美国国家公共电台 NPR I Am A Cheerleader, And Here's Why I Take A Knee

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The act of taking a knee during the national anthem¹ to protest police brutality² and racism³ has spread beyond the National Football League. Athletes across the country are faced with the question. Do they kneel, or do they stand? Well, at one North California high school, the football players don't take a knee, but others do. Here's Youth Radio's Sasha Armbrester.

SASHA ARMBRESTER, BYLINE⁴: My friend Teana Boston is kind of a big deal. She's 16 years old, and she's already been invited to sing the national anthem at professional sports games. But recently she wrote her own remix.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER")

TEANA BOSTON: (Singing) For the land of the free...

When I did my research on what I was really singing about - and I have to realize that it's not the land of the free, really, like, at all. So we have to not just say, yeah, freedom, yeah.

ARMBRESTER: Teana felt compelled to write her own version of the national anthem, one that deals with race. She wanted to protest police brutality against black people. And me - I'm protesting, too.

UNIDENTIFIED CHEERLEADERS: G-O spells go. F-I-G-H-T spells fight. W-I-N.

ARMBRESTER: I'm a cheerleader. Every Friday during football season I am freezing in my red and black uniform. Teana and I go to the same high school, James Logan in Union City, Calif. We took the same ethnic⁵ studies class, which made us both think hard about American history through a black lens. We learned about suffering and that sometimes history isn't even history. I was 10 when Trayvon Martin was shot. And the guy who killed him didn't even go to jail.

So when Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee, a lot of people thought he was being unpatriotic. But for me and the other black cheerleaders on my team, we were inspired. We saw an opportunity to call attention to racial injustice⁶. So we began taking a knee, too. The football players remained standing⁷. Here's Bud Laimont, a varsity player.

BUD LAIMONT: Why do I stand? Because the coaches make us. And I guess it's like you're just supposed to do it.

ARMBRESTER: What do you think about the cheerleaders taking a knee?

LAIMONT: Do it.

ARMBRESTER: Doing it is not so easy. When the announcer says it's time to stand for the national anthem...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Does that star-spangled...

ARMBRESTER: ...We kneel.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: ...Banner yet wave...

ARMBRESTER: When we first started doing it the stadium was shocked. Here's my friend Jada McMurry.

JADA MCMURRY: They found it as disrespectful. They kind of, like, side-eyed us. In the end I did what I did because that's my right.

ARMBRESTER: It wasn't just the fans who were upset. We felt the heat even from the coaches.

MCMURRY: They got mad and said that we can't be doing that. But I was like, I'm still doing it. I don't care.

ARMBRESTER: I think us taking a knee came as a surprise to people because a lot of people in the school think of cheerleaders as airheads. They think we're oblivious⁸ to what's going on in the world. But they're wrong. I got into cheerleading because I wanted to be a role model at my high school. I didn't expect it to turn into this very public protest. But the truth is I experience racism. I don't want to be treated like a criminal when I walk into a store. I don't want to have to worry about my younger brother and his safety. So here was this small thing I could do to call attention to racism and not let it go by. I decided⁹ to take a knee. For NPR News, I'm Sasha Armbrester.

(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE)

UNIDENTIFIED CHEERLEADERS: W-I-N spells win. Let's go.

SIEGEL: And that story was produced by Youth Radio.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE WEDNESDAY'S "MONACO")

1 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

2 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

3 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 oblivious   

adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的

参考例句：

• Mother has become quite oblivious after the illness.这次病后，妈妈变得特别健忘。
• He was quite oblivious of the danger.他完全没有察觉到危险。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。