about what race really is.

關於種族到底是什麼。

What is race has changed dramatically through time.

什麼是種族，隨著時間的推移發生了巨大的變化。

There is no official scientific definition of race.

對種族沒有正式的科學定義。

We're all different.

我們都是不同的。

I was aware that I wasn't white.

我知道我不是白人。

The teacher said, "No, no, Tess is something else."

老師說："不，不，苔絲是別的東西。"

And everybody's eyes are on me, and I'm a really shy person.

每個人的目光都集中在我身上，而我是一個非常害羞的人。

She said, "But what are you, Tessa?"

她說："但你是什麼人，泰莎？"

A lot of people imagine that there is some biological tangibility to race,

很多人想象，種族有一些生物上的唐突。

because we use it so much.

因為我們經常使用它。

Race really is a social construct,

種族確實是一種社會構造。

but just because something is a social construct,

但僅僅因為某件事情是社會構造。

that doesn't mean it doesn't have meaning in peoples' lives

不代表它對人們的生活沒有意義

like money, or the nation state, or democracy,

如金錢，或民族國家，或民主。

or all these other things that define how we live,

或所有這些其他的東西，定義我們如何生活。

but are also constructed.

但也被構造。

It influences what you're eating,

它影響了你的飲食。

it influences the type of healthcare

它影響著醫療保健的類型

you have access to,

你有機會獲得。

the type of schooling you have access to,

你能獲得的學校教育類型；

how people feel about you.

人們對你的感覺。

I mean, it's a powerful marker for all of these things

我的意思是，它是一個強大的標誌 所有這些事情。

that we care about when we're trying to run a society.

我們關心的，當我們試圖運行一個社會。

Race has never been something that I don't have to think about.

種族從來都是我不需要考慮的事情。

It's put on to us.

這是放在我們身上的。

When you look at the history and origins of this idea,

當你看到這個想法的歷史和起源。

you start to see it for what it really is,

你開始看到它的真實面目。

which is the manifestation of power.

這就是權力的體現。

People imagine that people have always thought about skin colour

人們想象中，人們一直在考慮膚色問題

in this racialised way, and we really haven't.

以這種種族化的方式，我們真的沒有。

That idea is no more than a few hundred years old.

這種想法不過幾百年的歷史。

It's not really until the age of colonialism, in the 17th Century,

直到17世紀的殖民主義時代，才真正意義上的。

that you start getting the idea that

你開始有了這樣的想法

each continent has its own individual kind of people.

每個大陸都有自己獨特的人種。

It arose at a very specific moment in history.

它產生在一個非常特殊的歷史時刻。

In the 17th Century, you're taking long trips by ship,

在17世紀，你要乘船長途旅行。

and you're struck by how different people look

你會被不同的人的表情所打動。

than you remember them when you got on.

比你上場時還記得他們。

So this is the first edition of Systema Naturae,

所以這是《系統自然》的第一版。

so the Systems of Nature.

所以《自然》系統。

And for man, Linnaeus distinguishes four varieties,

而對於人，林奈區分了四種。

these varieties correspond to the four continents.

這些品種對應四大洲。

Where it really changes is in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

真正發生變化的地方是在Systema Naturae的第十版。

This is the foundation of scientific racism.

這就是科學種族主義的基礎。

He brings in moral character,

他帶來的是道德品質。

so the American is "red and choleric,"

所以，美國人是 "紅色的，耐寒的，"

and stands up straight.

並站直了身子。

The European, "white, sanguine, and muscular"

歐洲人，"白皙、風度翩翩、肌肉發達"。

The Asian, "sallow, melancholic and stiff"

亞洲人，"黧黑、憂鬱、僵硬"。

The African, "black, phlegmatic and lazy"

非洲人，"黑、痰、懶"。

So these stereotypes have endured through the ages.

所以，這些刻板印象歷久彌新。

If you're going to take a group of people,

如果你要帶一群人。

and you're going to decide that they're not people anymore,

你就會決定他們不再是人了。

then you need something to justify that.

那麼你需要一些東西來證明這一點。

You can be defined very differently

你可以有非常不同的定義

depending on the country that you're in,

取決於你所在的國家。

or the time that you're in.

或你所處的時代。

And that's how these categories have always been used.

而這些類別一直都是這樣使用的。

They are political tools

他們是政治工具

that change depending on their usefulness

視其用途而改變

to whoever is doing the categorisation.

給正在進行分類的人。

We are one of the most homogeneous species on the planet.

我們是地球上最單一的物種之一。

Humans have far less genetic variation than chimpanzees do.

人類的遺傳變異遠比黑猩猩少。

And yet, those chimpanzees look the same to me.

然而，那些黑猩猩在我看來是一樣的。

There were never any "pure" races,

從來沒有什麼 "純正 "的種族。

there is no gene that exists in all the members of one race

無獨有偶

and not another.

而不是其他。

There is no black gene, there is no white gene.

沒有黑色基因，也沒有白色基因。

Human groups overlap completely in their genetic variation.

人類群體的遺傳變異完全重疊。

In the same way that you're related to your family,

就像你和家人的關係一樣。

you can get a kind of fuzzy genetic similarity.

你可以得到一種模糊的遺傳相似性。

But when you get to the continental level,

但當你到了大陸層面。

which is really where we're talking about race,

這是真正的地方 我們談論的種族。

that genetic similarity is so fuzzy,

遺傳相似性是如此模糊。

and so statistically weak, as to be almost meaningless.

而且在統計學上非常薄弱，幾乎毫無意義。

We have this envy of fields where things are hyper-simplistic.

我們對事物超簡單化的領域有這種羨慕。

We want to be able to look at a genome and say

我們希望能夠看到一個基因組，並說：

that people are these kind of concrete immutable things,

人是這些具體的不可改變的東西。

that cannot be changed.

不能改變的。

Genetics doesn't work that way, it's the product of many genes

遺傳學不是這樣的，它是許多基因的產物。

interacting with each other and their environments.

彼此之間及其環境之間的互動。

To fully answer the question about what a living thing is

要全面回答什麼是生物的問題。

it's going to be about much more than genes.

這將是更多的 比基因。

If I were to go out on to the street today

如果我今天要上街的話

and find someone of Indian heritage like myself,

並找到像我這樣的印度血統的人。

and randomly then pick someone who is not of Indian heritage,

然後隨便挑一個不是印度裔的人。

it is perfectly statistically possible

從統計學上看，完全有可能

for my genome to have more in common with that person

讓我的基因組與那個人有更多的共同點

who isn't of Indian heritage than that person who is.

誰不是印度血統的人比誰是。

Even though race itself is a construct,

儘管種族本身就是一種構造。

racism is real and we are not in a post-racial society.

種族主義是真實存在的，我們不是在一個後種族社會。

Race keeps making itself and power keeps making race.

種族不斷製造自己，權力不斷製造種族。

Even though we know that race isn't biological,

儘管我們知道種族不是生物的。

we've been living with this idea of it being real

我們一直生活在這個想法 它是真實的。

for so long that it means that people who do have a shared racial identity

長久以來，這意味著有共同種族身份的人都會有共同的種族身份。

have now cultural similarities

文脈相通

which has been born out of hardship,

這是從困難中誕生的。

but it's still beautiful and important.

但它仍然是美麗而重要的。

The biology of race is not a useful concept.

種族的生物學不是一個有用的概念。

I have a different historical trajectory,

我有不同的歷史軌跡。

I love the African American tradition,

我喜歡非洲裔美國人的傳統。

but it's not better than anybody else's,

但它不比任何人的更好。

it's just the one that I'm a part of.

這只是一個我的一部分。

I don't think we're going to stop classifying people,

我不認為我們會停止對人進行分類。

because I think that's how we make sense of the world.

因為我覺得我們就是這樣理解這個世界的。

I think every generation is going to classify people

我想每一代人都會對人進行分類。

according to the criteria that are politically important to them.

根據在政治上對他們重要的標準。

I don't think we need to find new boxes to put people in,

我覺得我們不需要找新的盒子來放人。

I think we now have the opportunity to say,

我想我們現在有機會說。

we understand that all of these things are a spectrum,

我們明白，這些東西都是一個譜。

in a way that we hadn't considered before.

以一種我們以前沒有考慮過的方式。

So instead of finding new ways to categorise people

是以，與其尋找新的方法來對人進行分類

we can just find new ways to exist better together.

我們可以找到新的方式來更好地共存。

Race is a story that's handed down and handed around.

種族是一個流傳下來的故事，流傳下來的故事。

But we can choose the stories that we tell.

但我們可以選擇我們所講的故事。