Isabel Wilkerson: The Great Migration and the power of a single decision
إيزابيل وِلكرسون: الهجرة الكبرى وقوة القرار الواحد
The author of "The Warmth of Other Suns," the story of the Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who uses narrative history to bring to light our shared humanity. Full bio
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in nearly all of our families.
that they had known.
a young person's endeavor.
when you're on the cusp of life.
وأنت في مقتبل حياتك.
somewhere in our background.
or the Pacific Ocean.
أو المحيط الهادئ.
that will cross rivers and mountains
سيعبر الأنهار والجبال
will be freedom in the North.
لنيل الحرية هناك.
على متن تلك السفينة،
their grandparents,
who had gotten them to this point.
to make the crossing with them.
of the people who had raised them,
telephone service.
يمكن الاعتماد عليها.
did not even have telephones.
لم يكن لديهم حتى هواتف.
about the people who had raised them
"Your father has passed away."
"توفي والدك."
if you are to see her alive again."
في رؤيتها على قيد الحياة مرة أخرى."
in nearly all of our families
في جميع عائلاتنا تقريبًا
that changed the course of families
that we may not realize.
of six million African Americans
until the 1970s.
وحتى السبعينيات.
was the first time in American history
في التاريخ الأمريكي
had to flee the land of their birth
للهروب من موطنهم الأصلي
that they had always been.
كمواطنين عاديين.
of political asylum
known as Jim Crow.
عرف باسم جيم كرو.
that you could and could not do
that it was actually against the law
لدرجة أنه كان يُعد مخالفًا للقانون
together in Birmingham.
with a person of a different race.
مع شخص من عِرق مختلف.
a black person and a white person
شاهد رجلًا أسودًا وآخر أبيضًا
in some town square.
في إحدى ساحات المدينة.
and this white person playing checkers,
of Southern civilization was in peril.
حضارة الجنوب بالكامل في خطر داهم.
taking the time
there was actually a black Bible
كان لديها كتاب مقدس للسود
by hands of different races.
human desires to be free,
في أن يكون حرًا،
of violence to maintain.
somewhere in the American South,
في الجنوب الأمريكي،
an African American was lynched
من أصول أفريقية من غير محاكمة
in this caste system
للبروتوكول في هذا النظام الطائفي
to the start of the Great Migration.
إلى بداية الهجرة الكبرى.
for many, many reasons.
the economic order of the South,
على النظام الاقتصادي للجنوب،
a supply of cheap labor
to work at the will of the land.
للعمل لصالح الوطن.
when the North had a labor problem.
واجه الشمال مشكلة عمالية.
on cheap labor from Europe --
القادمة من أوروبا...
and the steel mills.
came to a virtual halt.
and find the cheapest labor in the land
عن أرخص عمالة في البلد
in the South,
المتواجدون في الجنوب،
for their hard work.
مقابل عملهم الشاق.
that they were farming.
على الأرض التي كانوا يزرعونها.
and not even being paid.
ولم يتم حتى الدفع لهم.
to this poaching of its cheap labor.
للعمالة الرخيصة.
to keep the people from leaving.
لمنع الناس من الرحيل.
from the railroad platforms.
من أرصفة السكك الحديدية.
American citizens.
مفترض أنهم أحرار.
from their train seats.
people to arrest,
to get to freedom
How now will we get out?
out of the South,
beautifully predictable streams
throughout human history.
عبر التاريخ الإنساني.
there were three streams.
كان هناك ثلاثة تيارات.
the Carolinas and Virginia
and on up the East coast.
from Mississippi, Alabama,
to Cleveland and the entire Midwest.
وكليفلاند وسائر الغرب الأوسط.
from Louisiana and Texas
wanted to get away,
within the borders of the United States
الولايات المتحدة
were living in the South.
من أصول أفريقية يعيشون في الجنوب.
this Great Migration was over,
all over the rest of the country.
في باقي أنحاء الدولة.
nearly a complete redistribution
توزيع بالكامل تقريبًا
in American history
في التاريخ الأمريكي
and were willing to take them.
وكانوا على استعداد لأخذها.
in the three centuries
had been on that soil at that time.
على تلك الأرض في ذلك الوقت.
in 12 generations of enslavement
nearly a century of Jim Crow.
to the word "grandparent"
enslavement lasted in the United States?
العبودية في الولايات المتحدة؟
was the first time in American history
المرة الأولى في التاريخ الأمريكي
to choose for themselves
with their God-given talents
التي وهبها الله لهم
what they and their children
and even great-grandchildren
to choose for themselves
with their God-given talents.
a Toni Morrison as we now know her to be.
لطوني موريسون كما نعرفها الآن.
and from Georgia.
would get to do something
at this point,
and against protocol for African Americans
وضد البروتوكول للأمريكيين الأفارقة
growing up in the South,
لها أن تنشأ في الجنوب،
the single decision to leave,
would get access to books.
من الحصول على الكتب.
a Nobel laureate,
by the Great Migration.
تشكيلها عن طريق الهجرة الكبرى.
they brought with them,
the ancestors --
and the gospel music
through the generations.
into whole new genres of music.
إلى أنواع جديدة تمامًا من الموسيقى.
"Motown" would not have existed.
وجود لشركة "موتاون".
his parents were from Georgia.
كانوا من جورجيا.
he decided he wanted to go into music.
مجال الموسيقى.
to go all over the country
للذهاب لجميع أنحاء البلاد
of the Great Migration
with them during the journey.
خلال تلك الرحلة.
were these three girls,
كانت هناك البنات الثلاث،
had there been no Great Migration.
لو لم تكن هناك هجرة كبرى.
and a lot of human beings in general,
والكثير من البشر عمومًا،
because her parents might not have met.
of the Great Migration.
of the Great Migration.
who was born in Louisiana
الذي ولد في لويزيانا
Central Railroad to Chicago,
إلى شيكاغو،
to build on the talent
to build on the talents
in the cotton country of Arkansas.
he got his first alto sax.
على أول آلة ساكس خاصة به.
who cannot imagine a world
لا يمكنهم تخيل العالم
having gotten a hold of a saxophone.
of the millions of people
of the single decision to migrate.
resistance in the North.
all social injustice.
of the civil rights movement.
حرس المقدمة لحركة الحقوق المدنية.
that they had been forced to flee.
التي أُجبروا على الهروب منها.
شيء على الإطلاق
of the United States,
رئيس الولايات المتحدة نفسه
Proclamation could not do.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Isabel Wilkerson - Journalist, authorThe author of "The Warmth of Other Suns," the story of the Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who uses narrative history to bring to light our shared humanity.
Why you should listen
Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson devoted 15 years to the research and writing of The Warmth of Other Suns. She interviewed more than 1,200 people, unearthed archival works and gathered the voices of the famous and the unknown to tell the epic story of the Great Migration, one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th century and one of the largest migrations in American history.
The book was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other honors, and made national news when President Obama chose it for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, the New York Times named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of the New York Times, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer and the first African-American to win for individual reporting.
Isabel Wilkerson | Speaker | TED.com