美国国家公共电台 NPR She Thought Her Family Was Middle Class, Not Broke In The Richest Country On Earth

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Sarah Smarsh grew up in rural Kansas - the fifth generation to farm the same land, riding tractors where her ancestors rode wagons¹. There was never enough money and prospects² were few. She was part of what has become popularized as the white working class. But back then, she didn't know it. In her new book "Heartland: A Memoir³ of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country on Earth," Smarsh talks about how her family story reflects the wider tale of inequality and poverty in America. I began by asking her about her life on that farm.

SARAH SMARSH: They're deep roots that I have grown to appreciate. And when it was all that I knew, I didn't really understand at that moment how increasingly rare that sort of experience is - to be farming and living on the very land that generations of my ancestors also worked. So yeah, I feel a very deep connection to this place, not just in a sentimental⁴ way but just in terms of raw time.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. Let's talk about your people. You're a sociologist⁵, so you used the word intergenerational poverty, which has become a bit of a buzzword. But your story and your family's story is so much more than that buzzword might imply.

SMARSH: Yeah. And even the term poverty - since I write about class - I think about the power of words and our word choice often. And I never in a million years thought that I was poor. And I don't think that my family would have used that word either when we were - well, and many are - living that experience. You know, our sense was we've got enough to eat. And there is a roof keeping the elements off of our head. And so I guess if someone would have asked, we would have thought we were, say, middle class.

And I think that working poor is a good term for the experience that my family was living because that kind of gets at the reason that we were poor, which was not for lack of effort and participation⁶ in these systems that we're encouraged to believe in. It was rather for markets and low wages that we had no control over ourselves. So much storytelling about poverty is overlaid with this sense of pity and sometimes even condescension⁷ that casts it as this overwhelmingly bleak⁸ experience. And, in fact, my life and my family was often brimming with humor and joy and love.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is a memoir. You make it clear that this is the story of this country but through the prism of your own experience and your family's experience. And I kind of want to bring you back a little bit to that. You know, you're the child of a teenage mother, who was the child of a teenage mother. Can you talk a little bit about that and about how that framed this book? And why you wanted to write it?

SMARSH: For some reason, I don't know if it was just my disposition⁹ as a kid. The future journalist in me was always looking around trying to understand all these deep truths about our family that no one was talking about. And I knew my mom was unhappy. And I knew that something about it had to do with her role as a mother. And so by the time I was of childbearing age, even as a prepubescent, I was already consciously thinking about how I really wanted to make sure that I didn't have a baby when I was really young and really poor. That absolutely informed the way that I structured this book - which is addressed to that would-have-been child that I did successfully circumvent¹⁰ having.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You talk about the bodies of men and women in this book - the bodies of the working poor, essentially¹¹, and how they are viewed as dispensable.

SMARSH: Toward the beginning of the book, I directly address a term that gets at that within the context of my own racial experience - whiteness, white trash. Trash, of course, is garbage. It is dispensable. It is, by definition, something to be thrown away. And it's a dangerous way to talk about human beings, about ourselves, about our country. I think it says a lot about the way that power and these power structures in this so-called socioeconomic ladder that we measure our country by, really - often informs our language in some really destructive ways.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I mean, you acknowledge in the book that statistically¹², poverty and the sort of accompanying issues disproportionately affect black and brown communities all over the United States. But you write in the book that poor whiteness is a peculiar¹³ offense¹⁴ in a society that imbues¹⁵ whiteness with power not just by making it the racial norm but by making it a shorthand for economic stability. Can you explain that idea?

SMARSH: So what I mean by that passage is that if we have a culture really built on the foundations of white supremacy¹⁶ and ideas that are deeply embedded¹⁷ in our society about whiteness essentially being a shorthand for economic stability and power and there is - it's kind kind of implicit¹⁸ in that for the white people who trade in those ideas that that's sort of the right order of things. Even, let's say, well-to-do white people who fancy themselves liberal and progressive have such a hateful, venomous attitude toward members of their own race who have not won in this capitalist society, in economic terms. And that seems to me to suggest that they are offended by essentially looking in the mirror, seeing someone who is more a physical reflection of themselves - in whiteness - who is living the shame of poverty.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: In 2016 - November 8 - America seemed to discover the white working class - or at least the journalists who cover America seemed to discovered the white working class. There's so much that's been written now. When you hear that phrase in the media, what do you think?

SMARSH: On the one hand, you know, coming from rural America, I think oh, all right. Now, like, we're getting some attention in national discussion. But the hell of it is it's often, from my view, the wrong attention, framed the wrong way, asking the wrong questions and making the wrong assessments¹⁹. I'd almost rather just be left alone. So we've sort of moved from a sense of invisibility to a stunning²⁰ broad stereotype²¹ casting. You know, millions of Americans are somehow a political and cultural monolith. It seems to me that what's going on right now is the scapegoating²² of a group that I know to be, in some pockets, very progressive and is not at all represented by the media attention that's going on right now.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What does your family think of the book? It's hard for families to read about themselves, I think.

SMARSH: Yeah. They're - the way they look at it, I think, is this is a very strange and rare experience for one to have - to be made a character in a nonfiction book. But they understand work. They're not necessarily book people. But they know I'm doing my job. And they respect that. And though I think the way that they see stories is, if it's true, it's true. So there is neither pride, nor shame on their part. I think they just feel like - they believe I got it right. And that's the best review I could get.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Sarah Smarsh's book is called "Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard And Being Broke In The Richest Country on Earth." Thank you very much.

SMARSH: Thank you so much, Lulu.

(SOUNDBITE OF ZOE KEATING'S "ESCAPE ARTIST")

1 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。

2 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

5 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

6 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

7 condescension   

n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人)

参考例句：

• His politeness smacks of condescension. 他的客气带有屈尊俯就的意味。
• Despite its condescension toward the Bennet family, the letter begins to allay Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy. 尽管这封信对班纳特家的态度很高傲，但它开始消除伊丽莎白对达西的偏见。

8 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

9 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

10 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

13 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

14 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

15 imbues   

v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的第三人称单数 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等）

参考例句：

• Love for one's fellow creatures imbues every line of the drawing. 这张画的每一根线条都浸透着这种感情。 来自辞典例句
• We cannot assume that merely learning a language imbues one with any kind of value system. 我们不能假定说，学习某种语文就会吸收某种价值观。 来自互联网

16 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

17 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

18 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

19 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

20 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

21 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

22 scapegoating   

v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Washington's scapegoating of China could take the world to the brink of a very slippery slope. 华盛顿方面找中国作替罪羊，可能会把世界推向灾难性下滑的边缘。 来自互联网