For a change, Donald Trump has been a model of restraint. Instead of stirring things up on Twitter, the Republican nominee struck the right tone after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Every American should be able to live in safety, he said — thus implicitly including black victims of police shootings. Now was the time for unity, prayer, love and leadership. His words could have been uttered by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Having evoked every racial division in the book — and adding some pages of his own — could Mr Trump have turned a new leaf?
与以往不一样的是，这一次唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)成了克制的楷模。这位共和党总统候选人在5名达拉斯警官被枪杀后做了正确的表态，而不是在Twitter上借机炒作。他说，每个美国人都应该能够安全地生活（此言含蓄地包括被警察枪杀的黑人受害者）。现在是团结、祈祷、展现爱和领导力的时候。这些话本来可能从希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)或巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)的嘴里说出。在揭开所有种族隔阂的伤疤——再加上他自创的一些矛盾——之后，特朗普会不会翻开了新的一页？
America should hope that he has. In political terms, 2016 is a racial tinderbox awaiting a match. On any sober measure, US society is more racially polarised at the end of Mr Obama’s term than at the start. A hundred days after he took office, 59 per cent of black Americans said US race relations were “generally good”. Six months before he leaves office that number has fallen to 34 per cent. Much of the pessimism stems from the spate of police shootings and the viral impact of incidents captured on video. But the disdain with which Mr Obama has been treated by his enemies has undoubtedly fed it.
美国应该希望他确实如此。在政治上，2016年是种族火药桶一触即发之年。以任何严肃标准衡量，美国社会种族极化程度在奥巴马任期结束之际比其上台伊始更为严重。在他上任100天后，59%的美国黑人表示，美国种族关系“大体还不错”。在他离任前6个月，这一比例下降至34%。悲观情绪在很大程度上源于一连串的警察枪杀事件，以及记录此类事件的视频在网上引起轰动效应，但无疑也与奥巴马遭受对手蔑视有很大关系。