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But even among those white Americans who do not live in a state of denial, the call to action has once again grown faint, if it was ever there at all. Few companies have been so public in discussing how employees involved in unfair practices might actually be penalized, or how the obligation to operate with equity in mind will be prioritized above profits. Few organizations or individuals have acknowledged outright that they have engaged in racist practices, or explained how they plan to stop. There aren't many parents willing to stop arranging their housing around the pursuit of "good schools"—thinly veiled code for white schools—or wealthy people ready to admit the racial consequences of opposing higher taxes on investment earnings. After the nation's so-called reckoning, to which those who claimed to have awakened brought PowerPoint presentations and brochures, few have stayed behind to fold and stack the chairs.
但即使在那些没有生活在否定状态下的美国白人中，行动的呼声也再次变得微弱，如果曾经存在的话。很少有公司会如此公开地讨论卷入不公平行为的员工可能会受到怎样的惩罚，或者如何将公平经营的义务置于利润之上。很少有组织或个人直接承认他们从事种族主义活动，或解释自己计划如何停止。没有多少父母愿意为了追求“好学校”(白人学校几乎不加掩饰的准则)而停止安排住房，也没有多少富人愿意承认反对对投资收益增税的种族后果。在国家的所谓“清算”之后——那些声称已经觉醒的人带来了PPT演示文稿和小册子——几乎没有人留下来叠椅子。
IT IS NOT TRUE that, as the most exhausted among us sometimes assert, nothing has changed. But as the optimistic Myrdal saw in 1944, yet had a hard time putting bluntly, America is not about the business of doing things much differently. When the New Deal reoriented Americans' relationships to their government, officials south of the Mason-Dixon Line made sure that most of the jobs done by Black Americans were excluded from the new Social Security system. Program administrators barred Black Americans from meaningful access to the homeownership and education programs that ensconced millions of white Americans in the middle class.
我们当中最疲惫的人有时会断言，什么都没有改变，这是不正确的。但正如乐观的默达尔在1944年所看到的那样(虽然他很难直言不讳)，美国在做事方面并没有太大的不同。当新政重新定位了美国人与政府的关系时，梅森-迪克森线以南的官员们确定了美国黑人的大部分工作被排除在新的社会保障体系之外。项目管理者禁止美国黑人获得有意义的住房所有权和教育项目，而正这些项目使得数百万的美国白人得以进入中产阶级。
In his study, Myrdal found ample proof of Black ingenuity, creativity and grit, producing lives of multidimensional joy and peril. All that's still there. But perhaps today's list of dangerous inequities wouldn't run quite so long or, in some cases, have come to envelop other groups, if sustained action had been taken in response to his findings—something he believed possible. "It is true the average white American does not want to sacrifice much himself in order to improve the living condition of Negroes," he wrote. "But on this point, the American creed is quite clear and explicit."
在他的研究中，默达尔发现了充分的证据，证明黑人的聪明才智、创造力和勇气，创造了多维度的快乐和危险的生活。所有这些都还在。
但如果对他的发现采取了持续的行动——他相信这是有可能的——那么今天的危险不平等名单或许不会持续这么久，或者在某些情况下，会包围其他群体。他写道：“的确，普通美国白人不愿意为了改善黑人的生活条件而牺牲自己。”“但在这一点上，美国的信条是非常明确的。”
Myrdal died in 1987. He did not live to see the new and creative ways that Americans have developed of telling lies. And he was not immune to the same maladies. Myrdal was optimistic about the nation and dubious about whether Black Americans were equipped to function as full citizens.
默达尔于1987年去世。他没有活着看到美国人发展出来的新的、有创造性的说谎方式。他也不能对同样的疾病免疫。默达尔对这个国家持乐观态度，但对美国黑人是否具备成为完全公民的条件表示怀疑。
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