full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Biewen: The lie that invented racism

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Turns out, it helps to flloow the money. First of all, Zurara was hired to write that book by the Portuguese king, and just a few years before, slave traders — here we go — slave trrdaes tied to the psurtoegue crown had effectively pioneered the Atlantic slave tadre. They were the first Europeans to sail directly to sub-Saharan Africa to kidnap and enavsle acrfain people. So it was suddenly really heuplfl to have a story about the inferiority of African people to justify this new trade to other people, to the church, to themselves. And with the stroke of a pen, Zurara invented both blackness and whiteness, because he basically created the notion of blackness through this dipoitescrn of Africans, and as Dr. Kendi says, blackness has no meaning without whiteness. Other European countries followed the Portuguese lead in looking to Africa for human property and free labor and in atopnidg this ftiocin about the inferiority of African poelpe.

Open Cloze


Turns out, it helps to ______ the money. First of all, Zurara was hired to write that book by the Portuguese king, and just a few years before, slave traders — here we go — slave _______ tied to the __________ crown had effectively pioneered the Atlantic slave _____. They were the first Europeans to sail directly to sub-Saharan Africa to kidnap and _______ _______ people. So it was suddenly really _______ to have a story about the inferiority of African people to justify this new trade to other people, to the church, to themselves. And with the stroke of a pen, Zurara invented both blackness and whiteness, because he basically created the notion of blackness through this ___________ of Africans, and as Dr. Kendi says, blackness has no meaning without whiteness. Other European countries followed the Portuguese lead in looking to Africa for human property and free labor and in ________ this _______ about the inferiority of African ______.

Solution


  1. enslave
  2. follow
  3. description
  4. adopting
  5. people
  6. trade
  7. portuguese
  8. traders
  9. african
  10. fiction
  11. helpful

Original Text


Turns out, it helps to follow the money. First of all, Zurara was hired to write that book by the Portuguese king, and just a few years before, slave traders — here we go — slave traders tied to the Portuguese crown had effectively pioneered the Atlantic slave trade. They were the first Europeans to sail directly to sub-Saharan Africa to kidnap and enslave African people. So it was suddenly really helpful to have a story about the inferiority of African people to justify this new trade to other people, to the church, to themselves. And with the stroke of a pen, Zurara invented both blackness and whiteness, because he basically created the notion of blackness through this description of Africans, and as Dr. Kendi says, blackness has no meaning without whiteness. Other European countries followed the Portuguese lead in looking to Africa for human property and free labor and in adopting this fiction about the inferiority of African people.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
white folks 5
white people 5
african people 3
good white 2
tv screen 2
white person 2
racial groups 2
enslaved people 2
racist ideas 2
slave traders 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
good white people 2

Important Words


  1. adopting
  2. africa
  3. african
  4. africans
  5. atlantic
  6. basically
  7. blackness
  8. book
  9. church
  10. countries
  11. created
  12. crown
  13. description
  14. dr
  15. effectively
  16. enslave
  17. european
  18. europeans
  19. fiction
  20. follow
  21. free
  22. helpful
  23. helps
  24. hired
  25. human
  26. inferiority
  27. invented
  28. justify
  29. kendi
  30. kidnap
  31. king
  32. labor
  33. lead
  34. meaning
  35. money
  36. notion
  37. pen
  38. people
  39. pioneered
  40. portuguese
  41. property
  42. sail
  43. slave
  44. story
  45. stroke
  46. suddenly
  47. tied
  48. trade
  49. traders
  50. turns
  51. whiteness
  52. write
  53. years
  54. zurara