full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Dexter Dias: Racism thrives on silence -- speak up!
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So what is it like for people of color, people like me, to try to speak to white people about racism? Many, many white people find it extremely difficult to do. Some white people say they know nothing about it. Others say that our societies may not even suffer from racism at all. So if you are a white person who is wondering about all of this, there is a thought experiment that you can do. Because here's the truth. You know. You already know. So ask yourself this: Would you, would you really want your son or your daughter, your brother or your sister, to marry a practicing Muslim from the Middle East? Or someone recently arrived from South Asia, who is a hndiu? Or an asylum seeker from Sub-Saharan Africa? Or someone who's recently crossed the US-Mexican boredr? You may not have a total ooitbejcn, but you may have a concern. A qaulm that sertcahcs at the back of your brain. It's not because of the cloor of their skin. But because you know that in countries like ours, as things stand now, their life prospects are likely to be affected by this union. And you realize that you do know, you do understand that ppeloe will judge them. And in a hundred ways, those judgments will icpamt their lives and the lives of their cerdihln. At that moment, you are connecting with a powerful truth. Which is that you know systemic rsacim is real.
Open Cloze
So what is it like for people of color, people like me, to try to speak to white people about racism? Many, many white people find it extremely difficult to do. Some white people say they know nothing about it. Others say that our societies may not even suffer from racism at all. So if you are a white person who is wondering about all of this, there is a thought experiment that you can do. Because here's the truth. You know. You already know. So ask yourself this: Would you, would you really want your son or your daughter, your brother or your sister, to marry a practicing Muslim from the Middle East? Or someone recently arrived from South Asia, who is a _____? Or an asylum seeker from Sub-Saharan Africa? Or someone who's recently crossed the US-Mexican ______? You may not have a total _________, but you may have a concern. A _____ that _________ at the back of your brain. It's not because of the _____ of their skin. But because you know that in countries like ours, as things stand now, their life prospects are likely to be affected by this union. And you realize that you do know, you do understand that ______ will judge them. And in a hundred ways, those judgments will ______ their lives and the lives of their ________. At that moment, you are connecting with a powerful truth. Which is that you know systemic ______ is real.
Solution
- impact
- scratches
- objection
- border
- people
- children
- racism
- qualm
- hindu
- color
Original Text
So what is it like for people of color, people like me, to try to speak to white people about racism? Many, many white people find it extremely difficult to do. Some white people say they know nothing about it. Others say that our societies may not even suffer from racism at all. So if you are a white person who is wondering about all of this, there is a thought experiment that you can do. Because here's the truth. You know. You already know. So ask yourself this: Would you, would you really want your son or your daughter, your brother or your sister, to marry a practicing Muslim from the Middle East? Or someone recently arrived from South Asia, who is a Hindu? Or an asylum seeker from Sub-Saharan Africa? Or someone who's recently crossed the US-Mexican border? You may not have a total objection, but you may have a concern. A qualm that scratches at the back of your brain. It's not because of the color of their skin. But because you know that in countries like ours, as things stand now, their life prospects are likely to be affected by this union. And you realize that you do know, you do understand that people will judge them. And in a hundred ways, those judgments will impact their lives and the lives of their children. At that moment, you are connecting with a powerful truth. Which is that you know systemic racism is real.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
white people |
4 |
prison officers |
4 |
human rights |
3 |
state custody |
3 |
black lives |
3 |
rights lawyer |
2 |
george floyd |
2 |
european descent |
2 |
social inequalities |
2 |
lives matter |
2 |
desperately wanted |
2 |
mortal danger |
2 |
racial justice |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
human rights lawyer |
2 |
black lives matter |
2 |
Important Words
- affected
- africa
- arrived
- asia
- asylum
- border
- brain
- brother
- children
- color
- concern
- connecting
- countries
- crossed
- daughter
- difficult
- east
- experiment
- extremely
- find
- hindu
- impact
- judge
- judgments
- life
- lives
- marry
- middle
- moment
- muslim
- objection
- people
- person
- powerful
- practicing
- prospects
- qualm
- racism
- real
- realize
- scratches
- seeker
- sister
- skin
- societies
- son
- south
- speak
- stand
- suffer
- systemic
- thought
- total
- truth
- understand
- union
- ways
- white
- wondering