To President Frederick, the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, fellow recipients of honorary degrees, thank you for the honor of spending this day with you. And congratulations to the Class of 2016! Four years ago, back when you were just freshmen, I understand many of you came by my house the night I was reelected. So I decided to return the favor and come by yours. 尊敬的弗雷德里克校长、董事会成员、教职员工们，各位荣誉学位获得者，感谢你们给予我与大家共度这一天的荣幸。祝贺2016届毕业生！四年前，当你们还是新生的时候，我知道你们很多人在我连任的那天晚上来到我家。所以我决定投桃报李，来到你们这里。
To the parents, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, all the family and friends who stood by this class, cheered them on, helped them get here today -- this is your day, as well. Let's give them a big round of applause, as well. 感谢父母、祖父母、叔叔阿姨、兄弟姐妹们，感谢所有陪伴这个班级、为他们加油、帮助他们走到今天的家人和朋友们——今天也是你们的日子。让我们也为他们热烈鼓掌。
I'm not trying to stir up any rivalries here; I just want to see who's in the house. We got Quad? Annex. Drew. Carver. Slow. Towers. And Meridian. Rest in peace, Meridian. Rest in peace. 我不是想在这里挑起任何竞争，我只是想看看都有谁来了。Quad的同学在哪里？Annex的。Drew的。Carver的。Slow的。Towers的。还有Meridian的。安息吧，Meridian。安息吧。
I know you're all excited today. You might be a little tired, as well. Some of you were up all night making sure your credits were in order. Some of you stayed up too late, ended up at HoChi at 2:00 a.m. Got some mambo sauce on your fingers. 我知道你们今天都很兴奋。你们可能也有点累。你们有些人通宵达旦，确保学分都修够了。有些人熬夜太晚，凌晨两点还在HoChi餐厅。手指上还沾着曼波酱呢。
But you got here. And you've all worked hard to reach this day. You've shuttled between challenging classes and Greek life. You've led clubs, played an instrument or a sport. You volunteered, you interned. You held down one, two, maybe three jobs. You've made lifelong friends and discovered exactly what you're made of. The "Howard Hustle" has strengthened your sense of purpose and ambition. 但你们成功了。你们都为这一天付出了艰苦的努力。你们在充满挑战的课程和兄弟会/姐妹会生活之间奔波。你们领导社团、演奏乐器或参加体育运动。你们做志愿者、实习。你们打一份、两份，甚至三份工。你们结交了一生的挚友，也发现了自己真正的能力。「霍华德式奋斗」强化了你们的目标感和抱负。
Which means you're part of a long line of Howard graduates. Some are on this stage today. Some are in the audience. That spirit of achievement and special responsibility has defined this campus ever since the Freedman's Bureau established Howard just four years after the Emancipation Proclamation; just two years after the Civil War came to an end. 这意味着你们是霍华德毕业生悠久传统的一部分。有些人今天就在这个舞台上。有些人在观众席上。自从解放黑奴宣言发布仅四年后、内战结束仅两年后，自由民局创立了霍华德大学以来，这种成就精神和特殊责任感就一直是这所校园的标志。
They created this university with a vision -- a vision of uplift; a vision for an America where our fates would be determined not by our race, gender, religion or creed, but where we would be free -- in every sense -- to pursue our individual and collective dreams. 他们怀着一个愿景创立了这所大学——一个向上提升的愿景；一个关于美国的愿景：在那里，我们的命运不取决于我们的种族、性别、宗教或信仰，而是我们可以——在各个意义上——自由地追求我们个人和集体的梦想。
It is that spirit that's made Howard a centerpiece of African-American intellectual life and a central part of our larger American story. This institution has been the home of many firsts: The first black Nobel Peace Prize winner. The first black Supreme Court justice. But its mission has been to ensure those firsts were not the last. Countless scholars, professionals, artists, and leaders from every field received their training here. 正是这种精神使霍华德成为非裔美国人知识生活的核心，也是我们更宏大的美国故事的重要组成部分。这所机构孕育了许多「第一位」：第一位黑人诺贝尔和平奖得主。第一位黑人大法官。但它的使命是确保这些「第一位」不会成为最后一位。无数的学者、专业人士、艺术家和各领域的领袖都在这里接受过培训。
The generations of men and women who walked through this yard helped reform our government, cure disease, grow a black middle class, advance civil rights, shape our culture. The seeds of change -- for all Americans -- were sown here. And that's what I want to talk about today. 走过这片校园的一代代男女帮助改革了我们的政府、治愈了疾病、壮大了黑人中产阶级、推进了民权、塑造了我们的文化。变革的种子——为所有美国人——就是在这里播下的。而这正是我今天想谈的。
As I was preparing these remarks, I realized that when I was first elected President, most of you -- the Class of 2016 -- were just starting high school. Today, you're graduating college. I used to joke about being old. Now I realize I'm old. It's not a joke anymore. 在我准备这次演讲的时候，我意识到，当我第一次当选总统时，你们中的大多数人——2016届的同学们——才刚刚上高中。今天，你们大学毕业了。我以前常开玩笑说自己老了。现在我意识到我真的老了。这已经不是玩笑了。
But seeing all of you here gives me some perspective. It makes me reflect on the changes that I've seen over my own lifetime. So let me begin with what may sound like a controversial statement -- a hot take. 但看到你们在座，让我有了一些感悟。这让我反思我这一生中所看到的变化。那么，请允许我以一个听起来可能有争议的说法开始——一个大胆的观点。
Given the current state of our political rhetoric and debate, let me say something that may be controversial, and that is this: America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college. Let me repeat: America is by almost every measure better than it was when I graduated from college. It also happens to be better off than when I took office -- but that's a longer story. That's a different discussion for another speech. 鉴于我们当前政治言论和辩论的状况，请允许我说一句可能有争议的话，那就是：今天的美国比我大学毕业时更好。让我再说一遍：几乎从任何角度衡量，美国都比我大学毕业时更好。顺便说一句，也比我上任时更好——但那是一个更长的故事。那是另一场演讲要讨论的话题。
But think about it. I graduated in 1983. New York City, America's largest city, where I lived at the time, had endured a decade marked by crime and deterioration and near bankruptcy. And many cities were in similar shape. Our nation had gone through years of economic stagnation, the stranglehold of foreign oil, a recession where unemployment nearly scraped 11 percent. The auto industry was getting its clock cleaned by foreign competition. And don't even get me started on the clothes and the hairstyles. I've tried to eliminate all photos of me from this period. I thought I looked good. 但想想看。我1983年毕业。纽约市，美国最大的城市，我当时住的地方，经历了十年的犯罪、衰败和近乎破产。许多城市也处于类似的状况。我们的国家经历了多年的经济停滞、外国石油的束缚、失业率接近11%的衰退。汽车工业被外国竞争打得落花流水。更别提那些服装和发型了。我已经试图销毁我那个时期的所有照片。我当时以为自己很帅。
I was wrong. 我错了。
Since that year -- since the year I graduated -- the poverty rate is down. Americans with college degrees, that rate is up. Crime rates are down. America's cities have undergone a renaissance. There are more women in the workforce. They're earning more money. We've cut teen pregnancy in half. We've slashed the African American dropout rate by almost 60 percent, and all of you have a computer in your pocket that gives you the world at the touch of a button. In 1983, I was part of fewer than 10 percent of African Americans who graduated with a bachelor's degree. 从那一年起——从我毕业那一年起——贫困率下降了。拥有大学学位的美国人比例上升了。犯罪率下降了。美国城市经历了复兴。职场中有了更多女性。她们赚了更多的钱。我们将青少年怀孕率减少了一半。我们将非裔美国人的辍学率降低了近60%，而且你们每个人口袋里都有一台电脑，只需按一下按钮就能了解世界。在1983年，我是不到10%的获得学士学位的非裔美国人之一。
Today, you're part of the more than 20 percent who will. And more than half of blacks say we're better off than our parents were at our age -- and that our kids will be better off, too. 今天，你们是超过20%的获得学士学位的非裔美国人的一部分。而且超过一半的黑人认为我们比父母在我们这个年龄时过得更好——我们的孩子也会过得更好。
So America is better. And the world is better, too. A wall came down in Berlin. An Iron Curtain was torn asunder. The obscenity of apartheid came to an end. A young generation in Belfast and London have grown up without ever having to think about IRA bombings. In just the past 16 years, we've come from a world without marriage equality to one where it's a reality in nearly two dozen countries. Around the world, more people live in democracies. We've lifted more than 1 billion people from extreme poverty. We've cut the child mortality rate worldwide by more than half. 所以美国变得更好了。世界也变得更好了。柏林墙倒塌了。铁幕被撕碎了。种族隔离的丑恶制度终结了。贝尔法斯特和伦敦的年轻一代在成长过程中从未需要担心爱尔兰共和军的爆炸事件。就在过去16年里，我们从一个没有婚姻平等的世界，变成了在近24个国家实现婚姻平等的世界。在全球范围内，更多的人生活在民主制度下。我们使10多亿人摆脱了极端贫困。我们将全球儿童死亡率降低了一半以上。
America is better. The world is better. And stay with me now -- race relations are better since I graduated. That's the truth. No, my election did not create a post-racial society. I don't know who was propagating that notion. That was not mine. But the election itself -- and the subsequent one -- because the first one, folks might have made a mistake. The second one, they knew what they were getting. The election itself was just one indicator of how attitudes had changed. 美国变得更好了。世界变得更好了。现在请听我说——自我毕业以来，种族关系也变得更好了。这是事实。不，我的当选并没有创造一个后种族社会。我不知道是谁在传播这种说法。那不是我的说法。但选举本身——以及随后的那次选举——因为第一次，人们可能犯了个错误。第二次，他们知道自己选的是什么。选举本身只是态度发生变化的一个指标。
In my inaugural address, I remarked that just 60 years earlier, my father might not have been served in a D.C. restaurant -- at least not certain of them. There were no black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Very few black judges. Shoot, as Larry Wilmore pointed out last week, a lot of folks didn't even think blacks had the tools to be a quarterback. Today, former Bull Michael Jordan isn't just the greatest basketball player of all time -- he owns the team. When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T. Rap and hip hop were counterculture, underground. 在我的就职演说中，我说过，就在60年前，我父亲在华盛顿的一家餐厅可能都得不到服务——至少某些餐厅是这样。当时没有财富500强公司的黑人首席执行官。黑人法官寥寥无几。嘿，正如拉里·威尔莫尔上周指出的那样，很多人甚至认为黑人没有能力当四分卫。今天，前公牛队球员迈克尔·乔丹不仅仅是有史以来最伟大的篮球运动员——他还拥有这支球队。我毕业的时候，电视上的主要黑人英雄是T先生。说唱和嘻哈还是反主流文化，地下的。现在，珊达·莱梅斯掌控着周四晚间档，碧昂丝统治着世界。
Now, Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night, and Beyoncé runs the world. We're no longer only entertainers, we're producers, studio executives. No longer small business owners -- we're CEOs, we're mayors, representatives, Presidents of the United States. 我们不再仅仅是艺人，我们是制片人、制片厂高管。不再只是小企业主——我们是首席执行官、市长、众议员、美国总统。
I am not saying gaps do not persist. Obviously, they do. Racism persists. Inequality persists. Don't worry -- I'm going to get to that. But I wanted to start, Class of 2016, by opening your eyes to the moment that you are in. If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn't know ahead of time who you were going to be -- what nationality, what gender, what race, whether you'd be rich or poor, gay or straight, what faith you'd be born into -- you wouldn't choose 100 years ago. You wouldn't choose the fifties, or the sixties, or the seventies. 我并不是说差距不存在。显然，差距仍然存在。种族主义依然存在。不平等依然存在。别担心——我会谈到这一点的。但2016届的同学们，我想从让你们看清自己所处的时代开始。如果让你选择一个可以出生的历史时刻，而且你事先不知道自己会是谁——什么国籍、什么性别、什么种族，无论贫富、同性恋还是异性恋、信仰什么宗教——你不会选择100年前。你不会选择五十年代、六十年代或七十年代。你会选择现在。
You'd choose right now. If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of Lorraine Hansberry, "young, gifted, and black" in America, you would choose right now. 如果用洛兰·汉斯伯里的话说，你要选择一个在美国「年轻、有天赋、且是黑人」的时代，你会选择现在。
I tell you all this because it's important to note progress. Because to deny how far we've come would do a disservice to the cause of justice, to the legions of foot soldiers; to not only the incredibly accomplished individuals who have already been mentioned, but your mothers and your dads, and grandparents and great grandparents, who marched and toiled and suffered and overcame to make this day possible. I tell you this not to lull you into complacency, but to spur you into action -- because there's still so much more work to do, so many more miles to travel. 我告诉你们这一切，是因为承认进步很重要。因为否认我们已经走了多远，会对正义事业、对无数的前线战士造成不公；不仅是对已经提到的那些成就非凡的个人，还有你们的父母、祖父母、曾祖父母，他们游行、辛劳、受苦并克服困难，才让今天成为可能。我告诉你们这些，不是为了让你们自满，而是为了激励你们行动起来——因为还有太多的工作要做，还有太长的路要走。
And America needs you to gladly, happily take up that work. You all have some work to do. So enjoy the party, because you're going to be busy. 美国需要你们欣然、快乐地承担起这项工作。你们都有工作要做。所以好好享受派对吧，因为你们会很忙的。
Yes, our economy has recovered from crisis stronger than almost any other in the world. But there are folks of all races who are still hurting -- who still can't find work that pays enough to keep the lights on, who still can't save for retirement. We've still got a big racial gap in economic opportunity. The overall unemployment rate is 5 percent, but the black unemployment rate is almost nine. We've still got an achievement gap when black boys and girls graduate high school and college at lower rates than white boys and white girls. 是的，我们的经济已经从危机中复苏，比世界上几乎任何其他经济体都更强劲。但仍有各种族的人们在受苦——他们仍然找不到足以维持生计的工作，仍然无法为退休储蓄。我们在经济机会方面仍然存在巨大的种族差距。总体失业率是5%，但黑人失业率几乎是9%。我们仍然存在成就差距，黑人男孩和女孩的高中和大学毕业率低于白人男孩和女孩。
Harriet Tubman may be going on the twenty, but we've still got a gender gap when a black woman working full-time still earns just 66 percent of what a white man gets paid. 哈丽特·塔布曼可能会被印在20美元钞票上，但我们仍然存在性别差距，全职工作的黑人女性的收入仅为白人男性的66%。
We've got a justice gap when too many black boys and girls pass through a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails. This is one area where things have gotten worse. When I was in college, about half a million people in America were behind bars. Today, there are about 2.2 million. Black men are about six times likelier to be in prison right now than white men. 我们存在司法差距，太多黑人男孩和女孩经历着从经费不足的学校到人满为患的监狱的流水线。这是一个情况变得更糟的领域。我上大学的时候，美国大约有50万人在狱中。今天，大约有220万人。黑人男性目前入狱的可能性大约是白人男性的六倍。
Around the world, we've still got challenges to solve that threaten everybody in the 21st century -- old scourges like disease and conflict, but also new challenges, from terrorism and climate change. 在全球范围内，我们仍有需要应对的挑战，这些挑战威胁着21世纪的每一个人——疾病和冲突等古老的灾难，还有恐怖主义和气候变化等新的挑战。
So make no mistake, Class of 2016 -- you've got plenty of work to do. But as complicated and sometimes intractable as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges, to flip the script. 所以毫无疑问，2016届的同学们——你们有很多工作要做。但尽管这些挑战看起来复杂且有时难以解决，事实是，你们这一代人比以往任何一代人都更有条件应对这些挑战，扭转局面。
Now, how you do that, how you meet these challenges, how you bring about change will ultimately be up to you. My generation, like all generations, is too confined by our own experience, too invested in our own biases, too stuck in our ways to provide much of the new thinking that will be required. But us old-heads have learned a few things that might be useful in your journey. So with the rest of my time, I'd like to offer some suggestions for how young leaders like you can fulfill your destiny and shape our collective future -- bend it in the direction of justice and equality and freedom. 那么，你们该怎么做，你们该如何应对这些挑战，你们该如何带来变革，最终将取决于你们。我们这一代人，和所有代人一样，太受自身经验的局限，太执着于自己的偏见，太固守自己的方式，无法提供所需的新思维。但我们这些老家伙学到了一些东西，可能对你们的旅程有用。所以在剩下的时间里，我想就你们这样的年轻领袖如何实现你们的命运、塑造我们共同的未来——将其朝着正义、平等和自由的方向弯曲——提出一些建议。
First of all -- and this should not be a problem for this group -- be confident in your heritage. Be confident in your blackness. One of the great changes that's occurred in our country since I was your age is the realization there's no one way to be black. Take it from somebody who's seen both sides of debate about whether I'm black enough. In the past couple months, I've had lunch with the Queen of England and hosted Kendrick Lamar in the Oval Office. There's no straitjacket, there's no constraints, there's no litmus test for authenticity. 首先——这对在座的各位来说应该不是问题——要对你们的传统充满自信。要对你们的黑人身份充满自信。自我在你们这个年纪以来，我们国家发生的巨大变化之一，就是人们意识到成为黑人不止一种方式。请相信一个经历过关于我是否够「黑」的两面争论的人的话。在过去几个月里，我和英国女王共进了午餐，还在椭圆形办公室接待了肯德里克·拉马尔。没有紧身衣，没有约束，没有真实性的试金石。
Look at Howard. One thing most folks don't know about Howard is how diverse it is. When you arrived here, some of you were like, oh, they've got black people in Iowa? But it's true -- this class comes from big cities and rural communities, and some of you crossed oceans to study here. You shatter stereotypes. Some of you come from a long line of Bison. Some of you are the first in your family to graduate from college. You all talk different, you all dress different. You're Lakers fans, Celtics fans, maybe even some hockey fans. 看看霍华德。大多数人不知道的一件事是霍华德有多么多元化。当你们刚来的时候，你们有些人可能会想，哦，爱荷华州也有黑人吗？但这是真的——这个班级的同学来自大城市和农村社区，你们有些人漂洋过海来这里学习。你们打破了刻板印象。你们有些人是野牛（霍华德校友的昵称）的后代。你们有些人是家里第一个大学毕业生。你们说话方式不同，穿着打扮不同。你们有的是湖人队球迷，有的是凯尔特人队球迷，甚至还有些冰球队球迷。
And because of those who've come before you, you have models to follow. You can work for a company, or start your own. You can go into politics, or run an organization that holds politicians accountable. You can write a book that wins the National Book Award, or you can write the new run of "Black Panther." Or, like one of your alumni, Ta-Nehisi Coates, you can go ahead and just do both. You can create your own style, set your own standard of beauty, embrace your own sexuality. Think about an icon we just lost -- Prince. He blew up categories. People didn't know what Prince was doing. 因为有前人的努力，你们有了可以效仿的榜样。你们可以为公司工作，也可以自己创业。你们可以从政，也可以运营一个让政客们负责任的组织。你们可以写一本获得国家图书奖的书，也可以写新的《黑豹》系列漫画。或者，就像你们的一位校友塔-内西·科茨那样，你可以两者都做。你可以创造自己的风格，设定自己的美的标准，拥抱自己的性取向。想想我们刚刚失去的一位偶像——普林斯。他打破了各种分类。人们不知道普林斯在做什么。
And folks loved him for it. 但人们因此而爱他。
You need to have the same confidence. Or as my daughters tell me all the time, "You be you, Daddy." Sometimes Sasha puts a variation on it -- "You do you, Daddy." And because you're a black person doing whatever it is that you're doing, that makes it a black thing. Feel confident. 你们需要有同样的自信。或者就像我女儿们常对我说的，「做你自己，爸爸。」有时候萨莎会换个说法——「做你自己的事，爸爸。」而且因为你是一个黑人，做着你正在做的任何事情，那就是一件黑人的事。要有自信。
Second, even as we each embrace our own beautiful, unique, and valid versions of our blackness, remember the tie that does bind us as African Americans -- and that is our particular awareness of injustice and unfairness and struggle. That means we cannot sleepwalk through life. We cannot be ignorant of history. We can't meet the world with a sense of entitlement. We can't walk by a homeless man without asking why a society as wealthy as ours allows that state of affairs to occur. 第二，即使我们每个人都拥抱我们自己美丽、独特且正当的黑人身份版本，也要记住将我们作为非裔美国人联系在一起的纽带——那就是我们对不公、不平和斗争的特殊认知。这意味着我们不能浑浑噩噩地生活。我们不能对历史无知。我们不能以一种理所当然的态度面对世界。我们不能路过一个无家可归的人而不问，为什么像我们这样富裕的社会会允许这种情况发生。我们不能仅仅把一个低级毒贩关起来而不问，为什么这个刚走出童年的男孩觉得他别无选择。
We can't just lock up a low-level dealer without asking why this boy, barely out of childhood, felt he had no other options. We have cousins and uncles and brothers and sisters who we remember were just as smart and just as talented as we were, but somehow got ground down by structures that are unfair and unjust. 我们有表亲、叔叔、兄弟姐妹们，我们记得他们和我们一样聪明、一样有才华，但不知何故被不公平和不公正的制度压垮了。
And that means we have to not only question the world as it is, and stand up for those African Americans who haven't been so lucky -- because, yes, you've worked hard, but you've also been lucky. That's a pet peeve of mine: People who have been successful and don't realize they've been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn't nothing you did. So don't have an attitude. 这意味着我们不仅要质疑现状，还要为那些没有那么幸运的非裔美国人挺身而出——因为，是的，你努力工作了，但你也很幸运。这是我最看不惯的一点：那些成功了却没有意识到自己很幸运的人。上帝可能保佑了他们；那不是你自己的功劳。所以不要摆架子。但我们必须扩展我们的道德想象力，去理解和同情所有正在挣扎的人，而不仅仅是挣扎中的黑人——难民、移民、农村穷人、跨性别者，还有，是的，那个你可能认为拥有所有优势的中年白人男性，但在过去几十年里，他的世界被经济、文化和技术变革颠覆了，他感到无力阻止这一切。
But we must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling -- the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender person, and yes, the middle-aged white guy who you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to get in his head, too. 你也得站在他的角度想一想。
Number three: You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I'll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes. 第三点：你在人生中不能只有变革的激情，你还需要策略。我再说一遍。我希望你们有激情，但你们必须有策略。不只是意识，还要有行动。不只是话题标签，还要有选票。
You see, change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program, and it requires organizing. At the 1964 Democratic Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer -- all five-feet-four-inches tall -- gave a fiery speech on the national stage. But then she went back home to Mississippi and organized cotton pickers. And she didn't have the tools and technology where you can whip up a movement in minutes. She had to go door to door. And I'm so proud of the new guard of black civil rights leaders who understand this. 要知道，变革需要的不仅仅是正义的愤怒。它需要一个计划，需要组织。在1964年民主党全国代表大会上，范妮·卢·哈默——身高只有五英尺四英寸——在全国舞台上发表了慷慨激昂的演讲。但之后她回到密西西比州的家乡，组织棉农。她没有你们可以在几分钟内发起一场运动的工具和技术。她得挨家挨户地去。我为新一代黑人民权领袖感到骄傲，他们明白这一点。
It's thanks in large part to the activism of young people like many of you, from Black Twitter to Black Lives Matter, that America's eyes have been opened -- white, black, Democrat, Republican -- to the real problems, for example, in our criminal justice system. 在很大程度上，正是因为像你们中的许多人这样的年轻人的行动主义，从「黑人推特」到「黑人的命也是命」运动，美国的眼睛——白人、黑人、民主党人、共和党人——才得以睁开，看到了我们刑事司法系统中存在的真实问题。
But to bring about structural change, lasting change, awareness is not enough. It requires changes in law, changes in custom. If you care about mass incarceration, let me ask you: How are you pressuring members of Congress to pass the criminal justice reform bill now pending before them? If you care about better policing, do you know who your district attorney is? Do you know who your state's attorney general is? Do you know the difference? Do you know who appoints the police chief and who writes the police training manual? Find out who they are, what their responsibilities are. 但要实现结构性变革、持久变革，仅有意识是不够的。它需要法律的改变，习俗的改变。如果你关心大规模监禁，让我问你：你在如何向国会议员施压，让他们通过目前待审议的刑事司法改革法案？如果你关心更好的警务工作，你知道你的地方检察官是谁吗？你知道你州的司法部长是谁吗？你知道区别吗？你知道谁任命警察局长，谁编写警察培训手册吗？去了解他们是谁，他们的职责是什么。动员社区，向他们提出计划，与他们合作带来变革，如果他们不兑现承诺就追究他们的责任。
Mobilize the community, present them with a plan, work with them to bring about change, hold them accountable if they do not deliver. Passion is vital, but you've got to have a strategy. 激情至关重要，但你必须有策略。
And your plan better include voting -- not just some of the time, but all the time. It is absolutely true that 50 years after the Voting Rights Act, there are still too many barriers in this country to vote. There are too many people trying to erect new barriers to voting. This is the only advanced democracy on Earth that goes out of its way to make it difficult for people to vote. And there's a reason for that. There's a legacy to that. 而且你的计划最好包括投票——不只是偶尔投票，而是一直投票。千真万确，在《投票权法案》通过50年后，这个国家仍然存在太多投票障碍。有太多人试图设置新的投票障碍。这是地球上唯一一个刻意让人们难以投票的先进民主国家。这是有原因的。这有其历史遗留问题。
But let me say this: Even if we dismantled every barrier to voting, that alone would not change the fact that America has some of the lowest voting rates in the free world. In 2014, only 36 percent of Americans turned out to vote in the midterms -- the second-lowest participation rate on record. Youth turnout -- that would be you -- was less than 20 percent. Less than 20 percent. Four out of five did not vote. In 2012, nearly two in three African Americans turned out. And then, in 2014, only two in five turned out. 但请允许我这样说：即使我们拆除了所有投票障碍，仅此一点也无法改变美国是自由世界中投票率最低的国家之一这一事实。2014年，只有36%的美国人在中期选举中投票——这是有记录以来第二低的投票率。年轻人投票率——也就是你们——不到20%。不到20%。五分之四的人没有投票。2012年，近三分之二的非裔美国人参加了投票。然后在2014年，只有五分之二的人投票了。你不认为这对我必须打交道的国会产生了影响吗？然后人们在想，嗯，为什么奥巴马没有完成这件事？为什么他没有完成那件事？你不认为这产生了影响吗？如果你们在全国各地都以50%、60%、70%的投票率参选，会发生什么？人们试图把政治这件事弄得很复杂。比如，我们需要什么样的改革？我们需要怎么做？你知道吗，投票就行。这就是数学。如果你的票数比对手多，你就可以为所欲为。
You don't think that made a difference in terms of the Congress I've got to deal with? And then people are wondering, well, how come Obama hasn't gotten this done? How come he didn't get that done? You don't think that made a difference? What would have happened if you had turned out at 50, 60, 70 percent, all across this country? People try to make this political thing really complicated. Like, what kind of reforms do we need? And how do we need to do that? You know what, just vote. It's math. If you have more votes than the other guy, you get to do what you want. It's not that complicated. 没那么复杂。
And you don't have excuses. You don't have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap to register to vote. You don't have to risk your life to cast a ballot. Other people already did that for you. Your grandparents, your great grandparents might be here today if they were working on it. What's your excuse? 而且你们没有借口。你们不需要猜罐子里有多少颗软糖或者肥皂上有多少气泡才能登记投票。你们不需要冒着生命危险去投票。其他人已经为你们这样做了。你们的祖父母、曾祖父母如果还在为此奋斗的话，今天可能就站在这里。
When we don't vote, we give away our power, disenfranchise ourselves -- right when we need to use the power that we have; right when we need your power to stop others from taking away the vote and rights of those more vulnerable than you are -- the elderly and the poor, the formerly incarcerated trying to earn their second chance. 你们的借口是什么？当我们不投票时，我们就是在放弃我们的权力，剥夺自己的权利——就在我们需要运用我们所拥有的权力的时候；就在我们需要你们的力量来阻止其他人夺走比你们更弱势群体的投票权和权利的时候——老年人和穷人，那些试图获得第二次机会的前服刑人员。
So you got to vote all the time, not just when it's cool, not just when it's time to elect a President, not just when you're inspired. It's your duty. When it's time to elect a member of Congress or a city councilman, or a school board member, or a sheriff. That's how we change our politics -- by electing people at every level who are representative of and accountable to us. It is not that complicated. Don't make it complicated. 所以你们要一直投票，不只是在很酷的时候，不只是在选举总统的时候，不只是在你们受到鼓舞的时候。这是你们的责任。当选举国会议员、市议员、学校董事会成员或治安官的时候，都要投票。这就是我们改变政治的方式——通过选举各级代表我们、对我们负责的人。没那么复杂。别把它复杂化。
And finally, change requires more than just speaking out -- it requires listening, as well. In particular, it requires listening to those with whom you disagree, and being prepared to compromise. When I was a state senator, I helped pass Illinois's first racial profiling law, and one of the first laws in the nation requiring the videotaping of confessions in capital cases. And we were successful because, early on, I engaged law enforcement. I didn't say to them, oh, you guys are so racist, you need to do something. 最后，变革不仅仅需要发声——它也需要倾听。特别是，需要倾听那些与你意见不同的人，并准备好妥协。当我还是州参议员时，我帮助通过了伊利诺伊州第一部种族貌相法，也是全国首批要求对死刑案件的供词进行录像的法律之一。我们之所以成功，是因为在早期，我就与执法部门接触。我没有对他们说，哦，你们这些人太种族主义了，你们需要做点什么。
I understood, as many of you do, that the overwhelming majority of police officers are good, and honest, and courageous, and fair, and love the communities they serve. 我理解，正如你们许多人所理解的那样，绝大多数警察都是好的、诚实的、勇敢的、公正的，他们热爱他们所服务的社区。
And we knew there were some bad apples, and that even the good cops with the best of intentions -- including, by the way, African American police officers -- might have unconscious biases, as we all do. So we engaged and we listened, and we kept working until we built consensus. And because we took the time to listen, we crafted legislation that was good for the police -- because it improved the trust and cooperation of the community -- and it was good for the communities, who were less likely to be treated unfairly. 而且我们知道确实有一些害群之马，即使是有着最好意图的好警察——顺便说一下，包括非裔美国警察——也可能有无意识的偏见，就像我们所有人一样。所以我们接触，我们倾听，我们一直努力直到达成共识。因为我们花时间倾听，我们制定的立法对警察有利——因为它增进了社区的信任和合作——对社区也有利，因为他们不太可能受到不公平的对待。
And I can say this unequivocally: Without at least the acceptance of the police organizations in Illinois, I could never have gotten those bills passed. Very simple. They would have blocked them. 我可以毫不含糊地说：如果没有伊利诺伊州警察组织的至少接受，我永远不可能让那些法案通过。很简单。他们会阻止它们的。
The point is, you need allies in a democracy. That's just the way it is. It can be frustrating and it can be slow. But history teaches us that the alternative to democracy is always worse. That's not just true in this country. It's not a black or white thing. Go to any country where the give and take of democracy has been repealed by one-party rule, and I will show you a country that does not work. 关键是，在民主制度中你需要盟友。事实就是这样。这可能令人沮丧，可能进展缓慢。但历史告诉我们，民主的替代方案总是更糟的。这不仅在这个国家是如此。这不是黑白分明的事。去任何一个民主的协商被一党统治废除的国家，我都会让你看到一个运转不灵的国家。
And democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100 percent right. This is hard to explain sometimes. You can be completely right, and you still are going to have to engage folks who disagree with you. If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you're not going to get what you want. And if you don't get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged. 而且民主要求妥协，即使你百分之百正确。有时候这很难解释。你可能完全正确，但你仍然需要与不同意你的人打交道。如果你认为前进的唯一途径就是尽可能不妥协，你会自我感觉良好，你会享受某种道德上的纯洁，但你不会得到你想要的。而如果你长时间得不到你想要的，你最终会认为整个系统都被操纵了。那将导致更多的犬儒主义，更少的参与，以及更多不公、更多愤怒和更多绝望的恶性循环。
And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair. And that's never been the source of our progress. That's how we cheat ourselves of progress. 那从来不是我们进步的源泉。那是我们欺骗自己、剥夺自己进步的方式。
We remember Dr. King's soaring oratory, the power of his letter from a Birmingham jail, the marches he led. But he also sat down with President Johnson in the Oval Office to try and get a Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act passed. And those two seminal bills were not perfect -- just like the Emancipation Proclamation was a war document as much as it was some clarion call for freedom. Those mileposts of our progress were not perfect. They did not make up for centuries of slavery or Jim Crow or eliminate racism or provide for 40 acres and a mule. But they made things better. 我们记得金博士雄辩的演说，他在伯明翰监狱写的信的力量，他领导的游行。但他也在椭圆形办公室与约翰逊总统坐下来，努力推动通过《民权法案》和《投票权法案》。而这两项具有里程碑意义的法案并不完美——就像《解放黑奴宣言》既是一份战争文件，也是一份自由的呐喊一样。我们进步的那些里程碑并不完美。它们没有弥补几个世纪的奴隶制或吉姆·克劳法，也没有消除种族主义，也没有提供四十英亩土地和一头骡子。但它们让事情变得更好了。
And you know what, I will take better every time. I always tell my staff -- better is good, because you consolidate your gains and then you move on to the next fight from a stronger position. 你知道吗，每次我都会选择「更好」。我总是告诉我的工作人员——「更好」就很好，因为你巩固你的成果，然后从更有利的位置继续下一场战斗。
Brittany Packnett, a member of the Black Lives Matter movement and Campaign Zero, one of the Ferguson protest organizers, she joined our Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Some of her fellow activists questioned whether she should participate. She rolled up her sleeves and sat at the same table with big city police chiefs and prosecutors. And because she did, she ended up shaping many of the recommendations of that task force. And those recommendations are now being adopted across the country -- changes that many of the protesters called for. 布列塔尼·帕克内特是「黑人的命也是命」运动和「零运动」的成员，也是弗格森抗议活动的组织者之一，她加入了我们的21世纪警务工作组。她的一些活动家同伴质疑她是否应该参与。她卷起袖子，与大城市的警察局长和检察官坐在同一张桌子旁。正因为她这样做了，她最终帮助制定了该工作组的许多建议。而这些建议现在正在全国各地被采纳——许多抗议者呼吁的变革。如果像布列塔尼这样的年轻活动家出于某种意识形态纯洁感而拒绝参与，那么那些伟大的想法就只会停留在想法层面。
If young activists like Brittany had refused to participate out of some sense of ideological purity, then those great ideas would have just remained ideas. But she did participate. And that's how change happens. 但她确实参与了。而这就是变革发生的方式。
America is big and it is boisterous and it is more diverse than ever. The president told me that we've got a significant Nepalese contingent here at Howard. I would not have guessed that. Right on. But it just tells you how interconnected we're becoming. And with so many folks from so many places, converging, we are not always going to agree with each other. 美国很大，很喧闹，比以往任何时候都更加多样化。校长告诉我，霍华德这里有相当多的尼泊尔学生。我可没想到。太棒了。但这恰恰说明我们正变得多么相互关联。有这么多来自这么多地方的人汇聚在一起，我们不可能总是意见一致。
Another Howard alum, Zora Neale Hurston, once said -- this is a good quote here: "Nothing that God ever made is the same thing to more than one person." Think about that. That's why our democracy gives us a process designed for us to settle our disputes with argument and ideas and votes instead of violence and simple majority rule. 另一位霍德华校友佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿曾经说过——这是一句很好的引语：「上帝创造的任何东西，对不同的人来说都不会是一样的。」想想这句话。这就是为什么我们的民主给了我们一个程序，让我们用争论、思想和选票来解决争端，而不是暴力和简单的多数统治。
So don't try to shut folks out, don't try to shut them down, no matter how much you might disagree with them. There's been a trend around the country of trying to get colleges to disinvite speakers with a different point of view, or disrupt a politician's rally. Don't do that -- no matter how ridiculous or offensive you might find the things that come out of their mouths. Because as my grandmother used to tell me, every time a fool speaks, they are just advertising their own ignorance. Let them talk. Let them talk. 所以不要试图排斥他人，不要试图压制他们，无论你可能多么不同意他们。全国各地都有一种趋势，就是试图让大学撤回邀请持不同观点的演讲者，或者扰乱政客的集会。不要那样做——无论你可能觉得从他们嘴里说出来的话多么荒谬或冒犯。因为正如我祖母过去常告诉我的，每次一个傻瓜说话，他们只是在宣扬自己的无知。让他们说吧。让他们说吧。
If you don't, you just make them a victim, and then they can avoid accountability. 如果你不这样做，你只会让他们成为受害者，然后他们就可以逃避责任。
That doesn't mean you shouldn't challenge them. Have the confidence to challenge them, the confidence in the rightness of your position. There will be times when you shouldn't compromise your core values, your integrity, and you will have the responsibility to speak up in the face of injustice. But listen. Engage. If the other side has a point, learn from them. If they're wrong, rebut them. Teach them. Beat them on the battlefield of ideas. 这并不意味着你不应该挑战他们。要有信心去挑战他们，对你立场的正确性有信心。有些时候你不应该妥协你的核心价值观、你的正直，你有责任在不公正面前挺身而出。但要倾听。要参与。如果对方有道理，就向他们学习。如果他们错了，就反驳他们。教导他们。在思想的战场上击败他们。你最好现在就开始练习，因为我可以向你保证一件事——你将不得不面对无知、仇恨、种族主义、愚蠢和无聊的人。我向你保证，在你人生的每个阶段，你都必须面对所有这一切。这可能看起来不公平，但生活从来就不是完全公平的。没有人向你保证过水晶阶梯。
And you might as well start practicing now, because one thing I can guarantee you -- you will have to deal with ignorance, hatred, racism, foolishness, trifling folks. I promise you, you will have to deal with all that at every stage of your life. That may not seem fair, but life has never been completely fair. Nobody promised you a crystal stair. And if you want to make life fair, then you've got to start with the world as it is. 而如果你想让生活变得公平，那么你就得从现实世界开始。
So that's my advice. That's how you change things. Change isn't something that happens every four years or eight years; change is not placing your faith in any particular politician and then just putting your feet up and saying, okay, go. Change is the effort of committed citizens who hitch their wagons to something bigger than themselves and fight for it every single day. 这就是我的建议。这就是你改变事物的方式。变革不是每四年或八年发生一次的事情；变革不是把你的信仰寄托在某个特定的政客身上，然后就翘起二郎腿说，好吧，开始吧。变革是那些坚定的公民的努力，他们将自己的马车系在比自己更伟大的事物上，并每天为之奋斗。
That's what Thurgood Marshall understood -- a man who once walked this yard, graduated from Howard Law; went home to Baltimore, started his own law practice. He and his mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston, rolled up their sleeves and they set out to overturn segregation. They worked through the NAACP. Filed dozens of lawsuits, fought dozens of cases. And after nearly 20 years of effort -- 20 years -- Thurgood Marshall ultimately succeeded in bringing his righteous cause before the Supreme Court, and securing the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that separate could never be equal. 这就是瑟古德·马歇尔所理解的——一个曾经走过这片校园的人，毕业于霍华德法学院；回到巴尔的摩的家乡，开办了自己的律师事务所。他和他的导师查尔斯·汉密尔顿·休斯顿卷起袖子，着手推翻种族隔离。他们通过全国有色人种协进会工作。提起了几十起诉讼，打了几十起官司。经过近20年的努力——20年——瑟古德·马歇尔最终成功地将他正义的事业提交给最高法院，并在布朗诉教育委员会案中获得了「隔离永远不可能平等」的裁决。
Twenty years. 二十年啊。
Marshall, Houston -- they knew it would not be easy. They knew it would not be quick. They knew all sorts of obstacles would stand in their way. They knew that even if they won, that would just be the beginning of a longer march to equality. But they had discipline. They had persistence. They had faith -- and a sense of humor. And they made life better for all Americans. 马歇尔、休斯顿——他们知道这不会容易。他们知道这不会迅速。他们知道各种障碍会挡在他们的路上。他们知道，即使他们赢了，那也只是通往平等的更长征途的开始。但他们有纪律。他们有坚持。他们有信念——还有幽默感。他们让所有美国人的生活变得更好。
And I know you graduates share those qualities. I know it because I've learned about some of the young people graduating here today. There's a young woman named Ciearra Jefferson, who's graduating with you. And I'm just going to use her as an example. I hope you don't mind, Ciearra. Ciearra grew up in Detroit and was raised by a poor single mom who worked seven days a week in an auto plant. And for a time, her family found themselves without a place to call home. They bounced around between friends and family who might take them in. 我知道你们毕业生也拥有这些品质。我知道，因为我了解了一些今天在这里毕业的年轻人。有一个名叫西埃拉·杰斐逊的年轻女子，她将和你们一起毕业。我就以她为例吧。希望你不介意，西埃拉。西埃拉在底特律长大，由一位贫穷的单身母亲抚养，她的母亲在一家汽车厂每周工作七天。有一段时间，她的家人发现自己无家可归。他们在可能收留他们的朋友和家人之间辗转。到高中四年级时，西埃拉每天早上5点起床，兼顾家庭作业、课外活动、志愿服务，同时还要照顾她的小妹妹。但她知道教育是她通往更好生活的门票。
By her senior year, Ciearra was up at 5:00 am every day, juggling homework, extracurricular activities, volunteering, all while taking care of her little sister. But she knew that education was her ticket to a better life. So she never gave up. Pushed herself to excel. This daughter of a single mom who works on the assembly line turned down a full scholarship to Harvard to come to Howard. 所以她从未放弃。鞭策自己出类拔萃。这位在装配线上工作的单身母亲的女儿，拒绝了哈佛大学的全额奖学金，选择来到霍华德。
And today, like many of you, Ciearra is the first in her family to graduate from college. And then, she says, she's going to go back to her hometown, just like Thurgood Marshall did, to make sure all the working folks she grew up with have access to the health care they need and deserve. As she puts it, she's going to be a "change agent." She's going to reach back and help folks like her succeed. 而今天，和你们中的许多人一样，西埃拉是她家里第一个大学毕业生。然后，她说，她将回到她的家乡，就像瑟古德·马歇尔那样，确保所有和她一起长大的劳动者都能获得他们需要和应得的医疗保健。用她的话说，她将成为一个「变革推动者」。她将伸出援手，帮助像她一样的人取得成功。
And people like Ciearra are why I remain optimistic about America. Young people like you are why I never give in to despair. 而像西埃拉这样的人，就是我对美国保持乐观的原因。像你们这样的年轻人，就是我从不屈服于绝望的原因。
James Baldwin once wrote, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." 詹姆斯·鲍德温曾经写道：「并非所有被面对的事物都能被改变，但直到被面对之前，没有什么能被改变。」
Graduates, each of us is only here because someone else faced down challenges for us. We are only who we are because someone else struggled and sacrificed for us. That's not just Thurgood Marshall's story, or Ciearra's story, or my story, or your story -- that is the story of America. A story whispered by slaves in the cotton fields, the song of marchers in Selma, the dream of a King in the shadow of Lincoln. The prayer of immigrants who set out for a new world. The roar of women demanding the vote. The rallying cry of workers who built America. And the GIs who bled overseas for our freedom. 毕业生们，我们每个人能站在这里，都是因为有人为我们直面了挑战。我们之所以成为今天的我们，是因为有人为我们奋斗和牺牲。这不只是瑟古德·马歇尔的故事，也不只是西埃拉的故事，不只是我的故事，也不只是你们的故事——这是美国的故事。一个奴隶在棉花地里低语的故事，塞尔玛游行队伍的歌声，林肯阴影下金博士的梦想。移民出发前往新世界的祈祷。女性要求投票权的呐喊。建设美国的工人们的战斗口号。还有那些在海外为我们的自由流血的美国大兵。
Now it's your turn. And the good news is, you're ready. And when your journey seems too hard, and when you run into a chorus of cynics who tell you that you're being foolish to keep believing or that you can't do something, or that you should just give up, or you should just settle -- you might say to yourself a little phrase that I've found handy these last eight years: Yes, we can. 现在轮到你们了。好消息是，你们已经准备好了。当你们的旅程看起来太艰难时，当你们遇到一群犬儒主义者告诉你们继续相信是愚蠢的，或者你们做不到某件事，或者你们应该放弃，或者你们应该将就的时候——你们可以对自己说一句我在过去八年里觉得很有用的话：是的，我们可以。
Congratulations, Class of 2016! Good luck! God bless you. God bless the United States of America. I'm proud of you. 祝贺你们，2016届的同学们！祝你们好运！上帝保佑你们。上帝保佑美利坚合众国。我为你们感到骄傲。