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This kind of thinking has poisoned our democracy from the beginning.
这种想法从一开始就毒害了我们的民主。
One of the most important books I read this year was by a friend of mine name Heather McGhee. It's called The Sum of Us.
我今年读的最重要的一本书就是我朋友希瑟·麦吉写的《我们的总和》。
In it, Heather lays out exactly how much that zero-sum game has cost us.
在书中，希瑟详细描述了这场零和游戏让我们付出了多少代价。
America's story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate, to keep certain groups of people with no voice, no power, and no opportunity.
美国的历史一直遭到某种行为的破坏，排斥、支配、征服、控制某些没有发言权、没有权力、没有机会的群体。
Workers. Women. Indigenous people. Black people. Immigrants. The LGBTQ community.
比如，工人们、女人、土著、黑人、移民、性少数群体。
All because of a fear that if those people did better, somebody would have to lose.
所有这些都是因为害怕如果这些人做得更好，其他人就会失去什么。
But the miracle of our story is that, as we expanded opportunity, in our best moments, we proved that those fears were unfounded.
但历史展现的神奇之处就在于，在我们最好的时刻，当给与充足的机会，事实证明那些担心是没有根据的。
When more people made more money, rich business owners didn't suffer.
当更多人挣了更多的钱，富商们并没有损失什么。
They got more customers! Prosperity increased for everyone.
他们有了更多的顾客！每个人都过得更好了。
When people who'd been excluded finally got their voices heard, it didn't mean everyone else had to sit down and shut up.
当那些被排除在外的人终于发出自己的声音时，并不意味着其他所有人都得坐下来闭嘴。
Our national conversations got better, richer, truer, smarter — and so did our public policies.
我们国家的言论对话会变得更好、更丰富、更真实、更明智——我们的公共政策也是如此。
Our nation is at its best when we realize that we all do better when we all do better.
我们的国家会达到最佳状态，只要我们意识到，当我们每个人都做的更好，所有人都会更好。
Yet, today, we're still fighting against that old zero-sum thinking that's been holding us back since the beginning.
然而，今天，我们仍在与从一开始就阻碍我们前进的旧的零和思维作斗争。
We see it in efforts to deny people their right to vote.
我们看到有人努力剥夺人民的选举权。
We see it in the shameful recent attacks on trans rights.
我们看到最近有人对跨性别人士的权力进行无耻攻击。
We see it around the world - across the globe, nativism, sectarianism, exploitation, and authoritarianism are gaining ground.
我们在世界各地都能看到这种现象——在全球范围内，本土主义、宗派主义、剥削主义和威权主义正在蔓延。
We see it in efforts to hoard economic opportunity.
我们看到有人在抢夺囤占经济机会。
Today, the 26 wealthiest people on the planet own as much as the 3.5 billion poorest.
如今，地球上最富有的26个人拥有与最贫穷的35亿人一样多的财富。
And powerful people are spending lots of money lobbying to keep it that way.
有权势的人花了很多钱游说来保持这种现状。
And, of course, we see it in our policing and carceral systems:
当然，我们也可以从我们的警察和监狱系统中看到这一点：
In the simple fact that so many people heard "Black Lives Matter" and assumed it meant that other lives couldn't matter also.
很多人听到“黑人的命也是命”，就以为这也意味着其他人的命不重要。
That's zero-sum thinking if I've ever seen it.
这就是零和思维。
Now, I know some of you may be thinking: "Why is John Legend bringing us down on our graduation day?"
我知道你们之中有的人可能在想“为什么约翰·传奇要在我们毕业这天打击我们？”
You wouldn't be the first to say something like that.
你不是第一个这么说的人。
I've been hearing calls to "shut up and sing" for my entire career. Shut up and sing. Okay.
在我整个职业生涯中，一直有人叫我“闭嘴，快唱歌”。闭嘴，唱吧。好吧。
Well, as North Carolina native Nina Simone once said, "It is an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live."
好吧，正如北卡罗来纳州的尼娜·西蒙曾经说过的，“艺术家的职责是反映我们所生活的时代。”
And it's also a banker's duty, a lawyer's duty, a doctor's duty, a teacher's duty, an engineer's duty, an entrepreneur's duty, a plumber's duty, a nurse's duty, a mom's and dad's duty.
并且这也是银行家的职责，律师的职责，医生的职责，老师的职责，工程师的职责，企业家的职责，水管工的职责，护士的职责，父母们的职责。
Class of 2021, Duke has poured all kinds of tools and resources and experiences into you.
2021届的毕业生们，杜克大学为你们提供了各种工具、资源和经验。
I am asking you today to use them on behalf of our democracy.
我今天呼吁你们为了我们的民主而好好使用它们。
To remember just how interdependent each of us is on each other.
记住我们多么相互依赖着彼此。
To build communities that are healthier and safer for everyone - where everyone can live up to their full potential.
去建立对每个人都更健康和更安全的社区，让每个人都能充分发挥自己的潜力。
But how do we do that in practice?
但在实践中我们应该怎么做呢？
It's a tough question.
这是个棘手的问题。
When I was in high school, I entered a Black History Month essay contest, sponsored by McDonald's.
在我上高中的时候，我参加了一个由麦当劳赞助的黑人历史月作文比赛。
Yes, McDonald's. The prompt was: "How will you make Black history?"
没错，麦当劳赞助的。问题是“你将如何创造黑人历史？”
With a 15-year-old's confidence, I declared that I would become a famous musician. Yes.
有着15岁孩子的自信，我宣布我要成为一名著名的音乐家。是的。
"This, in turn," I wrote and I'm quoting myself here, "will put me in a position of great influence, which I will utilize in order to be an advocate for the advancement of Blacks in America."
“反过来，”我写道，我在这里引用一下自己的话，“这将使我处于一个极具影响力的位置，我将利用这一点来倡导美国黑人的进步。”
I said that when I was fifteen.
说这话的时候我15岁。
But how does one do that?
但是怎么才能做到呢？
The problems are entrenched and interconnected.
这些问题根深蒂固，错综复杂。
There is no clear path to follow.
没有明确的道路可走。
I kept thinking: where do I even start?
我不断思考：我该从哪开始呢？
During the decade since I've become heavily involved in this fight, I've stumbled on three answers that I'm going to share with you today.
在我深入这场奋斗的十年中，我偶然发现了三个答案，今天我将与你们分享。
First, while your schooling may be over — at least for some of you — the learning doesn't stop today.
首先，虽然你的学业可能已经结束了——至少对你们中的一些人来说——学习并没有就此停止。
It can not.
也不能就此停止。
Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the library.
在长大的过程中，我在图书馆度过了很多时光。
I reading about Dr.Martin Luther King and other civil rights heroes — Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells.
我读到马丁·路德·金博士和其他民权英雄的事迹——弗雷德里克·道格拉斯、哈丽特·塔布曼、艾达·B·威尔斯。
I wasn't into comic books so much. These were my superheroes.
我那时候不太喜欢看漫画书。这些就是我的超级英雄。
But even as someone steeped in the civil rights movement all my life, if you would have asked me about criminal justice when I was sitting where you all are today, I probably would have framed it as a personal responsibility issue.
但即使我是一个一生都沉浸在民权运动中的人，如果当我坐在你们今天的位置时，你们问我关于刑事司法的问题，我可能会把它当成一个个人责任问题。
I think that's pretty common for those of us who've spent our lives trying to be perfect.
我认为对于我们中那些一生都在努力追求完美的人来说，这是很常见的。
I thought that the problem was with individuals, not the system.
我认为问题出在个人身上，而不是系统。
I had family members. I have community members, neighbors and friends who were locked up.
我有一些家人、社区成员、邻居和朋友被关了起来。
They messed up, and I found a way not to.
他们搞砸了，而我没有。
But then I learned about our country's mass-incarceration complex:
但后来我了解到我们国家的大规模监禁体系：
How the United States has just 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of its prisoners.
美国人口只占世界的5%，但囚犯却占世界的25%。
How one in three Black men will serve prison time during their lifetimes.
每三个黑人中就有一个在一生中曾进过监狱。
How more Black men are under corrective control today than were enslaved on the eve of the Civil War.
比起在内战前被奴役的黑人，今天有更多的黑人受到纠正控制。
How much of this over-incarceration is a direct result of intentional policies that targeted people of color?
这种过度监禁有多少是针对有色人种故意设定的政策的直接结果?
