(完整版)Unit12ACaseof“SevereBias”课文翻译综合教程四.docxVIP

Unit 12 A Case of Severe Bias Patricia Raybon This is who I am not. I am not a crack addict. I am not a welfare mother. I am not illiterate. I am not a prostitute. I have never been in jail. My children are not in gangs. My husband doesn ’ t beat meMy. home is not a tenement. None of these things defines who I am, nor do they describe the other black people I ’ ve known and worked with and loved and befriended over these forty years of my life. Nor does it describe most of black America, period. Yet in the eyes of the American news media, this is what black America is: poor, criminal, addicted, and dysfunctional. Indeed, media coverage of black America is so one-sided, so imbalanced that the most victimized and hurting segment of the black community － a small segment, at best － is presented not as the exception but as the norm. It is an insidious practice, all the uglier for its blatancy. 4 In recent months, I have observed a steady offering of media reports on crack babies, gang warfare, violent youth, poverty, and homelessness － and in most cases, the people featured in the photos and stories were black. At the same time, articles that discuss other aspects of American life － from home buying to medicine to technology to nutrition － rarely, if ever, show blacks playing a positive role, or for that matter, any role at all. Day after day, week after week, this message － that black America is dysfunctional and unwhole－ gets transmitted across the American landscape. Sadly, as a result, America never learns the truth about what is actually a wonderful, vibrant, creative community of people. Most black Americans are not poor. Most black teenagers are not crack addicts. Most black mothers are not on welfare. Indeed, in sheer numbers, more white Americans are poor and on welfare than are black. Yet one never would deduce that by watching television or reading American newspapers and magazines. Why do the American media insist on