第一支黑人赛艇队的故事

Rowing crew got Arshay Cooper away from the gang life on Chicago's West Side in the 1990s.

20世纪90年代时，赛艇队曾帮助阿尔谢·库珀摆脱了芝加哥西区的黑帮生活。

In A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team, he tells the story of how he, and others from rival neighborhoods, found their way to crew — and each other.

在《最美的故事:美国第一支全黑人高中赛艇队的真实故事》一书中，他讲述了他和其他来自敌对社区的人如何化敌为友组成赛艇队——以及彼此之间的故事。

Now, Cooper is an accomplished chef in New York — and he works to convince other kids to find an outlet in crew.

现在，库珀成了纽约城中一名有成就的大厨——他也在努力说服其他孩子在加入赛艇队。

His forthcoming book has been turned into a documentary narrated by Common.

他即将出版的书已被改编成纪录片，由大众公司出品。

"We find kids, we recruit kids to the sport, and we give them an opportunity and some academic support and we get them to college. And the goal is to hopefully see these kids represent this country in the Olympics," he tells NPR.

“我们会去寻找孩子，招募他们来参加这项运动，同时给他们提供机会和一些学术支持，让他们可以上大学。

Yes, the walk to schools started in the west side of Chicago, a place that we call "holy city" because of the different gangs that were vice lords.

是的，去学校的路始于芝加哥的西侧，一个我们称为“圣城”的地方，因为不同的帮派都在这里自立为王。

And it started off in a morning running into the bus stop, making sure that don't run into any gangs, you know, getting on a bus.

每天一早我都得跑着上公交车，这样才不会在车上遇到黑帮。

And on that bus was many different gangs.

车上经常有不同的帮派。

And you would call it "the pickle jar" because you're just stuck in between so many different gangs that can't really get off the bus.

你可以把它叫做“泡菜罐”，因为你被夹在这么多不同的帮派中间，根本下不了车。

So if there was a fight, you're just stuck there to protect yourself.

所以如果发生打斗，你只能被困在那里以求自保。

And on a bus ride before from my house to school, I will say maybe seven different gangs were on that bus — and you get off and cops were there, and you just hope that you make it to school safely.

之前在从我家到学校的路上，我想说，那辆车上可能有七个不同的帮派，当你下车时，警察就在那里，你只希望自己能安全到达学校。

And you get to school, and there's a long line with metal detectors.

等你到了学校，那里排着长长的队伍等着过金属探测器。

And before you get into school, sometimes you will see screwdrivers out of people's backpack or blades, just for protection.

在你进入学校之前，有时你会看到从人们的背包或刀片里拿出螺丝刀，这只是为了保护自己。

So that was every day on my way to school.

这就是我每天上学的日常。

My mother was a drug addict.

我的母亲吸毒成瘾。

And my brothers were in gangs.

我的兄弟也都是黑帮的。

And I've never said the word "dad" a day in my life.

我这辈子从来没有说过“爸爸”这个词。

And that was every day in my household.

这在我们家也没什么稀奇的。

So it was — we were very poor.

我们家真的——非常穷。

And, you know, sometimes we had to figure out how to eat food or get food.

你知道吗，有时候我们真的得靠自己去想办法找吃的填饱肚子。

And that was rough.

日子很苦。

I walked into the lunch room and I see this boat.

有一天我走进餐厅，看到了一艘船。

And I'm like, 'What is this all about?'

我就想，'这到底是怎么回事?’

And this lady asks me if I want to join the crew team.

然后有一名女士问我是否愿意加入一个组。

And I'm like — crew?

我当时想——一个组？

When someone asks you to join crew, you just turn and run away as fast as you can.

那个时候有人拉你进组的话，你得赶紧撤。

You know, I'm not doing that. ...

你知道，我不想拉帮结派的...

So she said, 'Follow me.'

后来她说，“跟我来。”

So behind this boat was this TV monitor, and it was showing the Olympic Games.

船后面有一个电视屏幕，上面正在放奥运会比赛。

And I saw nothing but white people rowing.

我看到全是一些白人在划艇。

And I said, 'Oh, no, I'm not doing that. I don't do the water.'

于是我说，“不行，我做不了。我不想碰水。”

I remember walking away and sitting next to my friend, and said, 'I can you believe they are trying to get us to row on some shell? We don't even swim.'

我记得自己走开后坐在朋友身旁，说，“你能相信吗，他们让我们去木壳子上划船？我们又不会游泳。”

And he laughed about it and said, 'You're right.'

他也笑着说，“没错。”

And I said to myself, there's no way I'm going to be a part of that.

我当时对自己说，我绝对干不了这个。

And then the next day, the boat was still there and it said, 'Sign up and you get free pizza.'

后来第二天，那条船还在，上面写着，“报名吧，可以领免费披萨。”

And so everyone was signing up, you know?

于是所有人都跑去报名了，你知道吗？

And I remember going up to the gym room and people were everywhere.

我记得当时我去锻炼室时，到处都是人。

Different communities, different neighborhoods.

不同社区不同街区的人都在。

And we sat on the floor and this guy came and gave this amazing speech on how the power of rowing and the power of the water can change your life and give you to the opportunity to go to college, the opportunity to learn how to swim, the opportunity to travel and build a bond and build the brotherhood.

我们后来坐在地板上，来了一个家伙，做了一个鼓舞人心的演讲，说起了赛艇的力量和水的力量可以改变你的人生，让你有机会上大学，有机会学会游泳，有机会旅行，有机会买债券，有机会结交一帮兄弟。

And that caught my attention. ...

这些吸引了我的注意。...

He said, 'There'll be no Michael Jordans in this sport. It is the ultimate team sport.'

他说，“赛艇项目里没有迈克尔·乔丹这样的个人英雄。这是一个终极的团队作战的运动。”

And he was just tough.

他是个硬汉。

He went into a school where people say, don't go.

他上了一所人们不看好的学校。

His peers said, don't go.

他的伙伴们也劝他别去。

And he just had this vision, this mission of changing young people's lives.

但他有远见，希望能改变人们的生活。

And we fell in love with his leadership, in his coaching style right away.

我们立马为他的领导力和教练方式折服了。

I think number one, just being able to leave the neighborhood for a little while — the police sirens, the bullying, the sound, the gunshot sound, the broken street glass — and to go downtown, where a lot of people really haven't been yet.

我认为首先，我能暂时离开这个社区一段时间——警笛声、霸凌声、枪响、破碎的街道玻璃——而去到市中心，那里有很多人还没有去过。

And to go in and hop on a boat.

然后可以到船上去。

Where you see, the downtown view is calm, it's peaceful, it's quiet, and you're moving together and you hear the sound of the blade hitting the water and it's rhythmatic, and it's meditation.

你会看到，市中心的景色很平静，很平静，很安静，你们在一起移动，可以听到了船桨击打水面的声音，很有节奏，让人冥想。

And it's like being in a shower, finally being able to reflect or being by the ocean and being calm or whenever there's a rainstorm, you just want to sit and relax.

就好像在洗淋浴一样，终于可以进入沉思，亲近海洋，静下心来，或者有时候遇到了事情，你就会想坐下来放松一下。

And that's how was every day for a couple hours.

我们每天有几个小时都是这样过的。

And that really calmed the storm in me, the anger in me, and gave me a sense of peace that I didn't get at home or at school.

这抚平了我内心的情绪，那种愤怒，而给我带来了学校和家庭都没有的安宁感。

And it was beautiful.

这种感觉很美。

You know, at first we didn't get along.

你知道吗，一开始我们队员之间关系不好。

We were people were in different gangs, in different neighborhoods.

我们是来自不同社区不同帮派的人。

But I think the thing that made us bond was going to a regatta where everyone else was white except us.

但我认为让我们产生感情的一件事情是参加划船比赛，那里除了我们都是白人。

And we had no choice.

我们别无选择。

Chicago, St. Louis, Iowa, Philly. We were the only ones.

芝加哥，圣路易斯，爱荷华，费城很多城市的代表队里，我们是唯一一只黑人队。

And we had no choice but to pull for each other, to talk to each other.

我们别无选择，只能彼此互动，互相交谈。

To be around each other because no one else looked like us.

我们彼此陪伴因为我们跟别人都不一样。

And that helped us bond.

这让我们紧密团结在了一起。

And we understood that.

我们也深深明白这一点。

And so we learned to count on each other, alone, in those different cities, where it was just us.

所以我们学会了在不同的城市里时，彼此依赖，因为我们只有彼此。

[We rowed against] pretty much mostly all private schools.

跟我们比赛的几乎都是私立学校。

And these were the teams — they had well funded teams, the best boats, the best coaches. ...

这样学校的队——他们资金充足，船是最好的，教练也是最好的。...

We finally caught on to what the sport was all about.

我们终于明白了这项运动的真谛。

We was excited. We were strong. We were tough.

我们很激动，我们也很强，我们很敢拼。

And we showed up and people were watching and listening, was looking at us and we were ready to go. ...

当我们出场时，人们都很关注，都看着我们，而我们蓄势待发。

We didn't quite get first [place].

一开始我们并没有领先。

And I thought after that race, listen, we were tough, we were trained by a coach to be great humans first and be contributors to our community.

这次比赛后我就想，听着，我们很棒，我们的教练带领我们成为了第一批先锋队员，为我们的社区做贡献。

And then it was about fast boats.

后来我们换了快船。

And it was like that Rocky story.

就像洛基的故事一样。

He didn't beat Apollo Creed in the beginning, but he got in the ring — and that's what it was about us.

一开始的时候他没能击败阿波罗·科瑞德，但他进了这个圈子——我们也一样。

It was like, hey, you know, we didn't win gold, but we got in the water and we overcame everything that life threw our way and we won in life.

你知道吗，我们当时也是，没能拿到金牌，但我们第一次下水了，战胜了很多困难，赢得了人生的胜利。

问题

文中提到的黑人赛艇队来自哪座城市？

留言回复正确答案，前十名朋友可以获得红包奖励哦，赶快来试试吧！

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