评论
打印
So this is my kid.
这是我的孩子，
This is Maezza, and when she was seven years old,
Maezza，当她七岁的时候，
she came home from school one day, and like I do every single day, I asked her,
有一天她放学回家，我像平常一样问她，
"What'd you do today?"
"今天你过的怎么样?"
So she said, "We talked about the Middle Passage."
她说："我们今天讨论了中央航路。"
Now, this was a big moment. Maezza's dad is black, and I knew this day was coming.
这是一个重大的时刻。Maezza的爸爸是黑人，而我知道这一天迟早会来。
I wasn't expecting it at seven.
但真没想到会是在她只有七岁的时候。
I don't know why, but I wasn't.
我不知道为什么，但我确实没想到。
Anyways, so I asked her, "How do you feel about that?"
于是，我接着问她：“你感觉怎么样？”
So she proceeded to tell me,
她接着告诉我，
and so any of you who are parents will recognize the bingo buzzwords here.
用你们中任何一位为人父母者都熟悉的“宾果流行语”来回答
So the ships start in England, they come down from England,
一开始那些船舶在英国，它们向下航行，离开英国，
they go to Africa, they go across the ocean --
来到非洲，又跨越大洋——
that's the Middle Passage part they come to America where the slaves are sold, she's telling me.
这就是中央航路的部分——它们来到美国，在那里出售奴隶”，她告诉我。
But Abraham Lincoln was elected president,
但亚伯拉罕·林肯当选为总统，
and then he passed the Emancipation Proclamation, and now they're free.
然后，他通过了奴隶解放宣言，所以现在他们自由了。”
Pause for about 10 seconds.
暂停了大约10秒钟。
"Can I play a game, Mommy?"
"我可以玩游戏了吗，妈妈?"
And I thought, that's it?
而我想，这就完了？
And so, you know, this is the Middle Passage, this is an incredibly significant event,
因为，你知道，这是可是中央航路，这是一件难以置信的重大事件，
and she's treating it like, basically some black people went on a cruise,
但她看待它就像是一些黑人去参加一次乘船游览，
is more or less how it sounds to her.
她差不多就是这种感觉。
And so, to me, I wanted more value in this,
对我来说，我希望其中有更多意义，
so when she asked if she could play a game, I said, "Yes."
所以当她问我是否可以玩游戏时，我说，"可以。"
And so I happened to have all of these little pieces.
碰巧我有很多这种小玩具。
I'm a game designer, so I have this stuff sitting around my house.
我是一个游戏设计师，所以我家到处都是这些东西。
So I said, "Yeah, you can play a game," and I give her a bunch of these,
于是我说，"是啊，你可以玩游戏，"之后我给了她一些这种小玩具，
and I tell her to paint them in different families.
然后我让她给他们上色
These are pictures of Maezza when she was God, it still chokes me up seeing these.
表示不同的家庭成员。这些照片都是 Maezza正在——上帝，现在我看到这些依然会哽咽——
So she's painting her little families.
她在画她的迷你家庭成员。
So then I grab a bunch of them and I put them on a boat.
于是我抓起其中的一部分，把它们放在一条小船上。
This was the boat. It was made quickly obviously.
这就是那条小船。很明显它是个速成品。
And so the basic gist of it is, I grabbed a bunch of families,
所以重点是，我抓起一把玩具“家人”，
and she's like, "Mommy, but you forgot the pink baby and you forgot the blue daddy
而她不断地念叨："妈妈，您忘了拿粉红宝宝，你忘了拿蓝爸爸
and you forgot all these other things."
你忘了拿这个那个”等等。
And she says, "They want to go."
她说，"他们也想要去。"
And I said, "Honey, no they don't want to go. This is the Middle Passage.
我说："不，亲爱的，他们不想去。这是中央航路。
Nobody wants to go on the Middle Passage."
没人愿意走中央航路"。
So she gave me a look that only a daughter of a game designer would give a mother,
然后她看了看我，只有游戏设计师的女儿才会用这样的表情看着她妈妈
and as we're going across the ocean, following these rules,
当我们准备“横渡大洋”，按照这些规则进行时，
she realizes that she's rolling pretty high, and she says to me, "We're not going to make it."
她意识到这些要求太高了，她对我说"我们做不到。"
And she realizes, you know, we don't have enough food,
她意识到了，我们没有足够的粮食，
and so she asks what to do, and I say, "Well, we can either"
于是她问要怎么办，我回答道，"嗯，我们可以要么"
Remember, she's seven.
请记住，她当时七岁
"We can either put some people in the water
"我们可以要么把一些人放到水中
or we can hope that they don't get sick and we make it to the other side."
要么我们只能希望他们一直不生病直到我们到达目的地。”
And she -- just the look on her face came over and she said
她又用之前的表情看了我一眼。后来有一天
now mind you this is after a month of -- this is Black History Month, right?
—请注意，这是经过一个月之后，那个月刚好是美国黑人历史月（二月）。
After a month she says to me, "Did this really happen?"
总之，一个月后，她对我说，"那些事情真的发生了吗?"
And I said, "Yes." And so she said,
我说，"是的。"之后她说，
"So, if I came out of the woods" this is her brother and sister
"那么，如果我当时出生了"--这是她的哥哥姐姐
"If I came out of the woods, Avalon and Donovan might be gone." "Yes."
"如果我出生了，Avalon和Donovan可能就不在了？” “是的。”
"But I'd get to see them in America." "No."
“但我到美国后会再见到他们吧？”“不会。”
"But what if I saw them? You know, couldn't we stay together?" "No."
"但万一我们能见面呢？我们不能呆在一起吗?" "不能。"
"So Daddy could be gone." "Yes."
"那么爸爸也可能不在了？" "是的。"
And she was fascinated by this, and she started to cry,
她被吓呆了，之后她开始哭泣，
and I started to cry, and her father started to cry, and now we're all crying.
我也开始哭，她的父亲也开始哭，然后我们一起哭。
He didn't expect to come home from work to the Middle Passage, but there it goes.
他没想到下班回家会遇到中央航路这档子事，但它就是发生了。
And so, we made this game, and she got it.
总之，我们一起玩了这样一个游戏，最后她懂了其中的含义。
She got it because she spent time with these people.
她懂了，因为她与这些“人”共同经历了那个过程。
It wasn't abstract stuff in a brochure or in a movie.
这不像书本或电影里的教化那样是抽象的东西。
And so it was just an incredibly powerful experience.
这是一次令人惊叹、充满力量的体验。
