第三部分 Part III
In South Africa, the atrocities of apartheid have never been taught that way. We weren’t taught judgment or shame. We were taught history the way it’s taught in America. In America, the history of racism is taught like this: “There was slavery and then there was Jim Crow and then there was Martin Luther King Jr. and now it’s done.” It was the same for us. “Apartheid was bad. Nelson Mandela was freed. Let’s move on.” Facts, but not many, and never the emotional or moral dimension. It was as if the teachers, many of whom were white, had been given a mandate. “Whatever you do, don’t make the kids angry.”
在南非，关于种族隔离暴行的历史从没像德国和英国那样出现在学校的课程里。没人教我们该如何去审视这段历史，并为之感到耻辱。我们上的历史课和美国那种教法差不多。在美国，种族歧视的历史是这样教的：“先有奴隶制然后有了对黑人的压迫然后马丁·路德·金来了然后就完了。”我们的教法也是一样的：“种族隔离不好。纳尔逊·曼德拉被释放了。我们要向前看了。”教的确实是史实，但是内容贫瘠，而且里面绝不会涉及情感或道德层面的内容。就好像有人给那些老师——大部分是白人——下了一道指令。“怎么教都可以，但不能让小孩生气。”
In Germany, no child finishes high school without learning about the Holocaust. Not just the facts of it but the how and the why and the gravity of it — what it means. As a result, Germans grow up appropriately aware and apologetic. British schools treat colonialism the same way, to an extent. Their children are taught the history of the Empire with a kind of disclaimer hanging over the whole thing. “Well, that was shameful, now wasn’t it?”
在德国，所有小孩在高中毕业前都要了解纳粹大屠杀的史实。不仅仅是知道事件本身，还包括了解这个悲剧为何会发生，造成了怎样的后果——简而言之，就是大屠杀到底意味着什么。因此，在德国人的成长过程中，他们对这件事有着恰当的认识，并心怀歉疚。在某种程度上，英国孩子也对殖民主义怀有类似的认知。在学习整个大英帝国的历史时，他们对于那段历史的承认总是带有一种不情不愿的感觉。“好吧，那还挺丢人的，是不是？”
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