablaze, the rest of the country focuses on putting out the fires. Harm to police officers in riots may cause voters to forget where their sympathies lay when it all began. When rioting takes hold, those who support the protests may find that their demands for change are drowned out by the clamour for order to be re-established.
In a presidential election, fear often beats idealism. Mr Trump seems to want this to be the choice in November. He has encouraged his supporters to clash with protesters outside the White House and been looking to deploy active troops alongside the national guard so as to 「dominate」 what his people call the battlespace. Law and order helped Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey in 1968. It could work again.
Yet fear betrays Mr Floyd’s memory. The more America is united, the better it can strive to ensure that all its citizens are able to live by its founding ideals. Unity will not come from Mr Trump, who has spent four years trying to divide the country. Instead, the leaders of protest movements, along with America’s mayors and police chiefs, must inspire it themselves. If the protests are overwhelmingly non-violent, they also carry a promise. Not that the protesters will get everything they want, nor that the injustices holding back African-Americans can all be put right at once, but that tomorrow can be better than today.
By the end of the decade in which Baldwin wrote of the need to heal America, the country had set about dismantling the legal edifice of racial segregation. It was also in the grip of a reaction from those who thought civil rights had gone too far. America is like that. Progress tussles with its opposite. But Americans have been tugging away at racism for half a century. This week, when the cruel death of a black man drew protesters of all races onto America’s streets, it was not just a sign of how much work lies ahead, but also that progress is possible.
背景知識：1968年和2020年的美國境況極為相似。1968年總統大選，全球大規模H3N2流感，非洲裔公民運動領袖馬丁·路德·金遇刺，美國爆發民權運動(King Assassination Riots)。
set sth back: to reduce something to a weaker or less advanced state 使倒退
This defeat has set back their chances of winning the competition.
這次失敗降低了他們贏得這次競賽的機會。
cause: a socially valuable principle that is strongly supported by some people （為某些人所強烈支持的）原則，事業，目標
They are fighting for a cause - the liberation of their people.
他們正為解放人民這一事業而戰鬥。
champion: to support, defend, or fight for a person, belief, right, or principle enthusiastically 捍衛
He has championed constitutional reform for many years.
他支持憲法改革好多年了。
a feat of: something difficult needing a lot of skill, strength, courage, etc. to achieve it 功績
The Eiffel Tower is a remarkable feat of engineering.
艾菲爾鐵塔是工程技術上的一大非凡業績。
ingenuity: someone's ability to think of clever new ways of doing something 獨創力
UK /ˌɪn.dʒəˈnjuː.ə.ti/ US /ˌɪn.dʒəˈnjuː.ə.t̬i/
racial injustice: 種族不公
law-and-order: 法律與秩序
Apollo 8: 阿波羅8號，人類第一次繞月球飛行
corrosive: harmful and causing bad feelings 惡劣的
the corrosive influence of racism
種族主義的惡劣影響
James Baldwin: 美國黑人作家、散文家、戲劇家和社會評論家，他的小說《向蒼天呼籲》與賴特的《土生子》和埃利森的《看不見的人》被並列為20世紀四五十年代美國黑人文學的典範。
erupt: to start suddenly and violently 突然發生
unarmed: 徒手的；手無寸鐵的
agonising: causing extreme physical or mental pain 使人十分痛苦的；折磨人的
an agonising death
痛苦的死亡
choked the life out of him: 把他掐死了
ignite: to cause a dangerous, excited, or angry situation to begin 激起
UK /ɪɡˈnaɪt/ US /ɪɡˈnaɪt/
The proposed restrictions have ignited a storm of protest.
擬議中的限制規定激起了抗議的浪潮。
kindling: small dry sticks or other materials used to start a fire 引火物
UK /ˈkɪnd.lɪŋ/ US /ˈkɪnd.lɪŋ/
health care: 醫療保健
ram sth home: to emphasize the importance of what you are saying in order to make certain people understand it 充分說明
He hopes his team's findings will ram home the global-warming message.
他希望團隊的研究結果將充分證明全球變暖的觀點。
keep/put a/the lid on sth: to control the level of something in order to stop it increasing 限制
The administration has intervened to keep a lid on inflation.
政府已對通貨膨脹進行了幹預限制。
racial inequality: 種族不平等
unwarranted: not having a good reason and therefore annoying or unfair 不合理的；不適當的
People need to be protected against such unwarranted intrusions into their private lives by journalists.
人們的私生活需要受到保護，免受新聞記者的無理侵犯。
criminal-justice system: 刑事司法體制
jurisdiction: 司法權；審判權
UK /ˌdʒʊə.rɪsˈdɪk.ʃən/ US /ˌdʒʊr.ɪsˈdɪk.ʃən/
The court has no jurisdiction in/over cases of this kind.
該法庭無權審判此類案件。
thuggish: behave in a violent, rough, or threatening way 兇狠的; 粗野的;
police force: 警力
disband: to stop being a group 解散
She formed a political group which disbanded a year later.
她曾經成立了一個政治團體，但一年後就解散了。
sustained falls: 持續下降
federal government: 聯邦政府
prosecutor: a legal official who accuses someone of committing a crime, especially in a law court 檢察官; 起訴人
UK /ˈprɒs.ɪ.kjuː.tər/ US /ˈpraː.sə.kjuː.t̬ɚ/
self-defeating: used to describe something that causes or makes worse the problem it was designed to avoid or solve 自我挫敗的
slide into: to go into a worse state, often through lack of control or care 逐漸陷入
He was improving for a while, but I think he's sliding back into his old habits.
他有一段時間確實在進步，可我擔心他正在故態復萌。
plunge: to become lower in value or level very suddenly and quickly （價值或程度）暴跌
Our income has plunged dramatically.
我們的收入驟減。
vandalism: the crime of intentionally damaging property belonging to other people 恣意毀壞他人財產罪
UK /ˈvæn.dəl.ɪ.zəm/ US /ˈvæn.dəl.ɪ.zəm/
Beset by violence and vandalism, this is one of the most unpleasant areas in the city.
這裡充斥著暴力和蓄意破壞公共財物行為，是本市最亂的地區之一。
heed: to pay attention to something, especially advice or a warning 注意
The airline has been criticized for failing to heed advice/warnings about lack of safety routines.
該航空公司因沒有理會針對其日常安全工作不力提出的建議／警告而受到了批評。
ablaze: burning very strongly 猛烈燃燒的
UK /əˈbleɪz/ US /əˈbleɪz/
The house was ablaze, and the flames and smoke could be seen for miles around.
房子燃起了熊熊大火，方圓幾英裡都能看到烈焰和濃煙。
take hold: to become strong; to be established 變強；確立地位
The economic recovery is just beginning to take hold now.
經濟復甦的趨勢剛剛開始穩定下來。
drown sth out: if a loud noise drowns out another noise, it prevents it from being heard（噪音）蓋過，淹沒
clamour: a loud complaint about something or a demand for something 提出要求的強烈呼聲
UK /ˈklæm.ər/ US /ˈklæm.ɚ/
After the bombing, there was a public clamour for vengeance.
爆炸過後，公眾一致嚷著要報仇。
presidential election: 總統選舉
deploy: to move soldiers or equipment to a place where they can be used when they are needed 部署；調動
The decision has been made to deploy extra troops/more powerful weapons.
目前已經決定部署更多的士兵／更具殺傷力的武器。
Hubert Humphrey: 美國政治家，曾任明尼蘇達州聯邦參議員，第38任副總統(1965～1969)，1968年為民主黨候選人。競選中敗給共和黨候選人理察·尼克森。
overwhelmingly: strongly or completely; in an overwhelming way 壓倒性地
The team were overwhelmingly defeated in yesterday's game.
在昨天的比賽中這支球隊遭遇了慘敗。
dismantle: to get rid of a system or organization, usually over a period of time（逐漸地）廢除
Unions accuse the government of dismantling the National Health Service.
工會指責政府企圖破壞國民保健制度。
edifice: a system that has been established for a long time 精神大廈（比喻存在已久的體系等）
UK /ˈed.ɪ.fɪs/ US /ˈed.ə.fɪs/
It looks as if the whole political edifice of the country is about to collapse.
看來整個國家的政治局勢是風雨飄搖、大廈將傾。
racial segregation: 種族隔離
be in the grip of sth: to be experiencing something unpleasant that you have no control over 處於無法控制的不利局勢中；受制於…
The country is currently in the grip of the worst recession in 20 years.
這個國家現在陷入了20年來最嚴重的經濟衰退之中。
tussle with sth: to try hard to understand or deal with a difficult idea or problem 盡力對付
It's an idea that I've been tussling with for quite a while.
這個想法我已考慮了很久。
Before he chose to tell the truth he had tussled with his conscience.
他在說實話之前進行了一番良心上的鬥爭。
tug away at: to pull hard at something; to haul something 用力拉