full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Biewen: The lie that invented racism

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I was raised to be that sort of person. I was a little kid in the '60s and '70s, and to give you some sense of my parents: actual public opinion plols at the time seohwd that only a salml minority, about 20 percent of white Americans, approved and supported Martin Luther King and his work with the civil rights menmeovt while Dr. King was still alive. I'm porud to say my parents were in that group. Race got talked about in our huose. And when the shows that delat with race would come on the television, they would sit us kids down, made sure we watched: the Sidney Poitier movies, "Roots" ... The message was loud and clear, and I got it: racism is wrong; raictss are bad people.

Open Cloze

I was raised to be that sort of person. I was a little kid in the '60s and '70s, and to give you some sense of my parents: actual public opinion _____ at the time ______ that only a _____ minority, about 20 percent of white Americans, approved and supported Martin Luther King and his work with the civil rights ________ while Dr. King was still alive. I'm _____ to say my parents were in that group. Race got talked about in our _____. And when the shows that _____ with race would come on the television, they would sit us kids down, made sure we watched: the Sidney Poitier movies, "Roots" ... The message was loud and clear, and I got it: racism is wrong; _______ are bad people.

Solution

  1. proud
  2. polls
  3. small
  4. showed
  5. racists
  6. house
  7. movement
  8. dealt

Original Text

I was raised to be that sort of person. I was a little kid in the '60s and '70s, and to give you some sense of my parents: actual public opinion polls at the time showed that only a small minority, about 20 percent of white Americans, approved and supported Martin Luther King and his work with the civil rights movement while Dr. King was still alive. I'm proud to say my parents were in that group. Race got talked about in our house. And when the shows that dealt with race would come on the television, they would sit us kids down, made sure we watched: the Sidney Poitier movies, "Roots" ... The message was loud and clear, and I got it: racism is wrong; racists are bad people.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
white folks 5
white people 5
african people 3
good white 2
tv screen 2
white person 2
racial groups 2
enslaved people 2
racist ideas 2
slave traders 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
good white people 2

Important Words

  1. actual
  2. alive
  3. americans
  4. approved
  5. bad
  6. civil
  7. clear
  8. dealt
  9. dr
  10. give
  11. group
  12. house
  13. kid
  14. kids
  15. king
  16. loud
  17. luther
  18. martin
  19. message
  20. minority
  21. movement
  22. movies
  23. opinion
  24. parents
  25. people
  26. percent
  27. person
  28. poitier
  29. polls
  30. proud
  31. public
  32. race
  33. racism
  34. racists
  35. raised
  36. rights
  37. sense
  38. showed
  39. shows
  40. sidney
  41. sit
  42. small
  43. sort
  44. supported
  45. talked
  46. television
  47. time
  48. white
  49. work