作者：《新东方英语》编辑部
出版社：西安交通大学出版社
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舌尖上的智慧：美国名校最佳毕业演说（第二辑）试读：
成为更好的人
— Barack Obama’s 2013 Commencement Speech at Morehouse College
—— 巴拉克·奥巴马在莫尔豪斯学院2013届毕业典礼上的演讲
Profile名人
美国总统 / 巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama）2013年5月19日，美国总统奥巴马在莫尔豪斯学院毕业典礼上发表了演讲。莫尔豪斯学院位于美国佐治亚州亚特兰大，是美国黑人运动先驱马丁.路德.金的母校，也是美国历史上只招收黑人学生的男子文理学院。奥巴马作为美国历史上第一位黑人总统，到此鼓励黑人学生不要把种族歧视当成个人失败的借口，而是要勇于承担个人责任，努力成为一个好男人、好丈夫、好父亲，成为所有非裔社区后进者的榜样。
奥巴马表示，作为亚特兰大乃至全美的知名学府，莫尔豪斯学院不仅要注重教授学生知识，而且要注重培养学生的品德。他希望这所黑人高等学府的毕业生能以优秀学长为榜样，“对不良现象、民生疾苦和社会不公反应敏锐，并敢于担当纠正种种社会弊端的责任”。他希望毕业生将来多多帮扶社会弱势群体，而他自己作为一名黑人总统，也“感受到一种特殊的义务，去帮助那些最需要帮助的人，那些没有得到我所得到的机会的人——因为如果没有上帝的眷顾，我可能会和他们的处境一样。我可能会被关进监狱，我可能会失业，也可能无法养家糊口。这就是我的动力。”尽管黑人现在有了前所未有的机遇，但奥巴马表示，种族主义和歧视在如今的美国社会依然存在，年轻黑人面对巨大的社会压力更要奋发图强，因为“没有人会给你任何东西，一切都要靠自己争取”。
在演讲中，奥巴马还特别点名表扬了那些为了获得学位同时又为了养家糊口而打好几份工的学生，以此勉励大家无论遇到什么样的挫折和障碍都应坚持不懈，不轻言放弃。他还期望毕业生们要“鼓励那些敬佩你的人，让他们更加充满自信。”
最后，奥巴马告诫毕业生们“成功不会一蹴而就”，鼓励他们坚持做正确的事，勤奋工作，心怀远大的梦想，并树立自己人生中的榜样，尽自己的力量迎接这个时代的挑战，一起让美利坚合众国变得更加美好。
Speech演讲
Hello, Morehouse! Thank you, everybody. Please be seated.
[AUDIENCE: I love you!]
I love you back. That is why I am here.
I have to say that it is one of the greatest honors of my life to be able to address this gathering here today. I want to thank Dr. Wilson for his outstanding leadership, and the Board of Trustees. We have Congressman Cedric Richmond and Sanford Bishop—both proud alumni of this school, as well as Congressman Hank Johnson. And one of my dear friends and a great inspiration to us all—the great John [1]Lewis is here. We have your outstanding Mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, in the house.
莫尔豪斯的同学们，你们好！谢谢各位。请坐。
[观众：我爱你！]
我也爱你们！这正是我来这里的原因。
我必须要说，今天能够来这里和大家相聚，为大家演讲，是我一生最大的荣耀之一。我想要感谢威尔逊博士卓越的领导，以及校理事会的成员们。今天在座的有锡德里克.里士满议员和桑福德.毕晓普议员——两位都是本校引以为傲的校友，还有汉克.约翰逊议员。我的一位挚友，优秀的约翰.刘易斯也在这里，他极大地激励了我们所有人。在座的还有你们杰出的市长卡西姆.里德。
To all the members of the Morehouse family, and most of all, congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse Men—the Class of 2013.
I have to say that it’s a little hard to follow—not Dr. Wilson, but a [2]skinny guy with a funny name, Betsegaw Tadele—he’s going to be doing something.
I also have to say that you all are going to get wet. And I’d be out there with you if I could. But Secret Service gets nervous. So I’m going to have to stay here, dry. But know that I’m there with you in spirit.
Some of you are graduating summa cum laude. Some of you are [3]graduating magna cum laude. I know some of you are just [4]graduating, “thank you, Lawdy.” That’s appropriate because it’s a Sunday.
I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts, in their Sunday best—although they are upset about their hair getting messed up. Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. She has taught me about hair.
I want to congratulate all of you—the parents, the grandparents, the brothers and sisters, the family and friends who support these young men in so many ways. This is your day, as well. Just think about it—your sons, your brothers, your nephews—they spent the last four [5]years far from home and close to Spelman, and yet they are still here today. So you’ve done something right. Graduates, give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they’ve done for you.
祝贺莫尔豪斯大家庭的每一位成员，尤其要祝贺莫尔豪斯成员中这个杰出的群体——2013届的毕业生。
我要说的是，要跟上他还是有点费劲的——我说的不是威尔逊博士，而是身材瘦小、名字滑稽的贝茨高.塔德莱——他一定会有所作为的。
我还要说的是，你们都会被淋湿的。如果可能的话，我会走出去和你们一起淋雨。但那样特工处就会担心，所以我只好待在这里，免受雨淋。但要知道，我精神上与你们同在。
你们有些人是以最优异成绩毕业的，有些人是以优等成绩毕业的。而我知道有些人则仅仅只是毕业了，“感谢您，主啊！”这样说是很妥当的，因为今天是礼拜天。
我看到今天出席的还有一些妈妈、奶奶和婶婶阿姨们，她们都穿着节日的盛装——尽管她们都很烦恼自己的发型被弄乱了。米歇尔是不会坐在雨中的。她教过我怎样打理头发。
我想祝贺你们所有人——祝贺各位父母、祖父母、兄弟姐妹以及以各种各样的方式支持这些青年学子的家人和朋友。今天也是你们的节日。试想你们的儿子、兄弟、侄子们，他们在过去的四年中远离家乡，又离斯贝尔曼女子学院那么近，却能坚持到今天还在这里。所以，你们所做的事情是正确的！毕业生们，请向你们的家人致以热烈的掌声，感谢他们为你们所付出的一切。
I know that some of you had to wait in long lines to get into today’s ceremony. And I would apologize, but it did not have anything to do with security. Those graduates just want you to know what it’s like to register for classes here. And this time of year brings a different kind of stress—every senior stopping by Gloster Hall over the past week making sure your name was actually on the list of students who met all the graduation requirements. If it wasn’t on the list, you had to figure [6]out why. Was it that library book you lent to that trifling roommate who didn’t return it? Was it Dr. Johnson’s policy class? Did you get enough Crown Forum credits?
On that last point, I’m going to exercise my power as President to declare this speech sufficient Crown Forum credits for any otherwise eligible student to graduate. That is my graduation gift to you. You [7]have a special dispensation.
Now, graduates, I am humbled to stand here with all of you as an honorary Morehouse Man. I finally made it. And as I do, I’m mindful of an old saying: “You can always tell a Morehouse Man—but you can’t tell him much.” And that makes my task a little more difficult, I suppose. But I think it also reflects the sense of pride that’s always been part of this school’s tradition.
Benjamin Mays, who served as the president of Morehouse for almost 30 years, understood that tradition better than anybody. He said—and I quote—“It will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates, but rather honest men, men who can be trusted in public and private life, men who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting those ills.”
我知道，你们有些人排了很长的队才进入今天的毕业典礼。对此我深表歉意，但这一切都和安检措施没什么关系。这些毕业生们只是想要你们了解一下在这里进行学期注册时的情形。而今年这个时候同学们又有了一种全然不同的压力——在过去的一周，每一位大四的同学在经过格洛斯特大楼(编注：莫尔豪斯学院的行政楼)时都要停下脚步，确认自己的名字是否真的出现在了满足所有毕业条件的毕业生名单上。如果没在上面，你就要想想为什么了。是不是因为你把图书馆的书借给了那个懒散磨蹭的室友，而他没有归还呢？是不是约翰逊博士的政策课没过关呢？是不是你的皇冠论坛学分没有拿够呢？
关于皇冠论坛，我要行使一下作为总统的权利，宣布我的演讲将会给你们足够的皇冠论坛学分，使所有其他方面都合格的学生能够毕业。这是我送给你们的毕业礼物。你们有特殊豁免权。
毕业生们，作为一个具有名誉学位的莫尔豪斯人，和你们大家站在一起，我心中倍感惶恐。但我最终还是站在了这里。与此同时，我想到了一句古训：“你总是可以对莫尔豪斯人说些什么——但却无法说得太多。”这让我觉得我今天的演讲更加困难了。但我认为这也反映了莫尔豪斯人的自豪感，它一直是本校传统的一部分。
本杰明.梅斯担任莫尔豪斯学院院长已将近30年，他比任何人都要了解这一传统。他说——我引用他的原话——“对莫尔豪斯学院来说，仅仅培养聪明的毕业生是不够的，而是要培养诚实的人，在公共生活和个人生活中值得信赖的人，对不良现象、民生疾苦和社会不公反应敏锐的人，以及敢于担当纠正种种社会弊端的责任的人——在这方面，对任何学院来说都是如此。”
It was that mission—not just to educate men, but to cultivate good men, strong men, upright men—that brought community leaders together just two years after the end of the Civil War. They assembled a list of 37 men, free blacks and freed slaves, who would make up the first prospective class of what later became Morehouse College. Most of those first students had a desire to become teachers and preachers—to better themselves so they could help others do the same.
A century and a half later, times have changed, but the [8]“Morehouse Mystique” still endures. Some of you probably came here from communities where everybody looked like you. Others may have come here in search of a community. And I suspect that some of you probably felt a little bit of culture shock the first time you came together as a class in King’s Chapel. All of a sudden, you weren’t the only high school sports captain, you weren’t the only student council president. You were suddenly in a group of high achievers, and that meant you were expected to do something more.
That’s the unique sense of purpose that this place has always infused—the conviction that this is a training ground not only for individual success, but for leadership that can change the world.
Dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse. He was an unknown, undersized, unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents. And I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t the coolest kid on campus—for the suits he wore, his classmates called him “Tweed.” But his education at Morehouse helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, the compassion, the soul force that would transform America. It was here that he was introduced to the writings of Gandhi and Thoreau, and the theory of Civil [9]Disobedience. It was here that professors encouraged him to look past the world as it was and fight for the world as it should be. And it was here, at Morehouse, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I realized that nobody—was afraid.” Not even of some bad weather. I added on that part. I know it’s wet out there. But Dr. Wilson told me you all had a choice and decided to do it out here anyway. That’s a Morehouse Man talking!
正是这种使命感——不仅仅教人以知识，而是要培养善良的人、坚强的人、正直的人——使社区领袖们走到了一起。那时，南北战争刚刚结束两年，他们聚集了37人，都是自由的黑人以及获得自由的奴隶，他们组成了第一个班，就是现在莫尔豪斯学院的前身。在这第一批学生中，多数都希望成为老师和牧师——他们希望提高自身素养，以帮助他人达到同样的境界。
一个半世纪之后，时光流转，世事变迁，但“莫尔豪斯学院的秘诀”依然持续。你们有些人也许来自全是黑人的社区，还有些人来到这里也许是为了寻找一个社区。我想你们中的有些人第一次和大家一起作为一个班级在国王小教堂上课时，或许会感受到些许的文化冲突。突然之间，你再也不是中学里唯一的运动队长了，再也不是唯一的学生会主席了。你突然置身于一个人才济济的集体，那意味着你需要更有作为。
这就是莫尔豪斯学院一直在灌输的独一无二的目标感——坚信这里是一个训练场，不仅是个人成功的训练场，而且是能够改变世界的领导才能的训练场。
金博士(编注：指马丁.路德.金)来到莫尔豪斯学院报到时年仅15岁。那时他还是一名年轻的大一新生，默默无闻，个头矮小，谦逊低调，和父母住在一起。我想可以很公正地说，他并不是校园里最酷的孩子——因为他穿的粗呢子套装，同学们都称他“粗呢子”。但他在莫尔豪斯所受的教育帮助培养了他的才智、他的风纪、他的同情心以及灵魂的力量，正是这些品质使美国发生了变革。正是在这里，他接触到了甘地和梭罗的作品，接触到了公民不服从理论。正是在这里，教授们鼓励他接受过去、争取未来。正是在这里，在莫尔豪斯，如金博士后来所写的：“我意识到没有人会心怀畏惧。”即使这样的恶劣天气也不怕。这句是我自己加上去的。我知道今天的雨很大。但是威尔逊博士告诉我这是你们自己的选择，决定无论如何都要在这里举行。这才是莫尔豪斯人说的话！
Now, think about it. For black men in the ’40s and the ’50s, the threat of violence, the constant humiliations, large and small, the uncertainty that you could support a family, the gnawing doubts born of [10]the Jim Crow culture that told you every day that somehow you were inferior, the temptation to shrink from the world, to accept your place, to avoid risks, to be afraid—that temptation was necessarily strong.[11]
And yet, here, under the tutelage of men like Dr. Mays, young Martin learned to be unafraid. And he, in turn, taught others to be unafraid. And over time, he taught a nation to be unafraid. And over the last 50 years, thanks to the moral force of Dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear and their cynicism and their despair, barriers have come tumbling down, and new doors of opportunity have swung open, and laws and hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you can somehow come to serve as President of these United States of America.
So the history we share should give you hope. The future we share should give you hope. You’re graduating into an improving job market. You’re living in a time when advances in technology and communication put the world at your fingertips. Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African Americans that came before.
现在请想一想(20世纪)四五十年代的黑人生活：暴力的威胁；大大小小、接连不断的耻辱；不确定自己是否能养家糊口；种族歧视文化每天都告诉你你就是低人一等，由此而产生的痛苦的自我怀疑；还有种种诱惑，诱惑你躲避现实、接受现状、避免冒险、胆小怕事——而这种种诱惑必然十分强烈。
然而在这里，在像梅斯博士这样的人的教诲下，年轻的马丁学会了不再畏惧。并且他转而教会了其他人不再畏惧。逐渐地，他教会了一个民族不再畏惧。在过去50年的时间里，因为有金博士的道德力量，还有克服了恐惧、愤世嫉俗和绝望的“摩西的一代”(编注：奥巴马经常将人权领袖们比做率领自己的子民走向希望之地的摩西)，从而清除了障碍，打开了新的机遇之门，改变了法律、情感和观念，才到达这个阶段，使某个和你们拥有同样肤色的人能够以某种方式成为美利坚合众国的总统。
所以，我们共同拥有的历史应当给你们希望，我们共同拥有的未来也应当给你们希望。你们现在毕业，恰逢就业市场形势有所好转。你们所生活的时代，技术与通信的进步将整个世界置于你们的指尖。你们这代人正蓄势待发，迈向成功，这是独一无二的机遇，与之前任何一代非裔美国人都不同。
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to work—because if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that too few of our brothers have the opportunities that you’ve had here at Morehouse.
In troubled neighborhoods all across this country—many of them heavily African American—too few of our citizens have role models to guide them. Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago, communities just a couple miles from here—they’re places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where [12]schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our young men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell.
My job, as President, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody—policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class. Policies that create more good jobs and reduce poverty, and educate more children, and give more families the security of health care, and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence. That’s my job. Those are matters of public policy, and it is important for all of us—black, white and brown—to advocate for an America where everybody has got a fair shot in life. Not just some. Not just a few.
But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities. There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves. There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind. As Morehouse Men, you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you’re about to collect—and that’s the power of your example.
但这并不意味着我们不需要努力——因为如果我们坦诚面对自己，我们知道我们的兄弟当中，没有多少人有你们在莫尔豪斯所拥有的机遇。
在美国各地的困难社区——它们许多都是非裔美国人占大多数人口的社区——太多的民众都没有榜样来引导他们。这些社区，有的离我在芝加哥的住所只有几英里，有的离这里只有几英里——在那里，工作机会依然太少，工资报酬依然低下；在那里，学校经费不足，暴力无处不在；在那里，太多的年轻人不是在教室里的课桌后度过他们的青春，而是在大街上徘徊逗留，或在监狱里垂头丧气。
作为总统，我的职责就是倡导一些政策，为每个人创造更多的机遇——这些政策要加强中产阶级的力量，并为更多人提供进入中产阶级的机会；这些政策要创造出更多好工作，减少贫困，为更多孩子提供教育，为更多家庭提供医疗保健保障，保护更多孩子免受枪支暴力的恐怖影响。这些就是我的职责。这些都是与公共政策有关的事务，对我们所有人——黑人、白人和棕种人——都尤为重要的是，要创造出一个美国，让每个人在生活中都能得到公平的机会，而不仅仅是某些人或少数人。
但除了公共责任以外，我们都有个人责任。作为黑人，有些事情我们只能亲力亲为。作为莫尔豪斯人，你们必须为那些仍然被遗忘的人做些事情。作为莫尔豪斯人，你们掌握着比你们马上就要接过的毕业文凭更为强大的东西——那就是你们榜样的力量。
So what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address: Use that power for something larger than yourself. Live up to President Mays’ challenge. Be sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society, and be willing to accept responsibility for correcting those ills.
I know that some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself. Maybe you feel like you escaped, and now you can take your degree and get that fancy job and the nice house and the nice car, and never look back. And don’t get me wrong—with all those student loans you’ve had to take out, I know you’ve got to earn some money. With your doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could not even imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty. But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.
So, yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and the powerful, or if you can also find some time to defend the powerless. Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business. We need black businesses out there. But ask yourselves what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people back to work, or transforming a neighborhood. The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent just on making money—rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed.
因此，今天我对你们的要求，和我对我所致辞的每个毕业班的要求是一样的：利用这一力量做些比自身更有意义的事情。要敢于应对梅斯院长提出的挑战：对不良现象、民生疾苦和社会不公反应敏锐，并敢于担当纠正种种社会弊端的责任。
我知道，你们有些人来莫尔豪斯之前所在的社区里，生活就是低下头来，只顾自己的事情。也许你觉得自己已经逃离了(那种环境)，现在你可以拿着自己的文凭找到理想的工作，住着不错的房子，开着不错的汽车，再也不回头看。请不要误解我的意思——我知道，你们不得已申请了那么多的助学贷款，当然需要挣钱(还贷)。既然机会之门已向你们敞开，而这是你们的父母和祖父母甚至都无法想象的，没有人期望你们发誓要过穷日子。但我要说，如果你一门心思想的全都是你可以买什么东西，而不是可以做什么好事，那么，它表现了你在理想抱负方面的贫乏。
所以，是的，去读法律学位吧。但如果你拿到了法律学位，请扪心自问，你是不是只能选择为有钱有势的人辩护，还是也可以抽点时间为弱势群体辩护呢？去吧，去读你的MBA学位，或者开始创业吧。我们那里需要黑人做生意。但请扪心自问，你的生意更为广阔的目标可能会是什么，是让更多的人再就业，还是要改变一个社区的面貌呢？我所认识的最成功的CEO们都不是一开始就一心只想着赚钱——而是他们都对自己的产品或服务将如何改变一些事物有着一种远见，钱自然就跟着来了。
Some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors, but make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too. For generations, certain groups in this country—especially African Americans—have been desperate in need of access to quality, affordable health care. And as a society, we’re finally beginning to change that. Those of you who are under the age of 26 already have the option to stay on your parent’s health care plan. But all of you are heading into an economy where many young people expect not only to have multiple jobs, but multiple careers.
So starting October 1st, because of the Affordable Care Act—otherwise known as Obamacare—you’ll be able to shop for a quality, affordable plan that’s yours and travels with you—a plan that will insure not only your health, but your dreams if you are sick or get in an accident. But we’re going to need some doctors to make sure it works, too. We’ve got to make sure everybody has good health in this country. It’s not just good for you; it’s good for this country. So you’re going to spread the word to your fellow young people.
Which brings me to a second point: Just as Morehouse has taught you to expect more of yourselves, inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves. We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. And I have to say, growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there’s no longer any room for excuses.
你们有些人可能要上医学院，以后当医生。但确保你也要去那些医疗条件差的地方治病救人，他们真的需要你们。在美国，有些族群，尤其是非裔美国人，他们世世代代一直迫切需要得到享受高质量的、负担得起的医疗保健的机会。现在，作为一个社会整体，我们终于开始着手改变这一现状。你们之中26岁以下的人都已经有一种选择了，那就是继续依赖父母的医疗保险。但你们所有人都即将进入这样一种经济体，即许多年轻人希望不仅拥有多个工作，也能拥有多项事业。
因此从10月1日起，由于《平价医疗法案》(也称为《奥巴马医疗法案》)的实施，你们将能够负担得起一份属于你们自己并将一直伴随着你们的高质量的平价医疗保险。在你生病或者出现意外事故时，这份保险不仅能为你的健康提供保障，也为你的梦想保驾护航。但我们还需要一些医生来确保这份保险的实施。我们要确保在美国人人都有健康的身体。这不仅对你们个人有利，对国家也有利。所以请将这一消息传递给你们的年轻朋友。
这就引出了我要讲的第二点：正如莫尔豪斯学院教会了你们要胸怀大志一样，你们也要激励那些钦佩你们的人胸怀大志。我们知道，在我们这个社会，太多的年轻人在不断地作出拙劣的选择。而我不得不说，在我成长的过程中，我自己就曾有过好几次。有时候，我将自己的种种失败视为这个世界试图压制黑人的又一例证。有时候，我趋向于找一些借口，为自己没有去做正确的事情开脱。但在过去四年里，你们所有人都已学会的一件事是，你们已经没有任何寻找借口的余地。
I understand there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: “Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.” Well, we’ve got no time for excuses. Not because the bitter legacy of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely, they have not. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil—many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did—all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned.
Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured—and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too.[13]
You now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men—men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk. You wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes, and George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall, and, yes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These men were many things to many people. And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives. But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses.
Every one of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who’s told you that at some point in life, as an African-American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by. I think President Mays put it even better. He said, “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better.”
我知道，在莫尔豪斯学院，大学生联谊会有一个共同的信条：“借口是无能者的工具，用来修筑通往乌有的桥梁和虚无的丰碑。”所以，我们没有时间找借口。这并非因为奴隶制和种族隔离的痛苦影响已消失殆尽，它们并没有。也并非因为种族主义和种族歧视已不复存在；我们知道它们依然存在。只是因为在现如今这个高度连通、高度竞争的世界上，有数以百万计中国、印度和巴西年轻人，他们许多人开始时掌握的资源要比你们所有人都少得多，他们所有人和你们一起进入全球人力市场，没有人会给你任何东西，一切都要靠自己争取。
没有人会在乎你的成长有多么艰难，没有人会在乎你遭受了一些歧视。而且，你必须记住，不管你经历了什么，和前几代人所遭受的苦难比起来都会相形失色——而且他们克服了这些苦难。如果前人能够克服它们，你们也能克服。
如今你们来自一个伟人辈出的民族，他们留下了丰厚的遗产，他们肩负重担，却仍然为我们今天行进的道路铺垫了基石。你们继承了他们的衣钵——他们包括弗雷德里克.道格拉斯、布克. T .华盛顿、拉尔夫.邦奇、兰斯顿.休斯、乔治.华盛顿.卡弗、拉尔夫.阿伯内西、瑟古德.马歇尔，是的，还有小马丁.路德.金博士。对于许多人来说，这些人具有无比非凡的意义。他们十分清楚种族主义在他们的一生中所扮演的角色。但当就他们个人的成就和目标感来说，他们没有时间寻找借口。
你们每个人都有一位祖母、叔叔、父亲或母亲告诉过你们，作为非裔美国人，在人生的某个点，如果你们想迈过去，就必须要付出比其他任何人多一倍的努力。我认为梅斯院长把它阐述得更好。他说：“不管你做什么，都要拼命做好，好到让任何人，不管是活人、死人还是尚未出生的人都无法超越。”
And I promise you, what was needed in Dr. Mays’s time, that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, and no excuses is needed now more than ever. If you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree, you’re in for a rude awakening. But if you stay hungry, if you keep hustling, if you
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