full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Vernā Myers: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I was on a long road trip this summer, and I was having a wonderful time listening to the amazing isbeal Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns." It documents six million balck folks fleeing the stuoh from 1915 to 1970 looking for a respite from all the brutality and trying to get to a better ouptripotny up North, and it was filled with stories of the resilience and the blcailrnie of African-Americans, and it was also really hard to hear all the stories of the horrors and the humility, and all the humiliations. It was especially hard to hear about the beatings and the burnings and the lynchings of black men. And I said, "You know, this is a little deep. I need a break. I'm going to turn on the radio." I turned it on, and there it was: Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown, 18-year-old black man, unarmed, shot by a withe police officer, laid on the ground dead, blood running for four horus while his goemtahrndr and little children and his neighbors watched in horror, and I thought, here it is again. This violence, this brutality against black men has been going on for cruntiees. I mean, it's the same story. It's just different names. It could have been Amadou Diallo. It could have been Sean Bell. It could have been ocasr Grant. It could have been tvayorn Martin.

Open Cloze


I was on a long road trip this summer, and I was having a wonderful time listening to the amazing ______ Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns." It documents six million _____ folks fleeing the _____ from 1915 to 1970 looking for a respite from all the brutality and trying to get to a better ___________ up North, and it was filled with stories of the resilience and the __________ of African-Americans, and it was also really hard to hear all the stories of the horrors and the humility, and all the humiliations. It was especially hard to hear about the beatings and the burnings and the lynchings of black men. And I said, "You know, this is a little deep. I need a break. I'm going to turn on the radio." I turned it on, and there it was: Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown, 18-year-old black man, unarmed, shot by a _____ police officer, laid on the ground dead, blood running for four _____ while his ___________ and little children and his neighbors watched in horror, and I thought, here it is again. This violence, this brutality against black men has been going on for _________. I mean, it's the same story. It's just different names. It could have been Amadou Diallo. It could have been Sean Bell. It could have been _____ Grant. It could have been _______ Martin.

Solution


  1. black
  2. centuries
  3. hours
  4. opportunity
  5. grandmother
  6. brilliance
  7. isabel
  8. oscar
  9. white
  10. south
  11. trayvon

Original Text


I was on a long road trip this summer, and I was having a wonderful time listening to the amazing Isabel Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns." It documents six million black folks fleeing the South from 1915 to 1970 looking for a respite from all the brutality and trying to get to a better opportunity up North, and it was filled with stories of the resilience and the brilliance of African-Americans, and it was also really hard to hear all the stories of the horrors and the humility, and all the humiliations. It was especially hard to hear about the beatings and the burnings and the lynchings of black men. And I said, "You know, this is a little deep. I need a break. I'm going to turn on the radio." I turned it on, and there it was: Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown, 18-year-old black man, unarmed, shot by a white police officer, laid on the ground dead, blood running for four hours while his grandmother and little children and his neighbors watched in horror, and I thought, here it is again. This violence, this brutality against black men has been going on for centuries. I mean, it's the same story. It's just different names. It could have been Amadou Diallo. It could have been Sean Bell. It could have been Oscar Grant. It could have been Trayvon Martin.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
young black 12
black men 9
black guy 8
prefer white 3
white people 2
white person 2
test prefer 2
black people 2
color blindness 2
black guys 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
young black men 4
test prefer white 2

Important Words


  1. amadou
  2. amazing
  3. beatings
  4. bell
  5. black
  6. blood
  7. break
  8. brilliance
  9. brown
  10. brutality
  11. burnings
  12. centuries
  13. children
  14. dead
  15. deep
  16. diallo
  17. documents
  18. ferguson
  19. filled
  20. fleeing
  21. folks
  22. grandmother
  23. grant
  24. ground
  25. hard
  26. hear
  27. horror
  28. horrors
  29. hours
  30. humiliations
  31. humility
  32. isabel
  33. laid
  34. listening
  35. long
  36. lynchings
  37. man
  38. martin
  39. men
  40. michael
  41. million
  42. missouri
  43. names
  44. neighbors
  45. north
  46. officer
  47. opportunity
  48. oscar
  49. police
  50. radio
  51. resilience
  52. respite
  53. road
  54. running
  55. sean
  56. shot
  57. south
  58. stories
  59. story
  60. summer
  61. suns
  62. thought
  63. time
  64. trayvon
  65. trip
  66. turn
  67. turned
  68. unarmed
  69. violence
  70. warmth
  71. watched
  72. white
  73. wonderful