英語(yǔ)六級(jí)閱讀及翻譯

1、Obamas success isnt all good news for black AmericansAs Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Barack Obama, she felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. In that one second, it was a validation for my whole race, she recalls.Ive always been an achiever, says White, who is

2、studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. But there had always been these things in the back of my mind questioning whether I really can be who I want. It was like a shadow, following me around saying you can only go so far. Now its like a barrier has been let down.Whites

3、 experience is what many psychologists had expected - that Obama would prove to be a powerful role model for African Americans. Some hoped his rise to prominence would have a big impact on white Americans, too, challenging those who still harbour racist sentiments. The traits that characterise him a

4、re very contradictory to the racial stereotypes that black people are aggressive and uneducated, says Ashby Plant of Florida State University. Hes very intelligent and eloquent.Sting in the tailAshby Plant is one of a number of psychologists who seized on Obamas candidacy to test hypotheses about th

5、e power of role models. Their work is already starting to reveal how the Obama effect is changing peoples views and behaviour. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect.But first the good news. Barack Obama really is a positive role model for Afr

6、ican Americans, and he was making an impact even before he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obamas presidential ca

7、mpaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obamas success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participantsan average of 12.1

8、 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obamas acceptance speech as the Democrats presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects.After his election

9、 victory, this was true of all the black participants.Dramatic shiftWhat can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with

10、 stereotype threat an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.Obamas successes seemed to act as a shield against this. We suspect they felt inspired and energised by his victory, so the stereotype threat wouldn

11、t prove a distraction, says Friedman.Lingering racismIf the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots (同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic (有魅力的) black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism

12、directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as implicit bias, using a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative wordssuch as love or evilwith photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypic

13、al traitssuch as athletic skills or mental abilitywith a particular group.In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plants team tested 229 students during the height of the Obama fever. They found that implicit bias has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the l

14、evel found in a similar study in 2006. Thats an unusually large drop, Plant says.While the team cant be sure their results are due solely to Obama, they also showed that those with the lowest bias were likely to subconsciously associate black skin colour with political words such as government or pr

15、esident. This suggests that Obama was strongly on their mind, says Plant.Drop in biasBrian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar test, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since Janua

16、ry 2007, which might be explained by Obamas rise to popularity. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plants results suggest.Talking honestlyPeople now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day, says Daniel Effron at Stanford Univer

17、sity in California. Our research arouses the concern that people may now be more likely to raise negative views of African Americans. On the other hand, he says, it may just encourage people to talk more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.Another p

18、art of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere expression of views. The Obama effect may have a negative side. Just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the

19、 election.Huge obstaclesIt could, of course, also be that Obamas success helps people to forget that a disproportionate number of black Americans still live in poverty and face huge obstacles when trying to overcome these circumstances. Barack Obamas family is such a salient (出色的) image, we generali

20、se it and fail to see the larger picturethat theres injustice in every aspect of American life, says Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington in Seattle. Those trying to address issues of racial inequality need to constantly remind people of the inequalities that still exist to counteract the O

21、bamas effect, she says.Though Plants findings were more positive, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial inequalities are no longer a problem. The last thing I want is for people to think everythings solved.These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should h

22、old for any role model in any country. Theres no reason we wouldnt have seen the same effect on our views of women if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected, says Effron. So the election of a female leader might have a downside for other women.Beyond raceWe also dont yet know how long the O

23、bama effectboth its good side and its badwill last.Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps?And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? Over t

24、ime he might become his own entity, says Plant. This might seem like the ultimate defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individualsa phenomenon that psychologists call subtypingalso has an insidious (隱伏的) side. We think it happens to help people preserve their beliefs, so they c

25、an still hold on to the previous stereotypes. That could turn out to be the cruellest of all the twists to the Obama effect.奧巴馬的成功對(duì)美國(guó)黑人來(lái)說(shuō)未必是好消息當(dāng)Erin White觀看奧巴馬選舉而得知了他勝利的消息時(shí)，她感到如釋重負(fù)?！霸谀且豢?，我的整個(gè)種族獲得了認(rèn)可?！彼貞浾f(shuō)?！拔疫^(guò)去總會(huì)是一個(gè)成功者，”正在田納西州的納什維爾，攻讀范德比爾特大學(xué)MBA學(xué)位的White說(shuō)，“但是我的種族出身，會(huì)使我心疑惑，疑惑我是否能夠真的成為自己想要成為的人。它就像個(gè)陰影，有聲音

26、不斷縈繞在我耳邊：你就只能走這么遠(yuǎn)了。而現(xiàn)在就像是我心中的障礙得以擺脫了?！盬hite的經(jīng)歷是許多心理學(xué)家早已預(yù)料到的，那就是對(duì)非裔美國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)，奧巴馬確實(shí)成為了他們強(qiáng)大的榜樣。一些人希望他的崛起會(huì)對(duì)白種美國(guó)人帶來(lái)巨大沖擊，也會(huì)挑戰(zhàn)那些仍然隱藏著種族歧視情緒的人。他出類拔萃的特質(zhì)，有力地反駁了那些帶有歧視性的，認(rèn)為黑人粗魯好斗的陳腔濫調(diào)，”福羅里達(dá)州立大學(xué)的Ashby Plant說(shuō)，“他真是極其地聰慧，且辯才滔滔。”始料未及的缺陷 Ashby Plant是眾多抓住奧巴馬競(jìng)選這個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)，來(lái)檢驗(yàn)議題“榜樣的力量”的心理學(xué)家之一。他們的工作已經(jīng)揭示出，“奧巴馬效應(yīng)”正在改變?nèi)藗兊乃枷胄袨?。也許會(huì)有點(diǎn)出人

27、意料，但奧巴馬效應(yīng)未必完全是好事：它也有令人始料未及的缺陷。還是先說(shuō)說(shuō)好的方面吧。巴拉克奧巴馬確實(shí)是非裔美國(guó)人的積極榜樣，甚至在他還為入主白宮之前就對(duì)人們?cè)斐闪藳_擊。確實(shí)，正如范德比爾特大學(xué)的Ray Friedman和他的同事們發(fā)現(xiàn)的那樣，奧巴馬效應(yīng)是驚人地快準(zhǔn)狠。他們?cè)趭W巴馬總統(tǒng)競(jìng)選的四個(gè)關(guān)鍵時(shí)期分別測(cè)試了四個(gè)單獨(dú)的小組。每一組由約120名年齡和受教育水平相當(dāng)?shù)某赡耆私M成，而這個(gè)測(cè)試是用來(lái)評(píng)估他們語(yǔ)言技能的。在其中兩個(gè)時(shí)段，當(dāng)奧巴馬的成功還不太確定時(shí)，測(cè)試清楚地顯示了白人和黑人參與者的得分差距比如，在滿分為20時(shí)，兩類參與者的得分分別為12.1和8.8。然而，當(dāng)奧巴馬熱達(dá)到了高潮時(shí)，黑人參與

28、者則會(huì)表現(xiàn)得好得多。而那些看過(guò)了奧巴馬作為民主黨總統(tǒng)候選人而進(jìn)行的提名演講的（黑人）參與者，他們的平均測(cè)試成績(jī)則剛好跟白人被試者一樣好。在他的選舉勝利之后，這種現(xiàn)象就真正地印證在了所有黑人參與者的身上。戲劇性的轉(zhuǎn)折什么可以解釋這戲劇性的轉(zhuǎn)折呢？在測(cè)試之初，參與者們必須要說(shuō)明他們的種族，并被告知其結(jié)果會(huì)被用來(lái)評(píng)估他們能力的強(qiáng)弱。這就會(huì)使得被測(cè)者作出“成見(jiàn)威脅”的心理準(zhǔn)備了那是一種焦慮，擔(dān)心測(cè)試結(jié)果會(huì)證實(shí)“黑人能力較弱”這種成見(jiàn)，而這種焦慮已經(jīng)被證明會(huì)破壞非裔美國(guó)人表現(xiàn)。奧巴馬的成功像是保護(hù)盾那樣使這種焦慮減小對(duì)非裔美國(guó)人的影響?！拔覀儾孪胨麄円蛩某晒Χ鴼g欣鼓舞，所以這種成見(jiàn)威脅不再顯現(xiàn)出會(huì)擾亂

29、黑人被測(cè)者表現(xiàn)的跡象。”Friedman說(shuō)。揮之不去的種族主義如果奧巴馬效應(yīng)對(duì)非裔美國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)是積極的，那么這對(duì)他們的白人同胞而言又會(huì)如何呢？擁有一位如此魅力十足的總統(tǒng)，這樣的經(jīng)歷會(huì)修正那揮之不去的種族歧視觀念嗎？難以直接估量種族歧視的情況，但心理學(xué)家會(huì)用既定的“內(nèi)因偏見(jiàn)”來(lái)評(píng)估它。他們用一種計(jì)算機(jī)測(cè)驗(yàn)來(lái)測(cè)試：當(dāng)看到黑膚色或白色面孔的相片時(shí)，計(jì)量人們能有多快地聯(lián)想到詞義積極或消極的詞語(yǔ)，比如“愛(ài)”與“邪惡”。而另一種相似的測(cè)試也能在特定小組中，測(cè)量出被測(cè)者聯(lián)想到“在陳舊觀念中的人種特征”（比如運(yùn)動(dòng)技能和心智能力）會(huì)有多快。在實(shí)驗(yàn)社會(huì)心理學(xué)雜志的一份研究中，Plant的團(tuán)隊(duì)于奧巴馬熱的高潮時(shí)期對(duì)229名學(xué)生進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)與2006年一份類似研究報(bào)告中的數(shù)據(jù)水平相比，本次調(diào)查報(bào)告中持內(nèi)隱性偏見(jiàn)的人數(shù)比率下降了90%.“那是一個(gè)顯著的下降?！盤(pán)lant說(shuō)。盡管這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)還不能確定他們的調(diào)查結(jié)果是否僅僅由奧巴馬引起，但他們同樣可以表明，那些持有種族偏見(jiàn)最低的人們會(huì)傾向于將黑膚色與像“政府”或“總統(tǒng)”這樣的政治詞語(yǔ)聯(lián)系起來(lái)。這就表明了奧巴馬在他們心中是多么地強(qiáng)大，Plant說(shuō)。持有種族偏見(jiàn)的人數(shù)比率下降了來(lái)自夏洛茨維爾市的弗吉尼亞大學(xué)的Braian Nosek，運(yùn)營(yíng)著一家用類似方法來(lái)調(diào)查內(nèi)隱偏見(jiàn)的網(wǎng)站。從2007年起，在700000人次的網(wǎng)站訪問(wèn)者