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For as long as there has been an America, scholars have debated the tension between assimilation and multiculturalism, race neutrality and race consciousness.
自从有了美国，学者们就一直在争论同化与多元文化主义、种族中立与种族意识之间的紧张关系。
How to make a single, neutral set of rules for a nation whose very Constitution deemed some inhabitants to have a fraction of the personhood of others—
如何为一个国家制定一套单一的、中立的规则，该国的宪法本身就认为一些居民只有其他人一小部分的人格——
a land founded on immigration, genocide and bondage, held together not by an identity but an ideal.
这片土地建立在移民、种族灭绝和奴役的基础上，不是靠身份而是靠理想维系在一起。
In recent years, many Americans have become aware that "equal” rules can have unequal outcomes.
近年来，许多美国人已经意识到“平等”的规则可能带来不平等的结果。
A text book example occurred at Mystic Valley in 2017.
2017年，神秘谷就发生过这样的教科书案例。
To ensure parity among students, the school has a strict dress code; it mandates uniforms and forbids makeup, jewelry and other forms of ornamentation.
为了确保学生平等，学校有严格的着装规定——强制要求穿制服，禁止化妆、佩戴珠宝和其他形式的装饰。
But the policy against hair extensions had a disproportionate impact on Black girls, 15-year-old twins Mya and Deanna Cook pointed out.
但15岁的双胞胎米娅·库克(Mya Cook)和迪安娜·库克(Deanna Cook)指出，禁止接发的政策对黑人女孩产生了很大的影响。
For them, box braids weren't an indulgence; they were a way to transition from treated to natural hair.
对他们来说，盒子辫不是一种放纵; 它们是一种从处理过的头发过渡到自然头发的方式。
School officials say the controversy was merely a misunderstanding.
校方表示，这场争议只是一种误解。
"As a middle-aged white guy, despite having done civil-rights work for 30 years, I was ignorant to the importance of hair extensions to women of color,” says Howard Cooper,
“作为一个中年白人,尽管从事民权工作30年了，但我不知道有色人种女性接发的重要性，”波士顿的自由派律师霍华德·库珀说,
a liberal Boston lawyer who's argued civil-rights cases for the ACLU and is now representing Mystic Valley in its lawsuit against the state.
他曾为美国公民自由联盟(ACLU)辩护民权案件，现在正代表神秘谷对该州提起诉讼。
Once the school understood the rule's disproportionate effect, Cooper says, it voluntarily changed the policy, expanded the role of its civil-rights coordinator and mandated diversity training for all employees.
库珀说，学校一旦意识到这一规定的产生过分的影响，就会主动改变政策，扩大其民权协调员的角色，并对所有学员进行多元化培训。
The following year, its charter was renewed without incident.
第二年，学校顺利地更新了其宪章。
But Mya Cook, now a 20-year-old college student, says this is a sanitized version of the story.
但现在20岁的大学生米亚·库克(Mya Cook)表示，这是一个经过美化的版本。
In multiple meetings, she says, the twins broke down in tears as an all-white group of Mystic Valley administrators insisted the rule wasn't racist because it applied to everyone.
她说，在多次会面中，当神秘谷的白人管理人员坚称这一规定不是种族歧视，因为它适用于所有人时，这对双胞胎忍不住流下了眼泪。
"They were totally in denial—they didn't want to understand,” recalls Cook, who was banned from prom and extracurricular activities and received multiple detentions.
“他们完全否认——他们不想理解，”库克回忆道，他被禁止参加舞会和课外活动，并多次被拘留。
It was only after the state attorney general's office intervened, issuing a letter stating that it considered the policy unlawful and discriminatory, that the school relented.
直到州总检察长办公室出面干预，发出了一封信，称该政策非法且具有歧视性，学校才做出让步。
From Mystic Valley's perspective, this was the end of the problem.
在神秘谷看来，这个问题到此就结束了。
But for many parents, students and alumni, it was just the beginning—an incident that led them to see Mystic Valley's approach to race in a new way.
但对于许多家长、学生和校友来说，这只是一个开始——这一事件让他们以一种新的方式看到了神秘谷对待种族的方式。
The concerns gathered steam during COVID-19, when the school offered fully in-person instruction, unlike other public schools in the area,
新冠肺炎疫情期间，这种担忧愈演愈烈，当时学校提供完全面对面的教学，这与该地区的其他公立学校不同，
and a Facebook group for at—home families became a forum for previously unaired complaints.
并且一个为居家隔离的人们开设的Facebook群成了供人们讨论之前未公开抱怨的论坛。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
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