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The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people,
巴勒斯坦诗人Mourid Barghouti曾经写到：如果你想剥夺一群人的权利，
the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, "secondly."
最简单的办法就是讲述一个关于他们的故事，并且从“第二点”开始讲起。
Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans,
从印第安土著人的弓箭讲起，
and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story.
而不是英国人的侵占，整个故事将变得完全不同。
Start the story with the failure of the African state,
讲述一个故事，从非洲国家的失败谈起，
and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.
而不是殖民者瓜分创建这些非洲国家的过程，整个故事将变得完全不同。
I recently spoke at a university where a student told me that
我最近刚刚在一个大学做了一篇讲座，一个学生对我说：
it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel.
非常可悲，尼日利亚的男人都和我书中的父亲角色一样，都是施暴者。
I told him that I had just read a novel called "American Psycho"
我告诉他我最近刚刚读了一本小说，叫做《美国精神狂魔》，
and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.
对此我也感到很惋惜，美国青年都是连环杀手。
Now, obviously I said this in a fit of mild irritation.
当然了，那是我一时的气话。
But it would never have occurred to me to think that just because I had read a novel
我绝不会认为，仅仅因为我读了一本
in which a character was a serial killer that he was somehow representative of all Americans.
以连环杀手为主角的小说，他便可以代表所有的美国人。
This is not because I am a better person than that student,
这并不是因为我比那位学生出色，
but because of America's cultural and economic power, I had many stories of America.
而是因为，美国的文化以及经济雄厚实力，使得我有机会掌握了关于美国的多重故事。
I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskill. I did not have a single story of America.
我读过泰勒、厄普代克、斯坦贝克以及盖茨克尔。因此，我对美国的了解并不是来自单一的故事。
