“如果明尼阿波利斯市所经历的事情发生在另一个国家，西方媒体会如何报道？”
“如果明尼阿波利斯市所经历的事情发生在另一个国家，西方媒体会如何报道？”
当地时间29日，《华盛顿邮报》以上述问题为标题（How Western media would cover Minneapolis if it happened in another country）刊发了一篇评论文章，引起广泛关注。
此前，美国明尼苏达州白人警察涉嫌暴力执法致非洲裔男子乔治•弗洛伊德（George Floyd）死亡一事震动全美。连日来，大规模示威活动已蔓延至全美30多座城市，且部分抗议示威升级为骚乱，不少商店被抢，一些建筑和车辆遭破坏和焚烧。
在此背景下，《华盛顿邮报》该评论文章应运而生。
“如果我们用谈论外国事件的方式谈论明尼阿波利斯正在发生的事情，那么西方媒体将这样报道它……”
文章以这样的方式开篇，在一个假定的情景下，构想了如果这场抗议发生在美国以外，西方媒体会如何报道这一事件。
文章内容本身是虚构的，其中所有的“引言”也都是虚构的，但不少读者表示，文章的报道方式和手法却似乎有一丝“熟悉的味道”。
文章全文如下（英文部分为《华盛顿邮报》原文）：
近年来，国际社会对唐纳德•特朗普政权下美国不断恶化的政治和人权状况发出了警报。现在，正当这个国家有10万人死于新冠疫情之际，这个前英国殖民地发现自己陷入了种族暴力的恶性循环。美国专家表示，国际社会（对此的）疲软和瘫痪从其沉默中可见一斑。
In recent years, the international community has sounded the alarm on the deteriorating political and human rights situation in the United States under the regime of Donald Trump. Now, as the country marks 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the former British colony finds itself in a downward spiral of ethnic violence. The fatigue and paralysis of the international community are evident in its silence, America experts say.
国家安全部队法外处决非洲少数族裔的几个视频在网络上疯传，震动了整个国家。一段视频显示，明尼阿波利斯市非洲裔男子乔治•弗洛伊德在遭遇暴力执法后身亡。此后，明尼阿波利斯爆发抗议活动。美国总统特朗普随后在社交媒体推特上称抗议者为“暴徒”，并威胁要派遣军队（镇压）。“敢抢劫，就开枪！”特朗普在推特上宣称。
The country has been rocked by several viral videos depicting extrajudicial executions of black ethnic minorities by state security forces. Uprisings erupted in the northern city of Minneapolis after a video circulated online of the killing of a black man, George Floyd, after being attacked by a security force agent. Trump took to Twitter, calling black protesters “THUGS”’ and threatening to send in military force. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts!” he declared.
“当然，我们理解非裔对数十年来遭受的虐待，以及（执法人员）逃脱处罚一事而感到愤怒”，广大白人群体中的一员、明尼苏达州人G•斯科特•菲茨说，“但（他们）之后去塔吉特商店抢劫就明显越界了，他们就不能找到一种更平和的方式（来抗议）吗？比如安静地跪着？”
“Sure, we get it that black people are angry about decades of abuse and impunity,” said G. Scott Fitz, a Minnesotan and member of the white ethnic majority. “But going after a Target crosses the line. Can’t they find a more peaceful way, like kneeling in silence?”
种族暴力已经困扰了该国几代人。数十年前，该国的种族暴力就已经受到全世界的关注，但由于（种族主义）压迫似乎并没有要结束的迹象，近期针对这一议题的报道和关注度正在减弱。外国记者安德里亚•杜里奇表示：“这些古老、令人费解的仇恨正加剧种族之间的冲突和不平等。”杜利奇对美式英语的了解来自于大学期间上过的一个学期的课程以及偶尔在语言学习软件Duolingo上的学习。当被告知美国的历史只有几百年时，他耸了耸肩说，“在我的国家，还存有来自罗马帝国时代的建筑。在他们（美国）的文化里，美国人会认为一幢有150年历史的建筑已经拥有古老的历史了。”
Ethnic violence has plagued the country for generations, and decades ago it captured the attention of the world, but recently the news coverage and concern are waning as there seems to be no end in sight to the oppression. “These are ancient, inexplicable hatreds fueling these ethnic conflicts and inequality," said Andreja Dulic, a foreign correspondent whose knowledge of American English consists of a semester course in college and the occasional session on the Duolingo app. When told the United States is only several hundred years old, he shrugged and said, “In my country, we have structures still from the Roman empire. In their culture, Americans think that a 150-year-old building is ancient history.”
英国通常对其前殖民地的事务非常关注，但近期该国也受到了新冠疫情的影响。“我们看到了新冠疫情带来的一些倒退，但一些英国人注意到美国不断上升的确诊率、令人震惊的失业率和暴力行径，他们觉得美国似乎从未做好妥善管理自身的准备，最终只能诉诸部落政治”， 常驻伦敦的美国问题专家安德鲁•达西•摩西顿说。采访摩西顿时，一条即时新闻消息显示，在英国4万名新冠肺炎死者中，61%的死亡医护人员为非洲裔或有中东血统。但摩西顿似乎对此并未注意，“就像我说的那样，英国没有像美国那样的种族问题。”
Britain usually takes an acute interest in the affairs of its former colony, but it has also been affected by the novel coronavirus. “We’ve seen some setbacks with the virus, but some Brits see the rising disease, staggering unemployment and violence in the States and feel as if America was never ready to govern itself properly, that it would resort to tribal politics,” said Andrew Darcy Morthington, a London-based America expert. During the interview, a news alert informed that out of the nearly 40,000 coronavirus deaths in the United Kingdom, 61 percent of the health-care workers who have died were black and or have Middle Eastern backgrounds. Morthington didn’t seem to notice. “Like I was saying, we don’t have those American racism issues here.”
特朗普，这位曾担任电视真人秀主持人、选美比赛组织者的商人，曾将非洲国家称为“粪坑国家”。而他现在正在效仿非洲独裁者的做法，散布虚假的医学疗法。冈比亚前总统叶海亚•贾梅就曾称自己可以用香蕉和草药药水来治愈艾滋病，并在民众中大肆推广，造成民众死亡。与此同时，特朗普似乎建议注射消毒剂、并利用紫外线来消灭新冠病毒。他还宣称自己已经在服用羟氯喹（来预防新冠病毒）。这是一种从奎宁中提取的药物——奎宁是一种广为人知的治疗疟疾药物，但医生已经建议不要用这种药物来预防或治疗新冠肺炎。
Trump, a former reality-TV host, beauty pageant organizer and businessman, once called African nations “shithole countries." But he is now taking a page from African dictators who spread bogus health remedies, like Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, who claimed he could cure AIDS with bananas and herbal potions and pushed his treatments onto the population, resulting in deaths. Trump appeared to suggest injecting bleach and using sunlight to kill the coronavirus. He has also said he has taken hydroxycholoroquine, a drug derived from quinine, a long-known jungle remedy for malaria. Doctors have advised against using the treatment to prevent or treat the coronavirus.
另一方面，急于逃离的美国人将面临跨越边境时的严峻挑战。政府应对新冠疫情不力，再加上最近的紧张种族局势，使美国人成了不受欢迎的游客。一些在困境中挣扎的美国零售商，比如尼曼•马库斯百货，希望通过中性卡其风格（服饰）和工装短裤来吸引购物者，让他们重温19世纪殖民时期的旅行幻想，并将其作为“现代狩猎之旅”系列的一部分。“实用的细节和柔和的色调，共同打造经典女性气质”——在该公司挂出的一张白人女性照片上写有这样的广告语。配件系列中没有包括头盔。
Meanwhile, Americans desperate to flee will face steep challenges to cross borders, as mismanagement of the coronavirus and ethnic tensions in the country have made them undesirable visitors. But some struggling American retailers, like Neiman Marcus, are hoping to lure shoppers with traditional 19th-century colonial travel fantasies through neutral khakis and cargo shorts as part of a “Modern Safari” collection. “Utilitarian details & muted tones meet classic femininity,” reads a caption under the photograph of a white woman. Pith helmets were not included in the accessory lineup.
一些国家正在考虑为美国非裔提供特殊庇护。“占美国人口多数的白人正在组建民兵武装组织，要求重新获得为富人阶层工作的权利，而正是这些富人阶层在工人阶层面临巨大风险的时候，将他们称为‘人力资本存量’”，来自内罗毕的人类学家穆斯塔法•奥坎戈说，“这是一种倒退，倒退回了以奴隶制为美国经济支柱的时代。非洲裔奴隶曾是那时重要的工人，他们却被当做非人类的奴隶来对待。”
Some nations are considering offering black Americans special asylum. "Members of the white ethnic majority are forming armed militia groups, demanding their freedom to go back to work for the wealthy class who refer to workers as 'human capital stock,' despite the huge risk to workers," said Mustapha Okango, a Nairobi-based anthropologist. "This is a throwback to the days when slavery was the backbone of the American economy. Black slaves were the original essential workers, and they were treated as non-human stock."
非洲可能是一个理想的庇护目的地，因为几个非洲国家通过早期积极的应对措施以及在检测工具上的创新，设法遏制了疫情的蔓延。在塞内加尔这个拥有1600万人口的国家，只有41例新冠肺炎死亡病例。“每个人都预言非洲将陷入混乱之中”，奥坎戈说，“但现在（发生的事）证明，你并不会仅仅因为是一个非裔而死，但在美国做一个非裔，你却可能因此而死。”截至目前，非盟并没有回应记者的置评请求，但它近期发表了一则声明称，“我们相信美国能解决美国的问题。”
Africa could be an ideal asylum destination, as several African countries have managed to contain the coronavirus outbreak through aggressive early measures and innovations in testing kits. Senegal, a nation of 16 million, has only seen 41 deaths."Everyone predicted Africa would fall into chaos," Okango said. “It is proof that being a black person in this world doesn’t kill you, but being a black person in America clearly can." The African Union did not respond to requests for comment, but it released a statement that said "we believe in American solutions for American problems."
目前，世界范围内，各大草根志愿组织、社会名流、人权活动人士甚至是学生都在尽力筹集资金，提升人们对美国严峻形势的认识。
Around the world, grass-roots organizations, celebrities, human rights activists and even students are doing what they can to raise money and awareness about the dire situation in America.
“令人难过的是，美国没有一个可以给他们足够检测、也没有一个为他们提供每月津贴来让他们养家糊口的政府”，来自利比里亚、曾在埃博拉疫情中幸存下来的18岁学生夏洛特•约翰逊说，“十万人死亡，城市被焚毁，这个国家却没有哀悼过一天。生命无足轻重，尤其是非裔的生命。他们仿佛生活在一个衰退的国家之中。”
"It's sad that the Americans don't have a government that can get them coronavirus tests or even monthly checks to be able to feed their families," said Charlotte Johnson, a 18-year-old Liberian student activist, who survived the Ebola pandemic."100,000 people are dead, cities are burning, and the country hasn't had a day of mourning? Lives don’t matter, especially not black lives. It’s like they’re living in a failing state."