When Venus and Serena Williams began their miraculous runs in the late "90s, it was a story for a number of reasons. They were brash teenage sisters with beaded braids, and they were bigger and stronger than neady every woman who had ever played the game. As the 2000s progressed and the Williamses began trading off Grand Slam championships, it became clear the sisters could go down as two of the game"s greatest players. But even now, in the waning stages of their careers, when the conversation usually turns toward enshrinement among the all-time greats, Venus and Serena have never been able to fully escape the anomaly of their race.
当维纳斯・威廉姆斯和赛琳娜・威廉姆斯在上世纪90年代末期所向披靡时，人们竞相研究他们能够取得成功的原因。留着邻家女孩般洒脱的头发、穿着大胆前卫的连衣运动裙，这两姐妹无论走在哪里，都要比球场对面的那个女对手看上去更高大强壮。然而随着时间的进程，“黑珍珠”旋风也终有威力降低的那一天。21世纪的最后几年，伤病情况、状态波动、年龄增长在逐渐减弱着姐妹俩的狂暴旋风，也终于有对手能够在赛场上挑战他们的统治地位。但是，没有人会否认他们之前所取得的成就，尤其是将这些成就与背景联系起来，更值得关注商榷。
I grew up playing tennis in the heart of black Atlanta, at a tennis center whose staff, coaches, and regular players were all black. In every black tennis center in the city, before the Williams revolution, there was always a picture hanging of Arthur Ashe. Once the sisters burst on the scene, these centers replaced their dated photos with action shots of Venus and Serena, hitting monstrous serves, their beads flying everywhere. For many black families across the city, tennis officially became the new athletic "meal ticket." They became heroes for black kids like myself, and convinced a lot of us (for better and often for worse) that we would make it to the pros. While I, thankfully, escaped the post- Williams sister homeschooling revolution that took place among my preteen black peers, I still had moments when I was convinced that, with enough practice, I could be the next great black player to shake up the otherwise white tennis world. Within our community, my peers and I were being celebrated as the next young black generation of tennis stars.
我从小在亚特兰大黑人区长大，也在那里接受到最初的网球训练。我们的场地中，无论教练、工作人员还是我这样的学员都是清一色的黑皮肤。在威廉姆斯姐妹成功前，我们在每一个专门给黑人运动员打网球的地方都会看到亚瑟。阿什的照片，时刻提醒我们他是第一位获得大满贯冠军的黑人网球运动员。而90年代后，阿什的照片就被威廉姆斯姐妹在各种场合的照片所取代，无论是他们在赛场中挥舞球拍的镜头还是球场下漫步悠然的身影。这股运动潮流直接改变了黑人家庭对于人生观的看法，大家不再只把篮球和橄榄球当作那些天赋异禀运动员的唯一出路，打网球增添了另外的陌生方式。就像我当年以阿什为榜样一样，那时的小孩处处向威廉姆斯姐妹看齐。很庆幸我没有像他们那么疯狂热衷于崇拜偶像之中，但是我的确也受到了不少影响。至今我仍旧能够清晰的回忆起在社区内大家津津乐道、不知疲倦地谈论这个小球员或是那名小选手将会成为明日最为伟大的网球运动员的场景。
In black Atlanta, we wanted people to celebrate the Williams sisters for their talent, sure. But we also didn"t want anyone to ever forget that these were two black girls doing it big in the predominantly white sport of tennis.
在亚特兰大的黑人聚集地中，我们不仅仅是为威廉姆斯姐妹的天赋和才华所痴迷，更为他们在个白人从始至终处于统治性的项目中获得如此不可思议的成绩而感到敬佩。
Fast-forward to Monday aftemoon. Floyd Mayweather, in reaction to another solid performance by Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin, took toTwitter:Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he"s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don"t get the same praise. 就在情人节当天下午，拳王梅威瑟尔在他的推特上很严肃认真的写下：“林书豪是一名不错的球员，但是所获得的褒奖多半是因为他亚裔的背景。黑人运动员每天都在做着相同的事情，取得的成绩并不比他差，然而却没有多少人去关注他们，给予他们褒奖。”
Mayweather"s statement drummed up quite a bit of controversy, and given his history with Manny Pacquiao, his tweet should be read as rude and tasteless. But he"s not completely wrong. It"s naive to believe that all of this hype would follow Lin if he were black. We"re talking about the NBA. Of course he"s hyped because he"s Asian. The reason Mayweather is very much in the wrong, though, is because his underlying message is that Lin doesn"t deserve the accolades. It"s hard to imagine, given what"s transpired over the last six games, what Lin could possibly do to not seem like just a product of media hype in Mayweather"s eyes. While Mayweather"s statements are troublesome, they shed light on a repressed, widespread sentiment that has been growing with every passing year.
梅威瑟尔言论一出，招致了多方议论。联想起他与菲律宾拳王曼尼・帕奎奥的恩怨，这时表态不合时宜，让人感到他缺少风度。但是仔细想想，梅威瑟尔的言论还是有些道理。如果林书豪真的是名黑人球员，他的关注度还有这么高吗?我们的关注点起源于NBA，而这个联盟又恰好是最会在公众面前进行宣传。梅或瑟尔的言论无法就是想说媒体给予林书豪的曝光程度过高，而这些多出的机会也应该有其他人的份额。但是不可否认，看过林书豪在2月5号之后的比赛，你是无论如何都会对他的场上表现所折服，这一点绝不是媒体的功劳。再次回到梅威瑟尔那令人争议言论，似乎这是一个每年都会被讨论，但总也得不到答案的问题。
To put it plainly, basketball is supposed to be a black thing, and we aren"t ready to give that title up. Not yet. There are so few things in American culture that are still dominated by black excellence. The other great black mainstay, hip- hop, continues to diversify, but basketball was always supposed fo stay ours．
简短直白的说：美国篮球是一项黑人的运动，这一点自从我们踏上篮球场那刻就开始。不同于音乐中的Hip-Hop或其它领域，篮球就是我们黑人的地盘，没有人能够撼动或者尝试改变。
In all major athletics, color barriers were broken, and once the floodgates were opened, blacks began growing in numbers in the three major American sports: baseball, football, and basketball. In a sport like basketball, where we went from the minority to the majority in a generation, there has always been a sense of pride in that transition. We came in, and we changed the way the game looks and is played. It would be foolish to ignore, however, that the point of pride has often translated into an almost possessive attitude toward the game, one that welcomes "outsiders" to join in on the festivities, but doesn"t expect (or want) them to truly rise to prominence.
历经半个世纪，种族问题在运动项目上几乎已经绝迹。四大美国职业联赛中，篮球、橄榄球和棒球更是黑人运动员展示自我的绝佳平台。而篮球是典型中代表，浓缩了我们从少数派到统治性的更替，其中的转变只有我们黑人运动员拥有亲身经历、能够体会。我们从被接纳的那个时刻开始，就在全方位的改变着这项运动的发展，这是我们可以引以为豪的资本。我们欢迎所有其他肤色的人来挑战我们的统治地位，但是从不期待他们能够在我们的领域中能够有太大作为，这是事实。
When Mayweather returned to Twitter, post-backlash, and said, "I"m speaking my mind on behalf of other NBA players. They are programmed to be politically correct and will be penalized if they speak up," I wasn"t happy with how he said it, but, again, there"s some truth there. I understand his sentiment, because over the past six games, Lin has undermined some of the most basic beliefs held by many an NBA player and black American.
梅威瑟尔在第一条推特发出后遭到争议之时，又补发了第二条：“我所说的完全是为了其他的NBA球员，因为他们不能够轻易发表言论，否则将会面临被罚的处境。”和上次一样，我对他的言论并不欣赏，但是仔细一想他说的内容肯定不是错的。从内心深处，我能理解梅威瑟尔的情感波动，因为作为名黑人，我们都不希望看到林书豪对于篮球项目中黑人的统治传统是如此轻松的进行着颠覆，在他那里改变和挑战简直就是信手拈来般的事情。
Growing up, I was taught that perhaps the most embarrassing and shameful way to lose a basketball game was to a team full of white boys. This point was made on an all-black AAU team and again (even louder) on a diverse high school basketball team, within a diverse basketball league. Throughout my high school basketball career, whenever we played against an all-white team or I was matched up against a white player, one of my black coaches would always pull me aside and, sometimes quietly, sometimes very loudly, say, ""(ou"re black, those are white boys, you know what to do." And every time I heard it, I swelled with pride, because suddenly I was playing not only for a victory, but also to uphold the tradition of basketball being a black thing. The belief felt like such a no-brainer and was made so vocal at times, some of the white kids even began to sip the KooI-Aid. It became so engrained in me over the years, I can easily admit that it will never fully go away. Losing a pickup game to a team full of black guys pisses me off, mainly because I lost, but losing to a team full of white kids still feels somewhat unacceptable. (I say white in this case because there were few other races represented where I grew up, but had there been a squad of Asian kids in my high school league, those sentiments would have undoubtedly been 100 times stronger. Why? Because this was our sport, no longer a white sport, and definitely not a sport for some Asian kids.)
从小到大，长辈们就一直教导我最让我们失误的事情莫过于在篮球场上输给支由白人运动员组成的球队。无论是夏季参加的AAU对抗中，还是冬季打的高中联赛，每年我们都会碰上仝由白人组成的球队，这总会激起大家的上场欲望。而教练也会火上浇油一把，随着场上各种风雨变幻的形势跟你窃窃私语或是大声怒吼：“你在跟那个白人小孩对位，拿出你的全部本领好好教育一下他!”每次碰上这样的场景，我都不由自主地想到：“我现在不是在打一场简单的比赛，我是在为我们的传统和精神而战。“这一点似乎已经融入到我们的血液之中，很难有人能够改变。就连白人球员也知道我们的这种想法，所以他们每次面对我们这样的对手，也都感到非常难受。对我而言，即使我不去主动想这点，在比赛之中也会因为比赛的进程而再度回到这个阶段上：输给黑人对手无所谓，最多就是一场失利而已，但是决不能输给白人球员，对我们来说这是无法接受的。(想这一点的时候，我们只会拿白人球员当作参考对象，亚裔球员甚至不在我们的思考范围之内，因为我们从来没有见过一支由亚裔球员组成的高中校队。倘若我们以前真的遇见了这样的对手，那我想我们的兴奋程度可能要升100倍，因为没有人希望我们会输给他们。在篮球方面，我们才是主宰者。)
If we, as blacks, truly believe the idea that basketball is our sport, Linsanity is the perfect wake-up call. The honeymoon is over, and as a black guy, I couldn"t be happier.
就当我们沾沾自喜、沉浸其中之时，“林风暴”的出现，给了我们当头一棒。然而作为一个已明事理的成年黑人，我对此非常高兴。
I couldn"t be happier because while I love witnessing his performances night in and night out, more important for me is watching the faces of my Asian American friends as they watch Jeremy Lin play. After the first two games, my friend Andy Suzuki hadn"t seen Lin play. As I showed him the highlight reels from both games, I saw him swell up with pride in a way I"ve never witnessed. He couldn"t believe what he was seeing, and as he reenacted some of the moves in his living room, I pictured a 7-year-old Andy, in his driveway, mimicking Jordan, but quietly wishing he had a Jeremy. And when I went to the Knicks-Lakers game with Grantland staff writer Jay Caspian Kang, I watched his demeanor go from cool to impressed to excited to giddy to proud and speechless over the course of the two hours.
让我高兴的原因不仅是看林书豪的比赛是一种享受的过程，看到我的那些亚裔朋友为林书豪的表现而疯狂加油时也是其中的原因之一。我其中的个亚裔朋友最初没有看到林书豪的表现，是我最早把林书豪头两场比赛的集锦拿给他看。当看到他不能自已的激动表情时，突然让我想到了我曾经的为同胞加油助威时的感觉。我的这个朋友甚至还模仿林书豪的脚步，在房间里就做起了各种上篮姿势，而这是名以前从不打篮球的朋友。我在湖人和尼克斯的比赛中陪着一位同行亲临现场，见证了这位同行在两个小时的比赛中从沉着冷静到兴奋不已到不知所措的情感变化，而这切都源于林书豪那压倒科比的惊艳表现。
I"ve been there and know how it feels. Watching Serena defeat Martina Hingis at the 1999 U.S. Open and then Venus come back the next year and defeat Lindsay Davenport in both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open solidified the feeling that we had arrived. Things were going to be different from here on out. I remember watching every second of the 1997 Masters, in amazement, as Tiger schooled every white guy in the toumament.
1999年美网公开赛中，小威击败辛吉斯，收获职业大满贯冠军，2000年，温布尔顿和美国公开赛中，大威连续两次力克达文波特，夺得自己的前两次大满贯，1997年的高尔夫球大师杯赛中，伍兹一骑绝尘战胜所有白人运动员获得冠军。这是让我最为疯狂激动的几个难忘瞬间。
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