听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:种族偏见如何影响我们，希望你会喜欢！

【演讲者及介绍】Jennifer L. Eberhardt

作为斯坦福大学的社会心理学家，詹妮弗·L·埃伯哈特对种族和不平等进行了研究。

【演讲主题】种族偏见是如何起作用的——以及如何打破它

How racial bias works —— and how to disrupt it

【中英文字幕】

翻译者Shu Fei Chow 校对者psjmz mz

00:05

Some years ago, I was on an airplane with my son who was just five years old at the time. My son was so excited about being on this airplane with Mommy. He's looking all around and he's checking things out and he's checking people out. And he sees this man, and he says, "Hey! That guy looks like Daddy!" And I look at the man, and he didn't look anything at all like my husband, nothing at all. And so then I start looking around on the plane, and I notice this man was the only black guy on the plane. And I thought, "Alright. I'm going to have to have a little talk with my son about how not all black people look alike." My son, he lifts his head up, and he says to me, "I hope he doesn't rob the plane." And I said, "What? What did you say?" And he says, "Well, I hope that man doesn't rob the plane." And I said, "Well, why would you say that? You know Daddy wouldn't rob a plane." And he says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I know." And I said, "Well, why would you say that?" And he looked at me with this really sad face, and he says, "I don't know why I said that. I don't know why I was thinking that."

几年前， 我和年仅五岁的儿子一同搭乘飞机。 第一次与妈咪搭乘飞机 让他感到非常兴奋。 他不断环视周围，四处张望， 目光不停地打量着别人。 然后他看到了某位男子，说： “嘿！这个人看起来好像爹地！” 我就看向这位男子， 而他看起来完全不像我的丈夫， 一点也不像。 于是我也开始环顾机舱， 发现这位男子是飞机上 唯一的黑人男性。 我当时心想， “好吧。 我得和儿子好好谈谈， 让他知道不是所有的黑人 都长得一样。” 我的儿子抬起头，对我说： “我希望他不会劫持飞机。” 我说：“什么，你刚才说什么？” 儿子说：“我希望那人不要劫持飞机。” 我说：“为什么你会这样说？ 你知道爹地是不会劫持飞机的。“ 儿子说：“是啊，是啊，我知道。” 我说：“好，那为什么你会这样说？” 于是他用一种悲伤的神情看着我， 回答道， “我不知道我为什么会这样说。 我不知道我为什么会有这种想法。”

01:38

We are living with such severe racial stratification that even a five-year-old can tell us what's supposed to happen next, even with no evildoer, even with no explicit hatred. This association between blackness and crime made its way into the mind of my five-year-old. It makes its way into all of our children, into all of us. Our minds are shaped by the racial disparities we see out in the world and the narratives that help us to make sense of the disparities we see: "Those people are criminal." "Those people are violent." "Those people are to be feared."

我们生活在 一个种族分明的社会当中， 就连一个五岁孩童都能告诉我们 接下来可能会发生什么事情。 即便没有作恶者， 即便没有明确的仇恨， 黑人和罪案之间的连接 早已渗入我五岁儿子的思想， 也渗透进了所有孩子， 甚至是我们每一个人的脑海中。 我们在这个世界上 所看到的种族差异 早已塑造了我们的思维方式， 那些叙述合理化了 我们所看到的差异： “那些人是罪犯。” “那些人是施暴者。” “要恐惧那些人。”

02:32

When my research team brought people into our lab and exposed them to faces, we found that exposure to black faces led them to see blurry images of guns with greater clarity and speed. Bias cannot only control what we see, but where we look. We found that prompting people to think of violent crime can lead them to direct their eyes onto a black face and away from a white face. Prompting police officers to think of capturing and shooting and arresting leads their eyes to settle on black faces, too.

当我的研究团队把研究对象 带到我们的实验室， 让他们观察不同人的照片时， 我们发现人们看到黑人的面孔时， 会更快、更清楚地 辨认模糊的枪支影像。 偏见不仅能控制我们所看见的， 也会控制我们看待事情的角度。 我们发现让人们想象暴力犯罪时， 他们的视线会不自觉地从白人面孔 转向黑人面孔。 让警方想象俘获、射击 和逮捕的场景时， 他们的眼光也会落在黑人身上。

03:12

Bias can infect every aspect of our criminal justice system. In a large data set of death-eligible defendants, we found that looking more black more than doubled their chances of receiving a death sentence -- at least when their victims were white. This effect is significant, even though we controlled for the severity of the crime and the defendant's attractiveness. And no matter what we controlled for, we found that black people were punished in proportion to the blackness of their physical features: the more black, the more death-worthy.

偏见足以影响 司法体系的方方面面。 在一组符合死刑条件判决 的大型数据库之中， 我们发现皮肤较黑的被告 被判死刑的几率 要高出两倍以上—— 尤其当被害者是白人的时候。 这个差异非常显著， 尽管我们确保犯罪的严重程度 和被告的吸引力是一样的。 无论我们如何控制变量， 我们都发现黑人受到的惩罚 与他们的肤色黑度成比例： 他们的肤色越黑， 就越有可能被判死刑。

03:51

Bias can also influence how teachers discipline students. My colleagues and I have found that teachers express a desire to discipline a black middle school student more harshly than a white student for the same repeated infractions. In a recent study, we're finding that teachers treat black students as a group but white students as individuals. If, for example, one black student misbehaves and then a different black student misbehaves a few days later, the teacher responds to that second black student as if he had misbehaved twice. It's as though the sins of one child get piled onto the other.

偏见也能影响老师 惩戒学生的方式。 我和同事经过研究发现， 老师给黑人学生的惩罚 往往都比白人学生更加严厉， 即使他们犯的是相同的错误。 在近期的一项研究中，我们发现 老师会把黑人学生视为一个群体， 但把白人学生视作个体来对待。 譬如，如果一个黑人学生调皮捣蛋， 几天后，又有一个黑人学生 做出调皮捣蛋的行为， 老师对待第二个黑人学生的态度 就好像他犯了两次错。 这就像一个孩子的罪过 被叠加在了另一个孩子的身上。

04:36

We create categories to make sense of the world, to assert some control and coherence to the stimuli that we're constantly being bombarded with. Categorization and the bias that it seeds allow our brains to make judgments more quickly and efficiently, and we do this by instinctively relying on patterns that seem predictable. Yet, just as the categories we create allow us to make quick decisions, they also reinforce bias. So the very things that help us to see the world also can blind us to it. They render our choices effortless, friction-free. Yet they exact a heavy toll.

为了更好地理解这个世界， 我们会对周遭的一切分门别类， 以控制和协调 我们所接收的 外部事物的刺激。 分类及其所产生的偏见 让我们的大脑能够更快、 更有效地做出判断， 我们本能地依赖似乎带有 预测能力的模式。 这套分类思考模式 让我们能迅速地做决策， 但同时也在强化我们的偏见。 所以，这套看似在帮助我们 理解世界的模式， 也能够蒙蔽我们。 它们让我们的选择毫不费力， 没有摩擦。 然而也带来了沉重的代价。

05:26

So what can we do? We are all vulnerable to bias, but we don't act on bias all the time. There are certain conditions that can bring bias alive and other conditions that can muffle it. Let me give you an example. Many people are familiar with the tech company Nextdoor. So, their whole purpose is to create stronger, healthier, safer neighborhoods. And so they offer this online space where neighbors can gather and share information. Yet, Nextdoor soon found that they had a problem with racial profiling. In the typical case, people would look outside their window and see a black man in their otherwise white neighborhood and make the snap judgment that he was up to no good, even when there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. In many ways, how we behave online is a reflection of how we behave in the world. But what we don't want to do is create an easy-to-use system that can amplify bias and deepen racial disparities, rather than dismantling them.

那么我们能够做什么？ 我们都容易受到偏见的影响， 但我们不见得时刻都要被偏见左右。 有些特定情况会导致偏见， 而在其他情况下， 偏见则会受到抑制。 让我举个例子。 相信大家都熟悉 Nextdoor 这家科技公司， 他们的主要目的是打造一个 更稳固、健康、安全的社区。 因此，他们提供了凝聚社区 和分享信息的线上空间。 然而，Nextdoor 很快就发现 平台存在种族定性的问题。 一个典型的情况就是， 当居民望向窗外， 看到黑人出现在白人的住宅区时， 他们就快速评判出 这个黑人不怀好意， 即使没有任何犯罪 和不法行为的证据。 很多时候，我们的线上行为 就是真实世界行为的反映。 但我们并不想去创造一个放大偏见、 加深种族差异的简单系统， 而是要去消除它们。

06:43

So the cofounder of Nextdoor reached out to me and to others to try to figure out what to do. And they realized that to curb racial profiling on the platform, they were going to have to add friction; that is, they were going to have to slow people down. So Nextdoor had a choice to make, and against every impulse, they decided to add friction. And they did this by adding a simple checklist. There were three items on it. First, they asked users to pause and think, "What was this person doing that made him suspicious?" The category "black man" is not grounds for suspicion. Second, they asked users to describe the person's physical features, not simply their race and gender. Third, they realized that a lot of people didn't seem to know what racial profiling was, nor that they were engaging in it. So Nextdoor provided them with a definition and told them that it was strictly prohibited. Most of you have seen those signs in airports and in metro stations, "If you see something, say something." Nextdoor tried modifying this. "If you see something suspicious, say something specific." And using this strategy, by simply slowing people down, Nextdoor was able to curb racial profiling by 75 percent.

于是 Nextdoor 的联合创办人 向我及他人救助， 寻找解决问题的方法。 他们知道，若想在平台上 制止种族定性， 他们就得主动干预， 也就是，他们得让居民们的 偏见情绪缓和下来。 于是 Nextdoor 最终做出决定， 反对冲动， 并且决定进行干预。 他们为平台添加了 一个简单的清单， 其中包含有三个选项。 首先，他们请用户稍加思索： “这个人做了什么可疑的行为？” “黑人”这个分类并不是 怀疑的基础。 其次，他们要求用户描述 这个人的外在特征， 而不是简单的种族和性别。 第三，他们发现很多人 似乎不了解种族定性是什么， 也不知道自己正参与其中。 所以, Nextdoor 向他们解释了该定义， 并告诉他们这是严格禁止的。 你们很多人在机场和地铁站 都看过类似标语：“如果你看到了 什么（可疑的情况），就说出来！” Nextdoor 把这个标语改成了， “如果你看见可疑行为， 就明确地说出来。” 该策略的确让用户们的 偏见情绪缓和下来， Nextdoor 也成功地 让种族定性问题减少了 75%。

08:15

Now, people often will say to me, "You can't add friction in every situation, in every context, and especially for people who make split-second decisions all the time." But it turns out we can add friction to more situations than we think. Working with the Oakland Police Department in California, I and a number of my colleagues were able to help the department to reduce the number of stops they made of people who were not committing any serious crimes. And we did this by pushing officers to ask themselves a question before each and every stop they made: "Is this stop intelligence-led, yes or no?" In other words, do I have prior information to tie this particular person to a specific crime? By adding that question to the form officers complete during a stop, they slow down, they pause, they think, "Why am I considering pulling this person over?"

很多人常对我说， “你不可能在每种情况下都进行干预， 尤其是那些要在瞬息之间 做出决定的人。“ 但结果表明， 我们能够进行干预的场景 比我们想象的多得多。 在和加州的奥克兰警方 合作之后， 我和几位同事发现， 我们能协助警方 减少对没犯下任何严重罪行的人 进行拦检的次数。 我们的做法是推动警员 在执行拦检任务之前 都要先问自己一个问题： “这次的拦检任务是 治安情报主导的吗， 是或否？” 换句话说， 我早先的情报是否能够将这个人 跟特定罪行联系在一起？ 把这个问题纳入到 警员执行拦检任务时 填写的表格里， 会让警员暂停行动， 并及时思考，“我为什么会想要 把这个人拦下来？“

09:21

In 2017, before we added that intelligence-led question to the form, officers made about 32,000 stops across the city. In that next year, with the addition of this question, that fell to 19,000 stops. African-American stops alone fell by 43 percent. And stopping fewer black people did not make the city any more dangerous. In fact, the crime rate continued to fall, and the city became safer for everybody.

2017 年，在我们把这个问题 纳入表格之前， 全市的警员已经执行了 大约 32000 次的拦检。 第二年，加上了这个问题后， 拦检的次数减少至 19000 次。 光是对非裔美国人的拦检 就减少了 43%。 并且减少对黑人拦检的次数 并没有让城市变得危险。 事实上，犯罪率持续下降， 并让城市变得更加安全。

09:54

So one solution can come from reducing the number of unnecessary stops. Another can come from improving the quality of the stops officers do make. And technology can help us here. We all know about George Floyd's death, because those who tried to come to his aid held cell phone cameras to record that horrific, fatal encounter with the police. But we have all sorts of technology that we're not putting to good use. Police departments across the country are now required to wear body-worn cameras so we have recordings of not only the most extreme and horrific encounters but of everyday interactions. With an interdisciplinary team at Stanford, we've begun to use machine learning techniques to analyze large numbers of encounters. This is to better understand what happens in routine traffic stops. What we found was that even when police officers are behaving professionally, they speak to black drivers less respectfully than white drivers. In fact, from the words officers use alone, we could predict whether they were talking to a black driver or a white driver.

所以一个解决方案就是 减少不必要的拦检次数。 另外一个方涉及提升警员 执行拦检任务的质量。 此时科技就派上用场了。 我们大家都知道 乔治·弗洛伊德的死亡， 因为当时试图帮助他的人 用手机摄影机拍下了 这段他与警方骇人的遭遇。 但是还有很多科技手段 从未被我们善用。 全国各地的警方现在 都被要求戴上体佩摄影头。 这样我们不仅可以记录 那些骇人的遭遇， 还可以记录他们的日常互动。 通过和斯坦福大学的 跨学科团队合作， 我们开始使用机器学习技术 去分析大量的情景。 这是为了更好地了解 例行交通拦检时会发生什么事情。 我们发现， 即使警员的行为非常专业， 他们对黑人司机的说话方式 却远不如对白人司机礼貌。 事实上，单单从警员的用词， 我们就能预测他们是在与黑人司机 还是白人司机对话。

11:17

The problem is that the vast majority of the footage from these cameras is not used by police departments to understand what's going on on the street or to train officers. And that's a shame. How does a routine stop turn into a deadly encounter? How did this happen in George Floyd's case? How did it happen in others?

问题就在于，这些摄影机 所拍摄的大部分画面 一直没有被警方用来 了解大街上的情况 或者训练警员。 这让人难以接受。 例行的拦检任务怎么会 变成一次致命的碰面？ 为什么会发生乔治·弗洛伊德事件？ 又为什么会发生其他类似的案例？ 当我的长子 16 岁时，

11:44

When my eldest son was 16 years old, he discovered that when white people look at him, they feel fear. Elevators are the worst, he said. When those doors close, people are trapped in this tiny space with someone they have been taught to associate with danger. My son senses their discomfort, and he smiles to put them at ease, to calm their fears. When he speaks, their bodies relax. They breathe easier. They take pleasure in his cadence, his diction, his word choice. He sounds like one of them. I used to think that my son was a natural extrovert like his father. But I realized at that moment, in that conversation, that his smile was not a sign that he wanted to connect with would-be strangers. It was a talisman he used to protect himself, a survival skill he had honed over thousands of elevator rides. He was learning to accommodate the tension that his skin color generated and that put his own life at risk.

他意识到白人看着他时， 眼神会流露出恐惧。 他说，最糟糕的是在电梯里。 当电梯门关上， 大家都和他们认为高度危险的人 被困在同一个狭小的空间。 我的儿子察觉到了他们的不适， 他便朝着他们微笑， 让他们感到自在， 缓和他们恐惧。 当他开口说话时， 他们的身体就开始放松了， 呼吸也开始顺畅了。 他们喜欢他高低起伏的声音， 他的发音，他的用词。 他听起来就是他们的一份子。 我一直以来都认为我的儿子 和他爸爸一样天生性格外向。 但那一刻，在那个谈话中，我意识到， 他的微笑并不表示他想与 那群陌生人社交。 这是他用来保护自己的护身符， 是他乘搭了数千万次电梯后 磨练出来的生存技能。 他在学着缓和因他的肤色 给身边人带来的紧张感， 消除他的肤色 为自己带来的潜在危险。

13:07

We know that the brain is wired for bias, and one way to interrupt that bias is to pause and to reflect on the evidence of our assumptions. So we need to ask ourselves: What assumptions do we bring when we step onto an elevator? Or an airplane? How do we make ourselves aware of our own unconscious bias? Who do those assumptions keep safe? Who do they put at risk? Until we ask these questions and insist that our schools and our courts and our police departments and every institution do the same, we will continue to allow bias to blind us. And if we do, none of us are truly safe.

我们知道我们的大脑 带有与生俱来的偏见， 而打破偏见的唯一方式 就是停下来， 反思自身提出的假设 是否有理有据。 因此我们需要反问自己： 我们是带着什么假设踏进电梯， 又或者是搭乘飞机的？ 我们该如何察觉到自己 潜意识中的偏见？ 那些假设能保障谁的安全， 又将谁置于危险之中？ 若我们不去反思这些问题， 不坚持让我们的学校、法庭、警局， 以及其他机构去反思这些问题， 那么我们就会让偏见继续 蒙蔽我们。 如此下去， 没有谁能够真正安全。

14:06

Thank you.

谢谢