full transcript
From the Ted Talk by R. Alan Brooks: When the world is burning, is art a waste of time?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I didn't know very many white people, but I was raised in a Southern Black church that was under the shadow of white supremacy and run by Black people who in many ways were taught to hate themselves. The generation that raised me was still familiar with lynchings. So in order to not be mdeeurrd by ractiss, some of the baclk people in the generation before me learned to make themselves smaller. We couldn't be too loud, too samrt, too artavctite, too bold. On some level, they felt like anything that we did that made us santd out might get us murdered.
Open Cloze
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I didn't know very many white people, but I was raised in a Southern Black church that was under the shadow of white supremacy and run by Black people who in many ways were taught to hate themselves. The generation that raised me was still familiar with lynchings. So in order to not be ________ by _______, some of the _____ people in the generation before me learned to make themselves smaller. We couldn't be too loud, too _____, too __________, too bold. On some level, they felt like anything that we did that made us _____ out might get us murdered.
Solution
- smart
- murdered
- racists
- attractive
- black
- stand
Original Text
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I didn't know very many white people, but I was raised in a Southern Black church that was under the shadow of white supremacy and run by Black people who in many ways were taught to hate themselves. The generation that raised me was still familiar with lynchings. So in order to not be murdered by racists, some of the Black people in the generation before me learned to make themselves smaller. We couldn't be too loud, too smart, too attractive, too bold. On some level, they felt like anything that we did that made us stand out might get us murdered.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
comic book |
8 |
comic books |
6 |
black people |
3 |
police officer |
3 |
grown white |
2 |
white woman |
2 |
brutally murdered |
2 |
insurance agency |
2 |
graphic novels |
2 |
book store |
2 |
burning books |
2 |
change hearts |
2 |
civil rights |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
comic book store |
2 |
Important Words
- atlanta
- attractive
- black
- bold
- church
- familiar
- felt
- generation
- georgia
- grew
- hate
- learned
- level
- loud
- lynchings
- murdered
- order
- people
- racists
- raised
- run
- shadow
- smaller
- smart
- southern
- stand
- supremacy
- taught
- ways
- white