Martin Luther King Speech - Where do we go from hereSouthern Christian Leadership ConferenceAtlanta, Georgia16 August 1967Now, in order to answer the question, "Where do we go from here?" which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.2 In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, 75 percent hold menial(卑贱的)jobs.3 This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst(尽管存在…情况) a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable(攻不破的) and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.Depiction描写叙述of Blackness and Negro Contributions4 Even semantics have conspired to make that which is black seem ugly and degrading. In Roget's Thesaurus(同义词词典) there are 120 synonyms for blackness and at least 60 of them are offensive, as for example, blot(污渍), soot(煤烟),( grim)糟糕的, devil(魔鬼) and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity(贞洁淳朴) and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie. The most degenerate(堕落的) member of a family is a "black sheep.(害群之马)" Ossie Davis has suggested that maybe the English language should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be forced to teach the Negro child 60 ways to despise(鄙视) himself, and thereby perpetuate使永存his false sense of inferiority, and the white child 134 ways to adore himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority.5 The tendency to ignore the Negro's contribution to American life and to( strip him of剥夺) his personhood(人格), is as old as the earliest history hooks and as contemporary as the morning's newspaper. To upset this cultural homicide(杀人行为), the Negro must rise up(起义) with an affirmation(主张) of his own Olympian(庄严的)manhood(人格). Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks(忽视) this necessity is only waiting to be buried. As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian(林肯作风的) Emancipation(解放) Proclamation (宣告)or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can totally bring thiskind of freedom. The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being(他自己的生存) and signs with the pen and ink of assertive(坚定而自信的)manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation. And, with a spirit straining(变形) toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles(手铐)of self-abnegation(自欺欺人) and say to himself and to the world, "I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history. How painful and exploited（剥削的）that history has been. Yes, I was a slave through my foreparents and I am not ashamed of that. I'm ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave." Yes, we must stand up and say, "I'm black and I'm beautiful," and this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling（必须承认的）by the white man's crimes against him.6 Another basic challenge is to discover how to organize our strength in terms of economic and political power. No one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of（急需）this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From old plantations（种植园）of the South to newer ghettos（贫民区）of the North, the Negro has been confined to a life of voicelessness沉默and powerlessness. Stripped of the right to make decisions concerning his life and destiny命运he has been subject to the authoritarian（专制独裁者）and sometimes whimsical（异想天开的）decisions of this white power structure. The plantation and ghetto were created by those who had power. both to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. The problem of transforming the ghetto, therefore, is a problem of power confrontation（对抗）of the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status quo. Now power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change. Walter Reuther defined power one day. He said, "Power is the ability of a labor union like the U.A.W. to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General Motors, say 'Yes' when it wants to say 'No.' That's power."7 Now a lot of us are preachers（说教者）, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposite that love is identified with a resignation（顺从）of power, and power with a denial of love.8 It was this misinterpretation that caused Nietzsche尼采, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians （神学家）to reject the Nietzschean philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love. Now, we've got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless（轻率鲁莽的）and abusive（攻击性的）, and love without power is sentimental and anemic（贫血的）. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on. What has happened is that we have had it wrong and confused in our own country, and this has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through power devoid（缺乏）of love and conscience.9 This is leading a few extremists today to advocate for Negroes the same destructive and conscienceless power that they have justly abhorred（厌恶）in whites. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times. ↑political power10 We must develop a program that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income. Now, early in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation（谴责）, as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual's ability and talents. And, in the thinking of that day, the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious（勤劳的）habits and moral fiber. We've come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations（脱位混乱）in the market operations of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into（投身于）idleness（闲散）and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. Today the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences by being branded as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty.11 The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available. In I879 Henry George anticipated （预料，预见）this state of affairs when he wrote in Progress and Poverty:12 The fact is that the work which improves the condition of mankind, the work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature and elevates thought, is not done to secure a living. It is not the work of slaves driven to their tasks either by the task, by the taskmaster(工头), or by animal necessity. It is the work of men who somehow find a form of work that brings a security for its own sake and a state of society where want(缺乏) is abolished.13 Work of this sort could be enormously increased, and we are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished. The poor transformed into purchasers will do a great deal on their own(靠自己的力量) to alter housing decay. Negroes who have a double disability will have a greater effect on discrimination when they have the additional weapon of cash to use in their struggle.14 Beyond these advantages, a host of(大量的)positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the means to seek self-improvement(自我修养). Personal conflicts among husbands, wives and children will diminish when the unjust measurement of human worth on the scale of dollars is eliminated .15 Now our country can do this. John Kenneth Galbraith said that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth.16 Now, let me say briefly that we must reaffirm our commitment to nonviolence. I want to stress this. The futility(无益无用) of violence in the struggle for racial justice has been tragically etched(腐蚀) in all the recent Negro riots. Yesterday, I tried to analyze the riots and deal with their causes. Today I want to give the other side. There is certainly something painfully sad about a riot. One sees screaming youngsters and angry adults fighting hopelessly and aimlessly againstimpossible odds. And deep down(事实上) within them, you can even see a desire for self-destruction自杀, a kind of suicidal longing.17 Occasionally Negroes contend(主张) that the 1965 Watts riot and the other riots in various cities represented effective civil rights action. But those who express this view always end up with stumbling(出错的) words when asked what concrete gains have been won as a result. At best, the riots have produced a little additional antipoverty money allotted(分配摊派) by frightened government officials, and a few water-sprinklers to cool the children of the ghettos. It is something like improving the food in the prison while the people remain securely incarcerated(监禁) behind bars. Nowhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organized protest demonstrations. When one tries to pin down迫使作出决定advocates of violence as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly(看穿了地) illogical. Sometimes they talk of overthrowing(推翻) racist state and local governments and they talk about guerrilla warfare. They fail to see that no internal revolution has ever succeeded in overthrowing a government by violence unless the government had already lost the allegiance(拥护) and effective control of its armed forces. Anyone in his right mind knows that this will not happen in the United States. In a violent racial situation, the power structure has the local police, the state troopers(骑兵), the National Guard(国民警卫军、后备役)and, finally, the Army to call on—all of which are predominantly white. Furthermore, few if any violent revolutions have been successful unless the violent minority had the sympathy and support of the nonresistant majority. Castro may have had only a few Cubans actually fighting with him up in the hills, but he could never have overthrown the Batista regime(政权) unless he had the sympathy of the vast majority of Cuban people.18 It is perfectly clear that a violent revolution on the part of American blacks would find no sympathy and support from the white population and very little from the majority of the Negroes themselves. This is no time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This is a time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. So far, this has only been offered by the nonviolent movement. Without recognizing this we will end up with solutions that don't solve, answers that don't answer and explanations that don't explain.19 And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence. And I am still convinced that it is the most potent(威力大的)weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for justice in this country. And the other thing is that I am concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer but you can't murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.20 And I say to you, I have also decided to stick to love. For I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate. I've seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs(县司法长官) in the South. I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens (Councilors议员) in the South to want to hate myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. Ifyou are seeking the highest good(善,) I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.21 I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here," that we honestly face the fact that the Movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's market place. But one day we must come to see that an edifice(大建筑物)which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, "Who owns the oil?" You begin to ask the question, "Who owns the iron ore(铁矿石)?" You begin to ask the question, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills ina world that is two thirds water?" These are questions that must be asked.22 Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately（从根本上）coming to see that the problem of racism（种族主义，种族歧视）, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated（相互联系）.23 If you will let me be a preacher just a little bit - One night, a juror（陪审员）came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus didn't get bogged down in(陷入僵局中) the kind of isolated（孤立的，孤单的，单一的）approach（方式，道路）of what he shouldn't do. Jesus didn't say, "Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying." HE didn't say, "Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that." He didn't say, "Nicodemus, you must not commit （致力于，犯---错）adultery（通奸）." He didn't say, "Nicodemus, now you must stop drinking liquor （烈酒）if you are doing that excessively（过分地，极端地，非常）." He said something altogether different, because Jesus realized something basic - that if a man will lie, he will steal. And if a man will steal, he will kill. So instead of just getting bogged down in one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, "Nicodemus, you must be born again."24 He said, in other words, "Your whole structure must be changed." A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will "thingify" them - make them things. Therefore they will exploit（剥削）them, and poor people generally, economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and will have to use its military（军事的，军队的）might（强大力量，威信）to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. What I am saying today is that we must go from this convention（惯例，习俗，常规）and say, "America, you must be born again!"25 So, I conclude by saying again today that we have a task and let us go out with a "divine(上帝的,神的) dissatisfaction." Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds（教条）and an anemia（贫血症）of deeds（行动）. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic（悲惨的，不幸的）walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed（压碎，碾碎）by the battering（猛击，打击）rams （破城锤）of the forces of justice. Let us be dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts（郊区，边界）of hope are brought into the metropolis （大都市）of daily security. Let us bedissatisfied until slums（贫民窟）are cast into（把- -投入）the junk（废旧的）heaps（杂物堆）of history, and every family is living in a decent（像样的）sanitary（卫生的）home. Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated（种族隔离的）schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality（优质的）, integrated（平等的，取消隔离的）education. Let us be dissatisfied until integration（取消隔离）is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity. Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character and not on the basis of the color of their skin. Let us be dissatisfied. Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol（议会大厦）houses a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy and who will walk humbly with his God. Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down（倾盆而下）like waters and righteousness（正直）like a mighty（强大的）stream. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb（羔羊）shall lie down together. and every man will sit under his own vine and fig（无花果）tree and none shall be afraid. Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell（居住，栖息）upon the face of the earth. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout "White Power!" - when nobody will shout "Black Power!" - but everybody will talk about God's power and human power.26 I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration and meandering(蜿蜒)的points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy(恢复力) of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal(轻飘的) hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched (湿透)eyes have to stand before the bier(棺材) of some courageous civil-rights worker whose life will be snuffed out(扼杀) by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs(嗜杀的暴徒). Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious (有冒险精神的)faith in the future. And as we continue our charted course, we may gain consolation in the words so nobly left by that great black bard who was also a great freedom fighter of yesterday, James Weldon Johnson:Stony the road we trod, 踏着崎岖的石路Bitter the chastening rod 领悟着惩戒木的苦涩Felt in the days 感受到昔日When hope unborn had died. 夭折的希望Yet with a steady beat, 依然坚定的步伐Have not our weary feet 没有阻碍我们疲惫的双脚Come to the place 踏上了For which our fathers sighed? 我们祖先悲叹的土地We have come over the way 我们已经走上That with tears hath been watered. 泪水浸湿的道路We have come treading our paths 我们已经踏上Through the blood of the slaughtered, 洒满先人鲜血的小径Out from the gloomy past, 走出阴郁的过去Till now we stand at last 我们终于站在Where the bright gleam 闪烁着光芒Of our bright star is cast. 耀眼的亮星下27 Let this affirmation be our ringing cry(集结号，响亮的口号). It will give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride（大步行走）toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary（令人沮丧的）with low hovering （徘徊）clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic（巨大的）mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.28 Let us realize that William Cullen Bryant is right: "Truth crushed（压碎，压坏）to earth will rise again." Let us go out realizing that the Bible is right: "Be not deceived（欺骗）, God is not mocked （挖苦）. Whatsoever a man soweth（播种）, that shall he also reap（收获）." This is our hope for the future, and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow with a cosmic（无尽的苍穹）past tense, "We have overcome, we have overcome, deep in my heart, I did believe we would overcome."Good Move. People Move. Ideas Move. And Cultures ChangeToday we are in the throes of a worldwide reformation of cultures, a tectonic shift of habits and dreams called, in the curious argot of social scientists, "globalization." It's an inexact term for a wild assortment of changes in politics, business, health, entertainment. "Modern industry has established the world market. All old-established national industries are dislodged by new industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes." Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote this 150 years ago in The Communist Manifesto. Their statement now describes an ordinary fact of life. How people feel about this depends a great deal on where they live and how much money they have. Yet globalization, as one report stated, "is a reality, not a choice." Humans have been weaving commercial and cultural connections since before the first camel caravan ventured afield. In the 19th century the postal service, newspapers, transcontinental railroads, and great steam-powered ships wrought fundamental changes. Telegraph, telephone, radio, and television tied tighter and more intricate knots between individuals and the wider world. Now computers, the Internet, cellular phones, cable TV, and cheaper jet transportation have accelerated and complicated these connections. Still, the basic dynamic remains the same: Goods move. People move. Ideas move. And cultures change. The difference now is the speed and scope of these changes. It took television 13 years to acquire 50 million users; the Internet took only five. Not everyone is happy about this. Some Western social scientists and anthropologists, and not a few foreign politicians, believe that a sort of cultural cloning will result from what they regard as the "cultural assault" of McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Disney, Nike, MTV, and the English language itself—more than a fifth of all the people in the world now speak English to some degree. Whatever their backgrounds or agendas, these critics are convinced that Western—often equated with American—influences will flatten every cultural crease, producing, as one observer terms it, one big "McWorld." Popular factionssprout to exploit nationalist anxieties. In China, where xenophobia and economic ambition have often struggled for the upper hand, a recent book called China can say no became the best-seller by attacking what it considers the Chinese willingness to believe blindly in foreign things, advising Chinese travelers to not fly on a Boeing 777 and suggesting that Hollywood be burned, There are many Westerners among the denouncers of Western cultural influences, but James Watson, a Harvard anthropologist, isn't one of them. "The lives of Chinese villagers I know are infinitely better now than they were 30 years ago," he says. "China has become more openpartly because of the demands of ordinary people. They want to become part of the world—I would say globalism is the major force for democracy in China. People want refrigerators, stereos, CD players. I feel it's a moral obligation not to say: ‘Those people out there should continue to live in a museum while we will have showers that work.'" Westernization, I discovered over months of study and travel, is a phenomenon shot through with inconsistencies and populated by very strange bedfellows. Critics of Western culture blast Coke and Hollywood but not organ transplants and computers. Boosters of Western culture can point to increased efforts to preserve and protect the environment. Yet they make no mention of some less salubrious aspects of Western culture, such as cigarettes and automobiles, which, even as they are being eagerly adopted in the developing world, are having disastrous effects. Apparently westernization is not a straight road to hell, or to paradise either. But I also discovered that cultures are as resourceful, resilient, and unpredictable as the people who compose them. In Los Angeles, the ostensible fountainhead of world cultural degradation, I saw more diversity than I could ever have supposed—at Hollywood High School the student body represents 32 different languages. In Shanghai I found that the television show Sesame Street has been redesigned by Chinese educators to teach Chinese values and traditions. "We borrowed an American box," one told me, "and put Chinese content into it." In India, where there are more than 400 languages and several very strict religions, McDonald's serves mutton instead of beef and offers a vegetarian menu acceptable to even the most orthodox Hindu. The critical mass of teenagers—800 million in the world, the most there have ever been—with time and money to spend is one of the powerful engines of merging global cultures. Kids travel, they hang out, and above all they buy stuff. I'm sorry to say I failed to discover who was the first teenager to put his baseball cap on backward. Or the first one to copy him. But I do know that rap music, which sprang from the inner-city ghettos, began making big money only when rebellious white teenagers started buying it. But how can anyone predict what kids are going to want? Companies urgently need to know, so consultants have sprung up to forecast trends. They're called "cool hunters," and Amanda Freeman took me in hand one morning to explain how it works. Amanda, who is 22, works for a New York-based company called Youth Intelligence and has come to Los Angeles to conduct one of three annual surveys, whose results go to such clients as Sprint and MTV. She has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing a knee-length brocade skirt and simple black wrap top. Amanda looks very cool to me, but she says no. "The funny thing about my work is that you don't have to be cool to do it," she says. "You just have to have the eye." We go to a smallish ‘50s-style diner in Los Feliz, a slightly seedy pocket east of Hollywood that has just become trendy. Then we wander through a few of the thrift shops. "If it's not going to be affordable," Amanda remarks, "it's never going to catch on." What trends does she see forming now? " the home is becoming more of a social place again. And travel's huge right now—you go to a place and bring stuff back." "It's really hard to be original these days, so the easiest way to come up with new stuff is to mix things that already exist. Fusion is going to be the huge term that。
