当地时间2016年5月7日，美国华盛顿，奥巴马出席霍华德大学毕业典礼并发表演讲。

霍华德大学(Howard University)成立于1867年，是一所综合类的私立大学，为全美著名的黑人大学。

最后一部分原文如下，视频自33：40起

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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[道德的纯洁性], 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[(采取不正当的手段)操纵;对…做手脚].  And that will lead to more cynicism[玩世不恭;愤世嫉俗], 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.

We remember Dr. King’s soaring[高超的(思想等)] oratory[演讲术], the power of his letter from a Birmingham jail[伯明翰监狱], the marches he led.  But he also sat down with President Johnson in the Oval Office to try and get a Civil Rights Act[民权法案;民权法] and a Voting Rights Act[选举权法;投票权法案] passed.  And those two seminal[重要的;具有开拓性的;有深远影响的] bills[法案] were not perfect -- just like the Emancipation Proclamation[解放奴隶宣言] was a war document as much as it was some clarion call[号召] for freedom.  Those mileposts[里程碑;里程标志] 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.  And you know what, I will take better every time.  I always tell my staff -- better is good, because you consolidate[巩固;加强] your gains and then you move on to the next fight from a stronger position. 

[注释]clarion call：a very clear message or instruction about what action is needed 召唤；号召

[注释]40 acres and a mule refers to a concept for agrarian reform for Black farmers, following disruptions to the institution of slavery provoked by the American Civil War. Many people believed they had a moral right to own the land they had long worked as slaves, and were eager to control their own property.

Brittany Packnett, a member of the Black Lives Matter movement and Campaign Zero, one of the Ferguson protest organizers, she joined our Task Force[特遣部队;特别小组] on 21st Century Policing.  Some of her fellow activists questioned whether she should participate.  She rolled up her sleeves[卷起袖子] and sat at the same table with big city police chiefs and prosecutors[检查官;告发者].  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.  If young activists like Brittany had refused to participate out of some sense of ideological purity[意识形态的纯洁性;思想纯粹性], then those great ideas would have just remained ideas.  But she did participate.  And that’s how change happens.

America is big and it is boisterous[喧闹的;精力旺盛的] 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. 

[注释]

Nepalese：尼泊尔的

contingent：a group of people representing an organization or country, or a part of a military force （代表某一组织或国家的）代表团；（军队的）分遣队，小分队

Another Howard alum[校友,毕业生], 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[解决争端/纷争] with argument and ideas and votes instead of violence and simple majority rule.  

So don’t try to shut folks out[拒之门外;把…排斥在外], 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.  If you don’t, you just make them a victim, and then they can avoid accountability. 

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[核心价值观], your integrity[正直;诚实;廉正], 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[反驳] them.  Teach them.  Beat them on the battlefield of ideas.  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[微不足道的;轻浮的] folks.  (Laughter.)  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.

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. 

[注释]

hitch your wagon to somebody/something

to try to become successful by becoming involved with someone or something that is already successful or has a good chance of becoming successful

eg：He wisely decided to hitch his wagon to the environmentalist movement, which was then gaining support throughout the country.

That’s what Thurgood Marshall understood -- a man who once walked this year, graduated from Howard Law; went home to Baltimore[巴尔的摩], started his own law practice.  He and his mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston, rolled up their sleeves and they set out to overturn segregation[推翻(种族)隔离].  They worked through the NAACP[全国有色人种协进会(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)].  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[大义;大义名分;正直之因] before the Supreme Court[最高法院], and securing the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that separate could never be equal.  (Applause.)  Twenty years. 

[注释]Brown v. Board of Education 布朗起诉教育局案（1954年导致美国最高法院作出学校种族隔离制度非法的裁决）a law case in 1954 which led to a decision of the US Supreme Court that made separate education for black and white children illegal

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.

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[底特律] and was raised by a poor single mom who worked seven days a week in an auto plant[汽车厂].  And for a time, her family found themselves without a place to call home.  They bounced around[四处混] between friends and family who might take them in.  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[组装线,装配线] turned down[拒绝] a full scholarship to Harvard to come to Howard.  (Applause.) 

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[劳动者] 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[变革推动者.促变者].”  She’s going to reach back and help folks like her succeed.

And people like Ciearra are why I remain optimistic about America.  (Applause.)  Young people like you are why I never give in to despair. 

James Baldwin[詹姆斯·鲍德温] once wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

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[棉花田], 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[咆哮;吼] of women demanding the vote.  The rallying cry of workers who built America.  And the GIs[美国兵;尤指士兵] who bled[流血] overseas for our freedom. 

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 c 54 28776 54 15537 0 0 1391 0 0:00:20 0:00:11 0:00:09 2947horus 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.

[注释]a chorus of 异口同声的

cynic：a person who believes that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere 愤世嫉俗的人；认为人皆自私者

Congratulations, Class of 2016!  (Applause.)  Good luck!  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  I'm proud of you.   

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