I remember the very first time I went to a nice restaurant, a really nice restaurant.
我还记得第一次走进一家很棒的餐厅,非常高档。
It was for a law firm recruitment dinner, and I remember beforehand the waitress walked around and asked whether we wanted some wine,
那是一家律师事务所的招新晚宴,正式开始前,服务生四处游走,询问客人是否需要来点葡萄酒,
so I said, "Sure, I'll take some white wine."
我说,“好吧,给我来点白葡萄酒。”
And she immediately said, "Would you like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay?"
她马上问我,“您是想要白苏维翁还是霞多丽?”
And I remember thinking, "Come on, lady, stop with the fancy French words and just give me some white wine."
我当时想,“天哪,姐们儿,别整这些高大上的法语词了行吗,给我一杯白葡萄酒就好了。”
But I used my powers of deduction and recognized that chardonnay and sauvignon blanc were two separate types of white wine,
但我发挥了自己杰出的推理能力,猜测霞多丽和白苏维翁应该是两种不同的白葡萄酒,
and so I told her that I would take the chardonnay, because frankly that was the easiest one to pronounce for me.
于是我要了霞多丽,因为这个词更好发音。
So I had a lot of experiences like that during my first couple of years as a law student at Yale,
这样的经历还有很多,尤其是在我在耶鲁大学念法律的头几年,
because, despite all outward appearances, I'm a cultural outsider.
因为我不是他们圈子里的人,尽管看起来挺像。
I didn't come from the elites. I didn't come from the Northeast or from San Francisco.
但我出身平凡。不是东北那一带的人,也不是旧金山人。
I came from a southern Ohio steel town, and it's a town that's really struggling in a lot of ways,
我的老家是俄亥俄州南部一个钢铁小镇,它一直在挣扎求生,
ways that are indicative of the broader struggles of America's working class.
那种挣扎彷徨,就像美国工人阶级如今的处境一般。
Heroin has moved in, killing a lot of people, people I know.
海洛因泛滥,很多人因此丧生,其中有我的熟人。
Family violence, domestic violence, and divorce have torn apart families.
家庭暴力和离婚导致许多家庭支离破碎。
And there's a very unique sense of pessimism that's moved in.
有一种特别悲观的情绪蔓延开来。
Think about rising mortality rates in these communities and recognize that for a lot of these folks,
死亡率不断升高,很多人都意识到这一点,
the problems that they're seeing are actually causing rising death rates in their own communities, so there's a very real sense of struggle.
而他们亲眼见到的问题,正是导致社区死亡率升高的原因,这种挣扎彷徨的感受是如此真切。