(本文选自《经济学人》20201212期)
背景介绍：
作为一个移民国家，美国一直以来都存在着深刻和复杂的黑人民族问题。在美国黑人乔治·弗洛伊德因受到白人警察暴力执法而死亡后，美国社会更是爆发了大规模的抗议活动，以抗议美国种族歧视现象。那么，美国的黑人企业家究竟面临着怎样的处境呢？
Serious help may be on the way for America’s black entrepreneurs
Will banks and Biden start to level the playing field?
各大银行和拜登能够为他们创造一个公平的竞争环境吗?
Black entrepreneurs face a mighty struggle. African-Americans make up about 13% of the country’s population but only 2% of its business-owners. Their firms earn just 0.3% of total business receipts. Minority-owned businesses are less profitable than comparable white-owned firms, and have much higher rates of failure.
黑人企业家面临着一场严峻的斗争。非裔美国人约占美国总人口的13%，但黑人企业家的占比仅为2%。黑人企业的营收仅占全美企业总营收的0.3%。相比白人创办的企业，美国少数族裔企业家创办的同类企业有着更低的利润和更高的创业失败率。
The pandemic has hit these firms especially hard. Black-owned firms were nearly twice as likely to shut down (by August, over two-fifths had done so) because of covid-19 as small firms overall.
这场疫情对这些公司的打击尤为严重。受新冠肺炎疫情影响，黑人创办的企业倒闭率（截至今年8月，已有超过40%的企业倒闭）几乎是中小企业整体倒闭率的两倍。
Emergency aid often did not reach them, in part because the Small Business Administration (SBA) did not direct banks to
prioritise
lending to such firms as Congress intended.
这些企业往往拿不到紧急援助，部分原因是美国中小企业管理局没有按照国会计划的那样指示银行优先向这些企业放贷。
Black entrepreneurs may now have two reasons for cheer. One is top-down. Past efforts by the federal government to boost minority enterprises, a mix of loan guarantees and quota schemes, have fallen short.
如今，或许有两点理由能够让黑人企业家感到高兴了。其一是自上而下的改变。过去，联邦政府会通过贷款担保和配额计划等多种手段来促进少数族裔企业的发展，但往往收效甚微。
A recent analysis by McKinsey, a consultancy, notes that although the SBA awarded some $2.3bn in federal contracts and backed about $210m in loans for disadvantaged businesses in 2019, these schemes were “often imperfectly
implemented
”.
咨询公司麦肯锡最近的一项分析指出，尽管中小企业管理局在2019年授予了约23亿美元的联邦合同，并为处境不利的企业提供了约2.1亿美元的贷款支持，但这些计划“往往未能得到有力执行”。
The incoming administration is promising a big
revamp
. Joe Biden vows to fund such firms to retain and rehire workers. After the pandemic, he wants to expand training, small-business incubators and innovation hubs for “black and brown entrepreneurs”. He also promises to create a $30bn Small Business Opportunity Fund and to direct additional billions to minority firms.
新一届政府承诺将进行重大改革。乔·拜登誓言要为这些公司提供资金，以留住现有工人并雇佣新工人。疫情过后，他想为“黑人及其他少数族裔企业家”扩大培训，并增加中小企业孵化器和创新中心。他还承诺将创建一个300亿美元的中小企业机会基金，并向少数族裔企业额外投入数十亿美元的资金。
But the playing field for black entrepreneurs is not level, argues Dana Peterson of the Conference Board, a business-research firm: access to credit is “too often determined by the colour of the skin”.
但商业研究机构世界大型企业联合会的达娜·彼得森认为，黑人企业家并没有得到公平的竞争环境：能否获得信贷“通常是由肤色决定的”。
Black households have just a tenth the assets of white ones. In addition, notes Katherine Klein of the Wharton School, they tend to have lower credit scores. Black female entrepreneurs receive less than 1% of all venture capital.
黑人家庭的资产仅为白人家庭的十分之一。此外，沃顿商学院的凯瑟琳·克莱恩指出，黑人的信用评分往往较低。黑人女性企业家获得风险投资的占比仅为1%。
So even a tenfold increase in government funding would not solve the problem, argues Shelley Stewart of McKinsey, without bottom-up fixes too. That points to the second reason for cheer. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, corporate titans have made big commitments to boost black businesses.
因此，麦肯锡的谢莉·斯图尔特认为，如果没有自下而上的解决方案，即使政府的拨款增加十倍也无法解决问题。这就引出了第二点值得欢呼的理由。在“黑人的命也是命”抗议活动过后，企业巨头们为促进黑人商业做出了巨大承诺。
JPMorgan Chase, a banking Goliath, says it will pour $30bn over five years into boosting black and Latino households and businesses. Citi, another giant bank, vows to take on “the racial wealth gap” with a $1bn pledge.
银行业巨头摩根大通表示，将在五年内投入300亿美元的资金，以促进黑人和拉丁裔家庭和企业的发展。另一家银行业巨头花旗银行则承诺，将拿出10亿美元来解决“种族贫富差距”问题。
Sceptics worry this will prove mere “race-washing” and that Mr Biden’s efforts will get mired in red tape. But if they do take off, then black entrepreneurs might at last have a fighting chance. If they could achieve revenue parity with comparable white-owned businesses, McKinsey reckons, it would boost their business equity by $290bn.
怀疑论者担心，这最终只会被证明是一场“种族清洗”，拜登的努力将陷入繁文缛节的泥潭。但如果他们真的成功了，那么黑人企业家们最终或将得到一个奋斗的机会。据麦肯锡估计，如果黑人企业能够获得与白人企业同等的利润，那么他们的企业股本将增加2900亿美元。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
黑人是美国社会中长期受压迫的族群，而美国社会各方面都存在着事实上的种族歧视。同样地，美国黑人企业家在与白人企业家的竞争中也因种族歧视问题而未能得到公平的竞争环境。如今，成功当选新一任美国总统的拜登希望能够改变这种状况，但究竟能否成功，还有待时间考验。
重难点词汇：
