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

  1. smart
  2. murdered
  3. racists
  4. attractive
  5. black
  6. 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

  1. atlanta
  2. attractive
  3. black
  4. bold
  5. church
  6. familiar
  7. felt
  8. generation
  9. georgia
  10. grew
  11. hate
  12. learned
  13. level
  14. loud
  15. lynchings
  16. murdered
  17. order
  18. people
  19. racists
  20. raised
  21. run
  22. shadow
  23. smaller
  24. smart
  25. southern
  26. stand
  27. supremacy
  28. taught
  29. ways
  30. white