Your identity is your superpower | America Ferrera · TED
美国女演员America Ferrera在TED2019演讲中分享了她如何面对身份认同的挑战，呼吁媒体更真实地呈现多元文化。适合练习演讲表达和文化理解。
When I was 15, I got my first professional audition.
我15岁的时候，第一次参加了专业的试镜。
It was a commercial for cable subscriptions or bail bonds—I don't really remember—but what I do remember is that the casting director asked me,
这应该是一个关于有线电视订阅服务或保释金担保服务的广告（我不太记得了具体内容），但我记得的是，选角导演当时问我……
"Could you do that again?
你能再做一次吗？
But just this time, sound more Latina."
但这一次，说话的语气要更具拉丁裔女性的特点（也就是更“女性化”一些）。
It took me most of the car ride home to realize that by "sound more Latina," she was asking me to speak in broken English,
直到坐车回家的大部分时间里，我才意识到她所说的“用更具有拉丁裔特色的方式说话”，其实是指让我用不流利的英语来表达自己。
and I couldn't figure out why the fact that I was an actual real-life, authentic Latina didn't really seem to matter.
我一直不明白：为什么我作为一个真实存在的、具有拉丁血统的女性，这个事实似乎并没有什么重要性（或者说，并没有得到应有的重视）。
Anyway, I didn't get the job.
总之，我没有得到那份工作。
I didn't get a lot of the jobs people were willing to see me for: the gangbanger's girlfriend,
我没能得到很多那些人们愿意让我去做的工作——比如“黑帮分子的女朋友”之类的角色。
the sassy shoplifter, pregnant chola number two.
那个大胆的商店扒手……其实是第二胎的怀孕的墨西哥裔女性。
These were the kinds of roles that existed for someone like me, someone they looked at and saw as too brown,
这些就是适合像我这样的人的角色——在他们眼中，我的肤色太深（即属于“棕色人种”）。
too fat, too poor, too unsophisticated.
太胖了、太穷了、太缺乏见识（或文化修养）了。
I kept receiving the same message again and again and again: that my identity was an obstacle I had to overcome,
我一遍又一遍地收到同样的信息：我的身份是一道必须克服的障碍。
and so I thought, "Come at me, obstacle.
于是我想：“来吧，这个障碍物……
I'm an American.
我是一个美国人。
My name is America.
我的名字叫“America”。
I trained my whole life for this.
我一生都在为这一目标而努力训练。
I'll just follow the playbook.
我只需要按照既定的流程或方案来操作就行了。
I'll work harder."
我会更加努力地工作。
I stayed out of the sun so that my skin wouldn't get too brown.
我避免阳光直射，以免皮肤变得过于黝黑。
I straightened my curls into submission.
我把自己的卷发抚平，让它们变得顺从（即不再卷曲）。
I constantly tried to lose weight.
我一直都在努力减肥。
I bought fancier and more expensive clothes, all so that when people looked at me, they wouldn't see a too-fat,
我买了更漂亮、更昂贵的衣服，这样当人们看到我时，就不会觉得我太胖了。
too-brown, too-poor Latina.
皮肤颜色太深、出身太贫的拉丁裔女性……
They would see what I was capable of, and maybe they would give me a chance.
他们会看到我的能力，也许会给我一个机会。
Just a few years ago, my agent called to explain to me why I wasn't getting a role in a movie.
就在几年前，我的经纪人打电话给我，向我解释为什么我没有在某部电影中得到角色。
He said, "They loved you and they really, really do want to cast diversely, but the movie isn't financeable until they cast the white role first."
他说：“他们很爱你，也确实希望影片的演员阵容能够更加多元化（即包括不同种族、性别等背景的人），但除非他们先选定了扮演白人角色的演员，否则这部电影就无法获得足够的资金支持（从而无法顺利制作）。
I went through this process for years of accepting the failure as my own, and then feeling deep shame that I couldn't overcome the obstacles.
多年来，我一直处于这样的状态：将失败归咎于自己，同时又因无法克服那些障碍而感到深深的羞愧。
But this time I heard a new voice, a voice that understood my tears and my pain were not about losing a job.
但这一次，我听到了一个全新的声音——一个能够理解我的泪水与痛苦其实并非源于失业的声音。
They were about what was actually being
他们讨论的是那些真正正在发生的事情。
said about me—what had been said about
关于我的那些评价……之前人们都说了些什么呢？
me my whole life by executives and
我的整个人生都受到高管们的影响和控制……
producers and directors and writers and agents and managers and teachers and friends and family—that I was a person of less value.
制片人、导演、编剧、经纪人、经理人、教师、朋友以及家人都认为我的价值较低。
I couldn't change what a system believed about me while I believed what the system believed about me—and I did.
只要我仍然认同这个系统对我的看法，我就无法改变这个系统对我的认知；而事实上，我确实一直认同着这个系统的看法。
I, like everyone around me, believed that it wasn't possible for me to exist in my dream as I was,
我和我身边的所有人一样，都认为以我现在的状态，是不可能实现自己在梦中的那个“理想自我”的。
What this revealed to me was that it is possible to be the person who genuinely wants to see change,
这让我意识到：确实有人真心希望看到改变的发生。
while also being the person whose actions keep things the way they are.
同时，这个人也正是那些让一切保持现状（即现状不被改变）的人。
Change will come when each of us
当我们每个人都……时，改变才会真正发生。
has the courage to question our own fundamental values and beliefs and then see to it that our actions lead to our best intentions.
我们有勇气质疑自己最基本的价值观和信念，并确保我们的行为能够真正体现我们的良好意图。
I am just one of millions of people who have been told that in order to fulfill my dreams,
我只是数百万普通人中的一个；他们告诉过我，要想实现自己的梦想，……
in order to contribute my talents to the world, I have to resist the truth of who I am.
为了将自己的才能奉献给这个世界，我不得不否认自己真实的本质（即拒绝接受关于自己的真相）。