Call it the curse of high expectations. When Barack Obama took office, the world swooned, America exhaled and pundits declared an end to centuries of racial division. Gazing at the 1.5m people who braved the cold to witness Mr Obama’s inauguration, Steven Spielberg said it would have been impossible to stage for a movie. That was then. Today America’s first non-white president is winding down at the nation’s tensest moment of racial polarisation in decades. Thanks to Donald Trump, the Ku Klux Klan is back in the headlines. I doubt Mr Trump will succeed Mr Obama as president but he has injected poison into the bloodstream. For all Mr Obama’s hopes, fear is the dominant currency.
你可以說都是期望過高的緣故。巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)就任美國總統時，世界沸騰了，美國鬆了一口氣，權威人士宣告，許多世紀以來的種族對立將畫上句號。凝望著不顧嚴寒在現場見證歐巴馬就職典禮的150萬民衆，史蒂芬•斯皮爾伯格(Steven Spielberg)稱，即便爲了拍電影也不可能動員這麼多人。俱往矣。如今，美國首位非白人總統在本國幾十年來最緊張的種族分化時刻卻偃旗息鼓了。唐納•川普(Donald Trump)的崛起讓三K黨(Ku Klux Klan)重新回到新聞頭條。我不認爲川普將接替歐巴馬成爲美國總統，但他已將毒素注入了美國人民的血液中。無論歐巴馬的期望多麼美好，恐懼已成爲主流情緒。