full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi: An interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But what's most heartening right now is that despite these challenges, what we're seeing is that there's a network of Africans all across the continent who are rising up and fighting back and demanding catlmie justice.

(Applause)

MB: So Alicia, you've said that when black people are free, everyone is free. Can you talk about what that means?

Alicia Garza: Sure. So I think race and racism is probably the most studied sacoil, economic and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood. The reality is that race in the untied States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that pleope who are in between don't experience ricasm, but it means that the coelsr you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to blcak that you are on that spectrum the worse off your are. When we think about how we address plemrbos in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way. We have to address problems at the root, and when you deal with what's happening in black communities, it creates an effervescence, right? So a bubble up rather than a trickle down. Let me give an example. When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every dllaor that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that withe women make. When we talk about laniats, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous wemon, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and eintpecxg it to tlikcre down.

Open Cloze


But what's most heartening right now is that despite these challenges, what we're seeing is that there's a network of Africans all across the continent who are rising up and fighting back and demanding _______ justice.

(Applause)

MB: So Alicia, you've said that when black people are free, everyone is free. Can you talk about what that means?

Alicia Garza: Sure. So I think race and racism is probably the most studied ______, economic and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood. The reality is that race in the ______ States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that ______ who are in between don't experience ______, but it means that the ______ you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to _____ that you are on that spectrum the worse off your are. When we think about how we address ________ in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way. We have to address problems at the root, and when you deal with what's happening in black communities, it creates an effervescence, right? So a bubble up rather than a trickle down. Let me give an example. When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every ______ that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that _____ women make. When we talk about _______, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous _____, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and _________ it to _______ down.

Solution


  1. black
  2. latinas
  3. people
  4. united
  5. problems
  6. social
  7. expecting
  8. dollar
  9. trickle
  10. white
  11. climate
  12. closer
  13. racism
  14. women

Original Text


But what's most heartening right now is that despite these challenges, what we're seeing is that there's a network of Africans all across the continent who are rising up and fighting back and demanding climate justice.

(Applause)

MB: So Alicia, you've said that when black people are free, everyone is free. Can you talk about what that means?

Alicia Garza: Sure. So I think race and racism is probably the most studied social, economic and political phenomenon in this country, but it's also the least understood. The reality is that race in the United States operates on a spectrum from black to white. Doesn't mean that people who are in between don't experience racism, but it means that the closer you are to white on that spectrum, the better off you are. And the closer to black that you are on that spectrum the worse off your are. When we think about how we address problems in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way. We have to address problems at the root, and when you deal with what's happening in black communities, it creates an effervescence, right? So a bubble up rather than a trickle down. Let me give an example. When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every dollar that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that white women make. When we talk about latinas, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous women, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and expecting it to trickle down.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black lives 8
black people 7
lives matter 6
older people 3
antiblack racism 2
united states 2
address problems 2
white folks 2
white women 2
black women 2
imagine black 2
white house 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
black lives matter 5

Important Words


  1. address
  2. africans
  3. alicia
  4. applause
  5. benefit
  6. black
  7. bubble
  8. cents
  9. challenges
  10. climate
  11. closer
  12. communities
  13. continent
  14. control
  15. country
  16. creates
  17. deal
  18. dealing
  19. demanding
  20. dollar
  21. economic
  22. effervescence
  23. expecting
  24. experience
  25. fighting
  26. folks
  27. free
  28. gap
  29. give
  30. happening
  31. heard
  32. heartening
  33. impacted
  34. indigenous
  35. justice
  36. latinas
  37. man
  38. means
  39. men
  40. network
  41. operates
  42. opportunity
  43. people
  44. phenomenon
  45. place
  46. political
  47. problems
  48. race
  49. racism
  50. reality
  51. rising
  52. root
  53. social
  54. spectrum
  55. start
  56. states
  57. statistics
  58. studied
  59. talk
  60. trans
  61. trickle
  62. understood
  63. united
  64. wage
  65. white
  66. women
  67. work
  68. worse