full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mona Chalabi: Which box do I check?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So uubnoldedty, the US Census Bureau does important work, but it does have some blind spots. For example, there has been a decades-long effort to add the category Middle Eastern or Northern African or MENA to the census. Currently, the census defines people from these regions, and that iucdelns me, as white. Yeah, that's incorrect. In 2015, the cusnes did test a version of this survey that ilcnuded MENA. It found that when given the MENA option, the number of people from that region who identified as white dopeprd from 86 percent to 20 percent. See, when you reconsider lugaange, the numbers can change dramatically. Unfortunately, though, the census still didn't make the change, saying that further tests were necessary to drtnmeeie if MENA should appear under eictthniy instead of race. That mneas that those who have rallied for its inclusion will have to wait another decade to see if our community can be recognized.

Open Cloze


So ___________, the US Census Bureau does important work, but it does have some blind spots. For example, there has been a decades-long effort to add the category Middle Eastern or Northern African or MENA to the census. Currently, the census defines people from these regions, and that ________ me, as white. Yeah, that's incorrect. In 2015, the ______ did test a version of this survey that ________ MENA. It found that when given the MENA option, the number of people from that region who identified as white _______ from 86 percent to 20 percent. See, when you reconsider ________, the numbers can change dramatically. Unfortunately, though, the census still didn't make the change, saying that further tests were necessary to _________ if MENA should appear under _________ instead of race. That _____ that those who have rallied for its inclusion will have to wait another decade to see if our community can be recognized.

Solution


  1. undoubtedly
  2. ethnicity
  3. includes
  4. language
  5. dropped
  6. means
  7. census
  8. included
  9. determine

Original Text


So undoubtedly, the US Census Bureau does important work, but it does have some blind spots. For example, there has been a decades-long effort to add the category Middle Eastern or Northern African or MENA to the census. Currently, the census defines people from these regions, and that includes me, as white. Yeah, that's incorrect. In 2015, the census did test a version of this survey that included MENA. It found that when given the MENA option, the number of people from that region who identified as white dropped from 86 percent to 20 percent. See, when you reconsider language, the numbers can change dramatically. Unfortunately, though, the census still didn't make the change, saying that further tests were necessary to determine if MENA should appear under ethnicity instead of race. That means that those who have rallied for its inclusion will have to wait another decade to see if our community can be recognized.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
northern african 2


Important Words


  1. add
  2. african
  3. blind
  4. bureau
  5. category
  6. census
  7. change
  8. community
  9. decade
  10. defines
  11. determine
  12. dramatically
  13. dropped
  14. eastern
  15. effort
  16. ethnicity
  17. identified
  18. important
  19. included
  20. includes
  21. inclusion
  22. incorrect
  23. language
  24. means
  25. mena
  26. middle
  27. northern
  28. number
  29. numbers
  30. option
  31. people
  32. percent
  33. race
  34. rallied
  35. recognized
  36. reconsider
  37. region
  38. regions
  39. spots
  40. survey
  41. test
  42. tests
  43. undoubtedly
  44. version
  45. wait
  46. white
  47. work
  48. yeah