full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Baratunde Thurston: How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

It was a confusing time. Those stories kept popping up, but in 2018, those stories got changed out for a different type of story, stories like, "White Woman Calls Cops On Black Woman Waiting For An Uber." That was Brooklyn bceky. Then there was, "White Woman clals Police On Eight-Year-Old blcak Girl Selling Water." That was Permit Patty. Then there was, "Woman Calls plocie On Black Family BBQing At Lake In Oakland." That was now infamous BBQ Becky.

And I contend that these stories of living while black are actually prregsos. We used to find out after the eirjaautixcdl police killings. Now, we're getting video of people canillg 911. We're moving upstream, closer to the problem and ceolsr to the solution.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

It was a confusing time. Those stories kept popping up, but in 2018, those stories got changed out for a different type of story, stories like, "White Woman Calls Cops On Black Woman Waiting For An Uber." That was Brooklyn _____. Then there was, "White Woman _____ Police On Eight-Year-Old _____ Girl Selling Water." That was Permit Patty. Then there was, "Woman Calls ______ On Black Family BBQing At Lake In Oakland." That was now infamous BBQ Becky.

And I contend that these stories of living while black are actually ________. We used to find out after the _____________ police killings. Now, we're getting video of people _______ 911. We're moving upstream, closer to the problem and ______ to the solution.

Solution


  1. black
  2. becky
  3. progress
  4. extrajudicial
  5. calls
  6. police
  7. calling
  8. closer

Original Text


(Laughter)

It was a confusing time. Those stories kept popping up, but in 2018, those stories got changed out for a different type of story, stories like, "White Woman Calls Cops On Black Woman Waiting For An Uber." That was Brooklyn Becky. Then there was, "White Woman Calls Police On Eight-Year-Old Black Girl Selling Water." That was Permit Patty. Then there was, "Woman Calls Police On Black Family BBQing At Lake In Oakland." That was now infamous BBQ Becky.

And I contend that these stories of living while black are actually progress. We used to find out after the extrajudicial police killings. Now, we're getting video of people calling 911. We're moving upstream, closer to the problem and closer to the solution.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
calls police 8
black woman 7
calls cops 6
woman calls 5
white people 3
white man 3
woman donating 3
donating food 3
baratunde rafiq 2
rafiq thurston 2
unarmed black 2
law enforcement 2
bbq becky 2
subject takes 2
target engaged 2
man calls 2
black oregon 2
oregon lawmaker 2
black real 2
real estate 2
black people 2
california safeway 2
white woman 2
damn business 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
woman calls police 4
black woman donating 3
woman donating food 3
baratunde rafiq thurston 2
man calls police 2
black real estate 2

Important Words


  1. bbq
  2. bbqing
  3. becky
  4. black
  5. brooklyn
  6. calling
  7. calls
  8. changed
  9. closer
  10. confusing
  11. contend
  12. cops
  13. extrajudicial
  14. family
  15. find
  16. girl
  17. infamous
  18. killings
  19. lake
  20. laughter
  21. living
  22. moving
  23. oakland
  24. patty
  25. people
  26. permit
  27. police
  28. popping
  29. problem
  30. progress
  31. selling
  32. solution
  33. stories
  34. story
  35. time
  36. type
  37. uber
  38. upstream
  39. video
  40. waiting
  41. water
  42. woman