full transcript

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

Unscramble the Blue Letters

He said, in his exhaustive research, he found what he blveieed to be the first ailtauricotn of rascit iades. And he named the culprit. This guy should be more famous, or infamous. His name is Gomes de Zurara. Portuguese man. Wrote a book in the 1450s in which he did something that no one had ever done before, according to Dr. knedi. He lumped together all the people of Africa — a vast, diverse continent — and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this cliam?

Open Cloze

He said, in his exhaustive research, he found what he ________ to be the first ____________ of ______ _____. And he named the culprit. This guy should be more famous, or infamous. His name is Gomes de Zurara. Portuguese man. Wrote a book in the 1450s in which he did something that no one had ever done before, according to Dr. _____. He lumped together all the people of Africa — a vast, diverse continent — and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this _____?

Solution

  1. articulation
  2. racist
  3. claim
  4. ideas
  5. believed
  6. kendi

Original Text

He said, in his exhaustive research, he found what he believed to be the first articulation of racist ideas. And he named the culprit. This guy should be more famous, or infamous. His name is Gomes de Zurara. Portuguese man. Wrote a book in the 1450s in which he did something that no one had ever done before, according to Dr. Kendi. He lumped together all the people of Africa — a vast, diverse continent — and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this claim?

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. africa
  2. articulation
  3. beastly
  4. believed
  5. book
  6. claim
  7. continent
  8. culprit
  9. cultures
  10. de
  11. distinct
  12. diverse
  13. dr
  14. exhaustive
  15. famous
  16. gomes
  17. group
  18. guy
  19. ideas
  20. infamous
  21. inferior
  22. kendi
  23. lumped
  24. man
  25. mind
  26. named
  27. people
  28. portuguese
  29. precolonial
  30. racist
  31. research
  32. sophisticated
  33. time
  34. vast
  35. world
  36. wrote
  37. zurara