Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
61 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
|
aberration
|
noun: straying away form the norm or usual. A person who has beliefs that are unacceptable or different from the norm.
|
...he might view it as a confirmation that Negroes are insensitive to sexual aberration (91).
|
|
|
squalor
|
noun: being dirty and unpleasant, often due to poverty or neglect.
|
He has grown up and now sees his children grow up in squalor (92).
|
|
|
bauble
|
noun: a knickknack, or something with no worth
|
To a young girl who has nothing, has never known anything, the baubles she can get--both in a kind of crude affection and in gifts or money (93).
|
|
|
impetus
|
a force that causes something to happen or happen quicker. Motivation or stimulus.
|
She gets pregrant sometimes and then the vicious cycle is given impetus (93).
|
|
|
boisterous
|
adj: noisy, rowdy, high energy. Used to describe a person.
|
He was boisterous, loud, and guileless (94).
|
|
|
guileless
|
adj: one that is naive, innocent, and that does not decieve.
|
He was boisterous, loud, and guileless (94).
|
|
|
maxim
|
noun: short statement that expresses a general truth or rule of conduct. A saying.
|
...the maxim of St. Augustine: " Love, and then do what you will" (96).
|
|
|
relish
|
noun: great enjoyment
|
He spoke of the Lord with relish (97).
|
|
|
stalemate
|
noun: a situation where neither side can continue with their argument or progress any further. an impasse or tie.
|
As always, the conversation stalemated... (99).
|
|
|
epithet
|
noun: a phrase or description used to characterize a person or thing. A name (sobriquet--nickname) or tag.
|
All the cherished question-begging epithets applied to the Negro race... (115).
|
|
|
henceforth
|
adverb: from now on
|
I would have to be careful no to undress unless I had privacy henceforth (118).
|
|
|
stoical
|
adj: enduring pain or difficulties with out complaining or portraying one's own feelings.
|
He will take the insults and abuses stoically so that his children do not have to take them in the future (120).
|
|
|
base
|
adj: of a person or feelings-without moral principles, ignoble (not honorable in character)
|
It is a challenge to him to needle the Negro into acts of a baser nature, into open physical conflict (120).
|
|
|
hostile
|
adj: unfriendly, bellicose or belligerent
|
...the "spiritual bouquets" changed to hostility (121).
|
|
|
affable
|
adj: friendly, good-natured. antonym: hostlie
|
The policeman nodded affably to me (123).
|
|
|
exultant
|
adj: triumphantly happy, jubliant
|
A sense of exultant liberation flooded through me(123).
|
|
|
benign
|
adj: gently, kindly
|
I saw smiles, benign faces, courtesies...(124).
|
|
|
banal
|
adj: lacking in originality that it is boring and obvious, unimaginative or cliché, trite
|
...to catalogue the banal miracle of every stick of furniture...(124).
|
|
|
servile
|
adj: having or showing excessive willingness to serve or please others. It has a negative connotation that shows extreme submissiveness. Similar to obsequious to but a greater extent.
|
...to talk to white men in the lobby without servility (124).
|
|
|
prattle
|
verb: to talk in a foolish way.
|
Don't you know you are prattling the racist poison (125)?
|
|
|
traverse
|
verb: to go back and forth.
|
It was hazardous, but it was the only way to traverse an area both Negro and white (126).
|
|
|
obsequious
|
adj: obedient or attentive to a degree where one wants to excessively please others. It is often a way of acting nice in order to get something one wants.
|
when I was white, I received the brotherly-love smiles and the privileges from whites and the hate stares or obsequiousness from the Negroes.
|
|
|
matriarch
|
noun: a woman who is the head of the family
|
I glanced to see a large, matriarchal woman, elderly and impatient (126).
|
|
|
haughty
|
adj: arrogantly superior, showing a lack of respect, disdainful, conceited.
|
I carried her bags and recieved three haughty dimes (127).
|
|
|
morass
|
noun: muddy ground, a complicated/confusing situation.
|
They see it as the only possible way out of the morass in which the Negro finds himself (127).
|
|
|
obtuse
|
adj: annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand, stupid
|
I wondered that an educated man and an observer could be so obtuse (128).
|
|
|
paternalism
|
noun: practice of restricting people from their subordinate's (lesser ranking) freedom in the supposed best interest of the subordinate.
|
Paternalistic--we show our prejudice in our paternalism (130).
|
|
|
borne
|
adj: carried or transported by
|
The contrast was almost too great to be borne (135).
|
|
|
dismal
|
adj: depressing, dreary
|
like walking from the dismal swamps into sudden brilliant sunlight (135).
|
|
|
bigoted adj, bigots noun
|
adj: one who is obstinately, or stubbornly convinced their opinions are superior to others and prejudiced against those that believe differently.
|
He knew his religious bigots (136).
|
|
|
notorious
|
adj: famous for a bad quality
|
Newspapers shirk notoriously their editorial responsibilities and print what they think the reader wants (140).
|
|
|
shirk
|
verb: to avoid or neglect
|
Newspapers shirk notoriously their editorial responsibilities and print what they think the reader wants (140).
|
|
|
dynamism
|
noun: vigorous activity and progress, positive in attitude, ambition
|
men of high education, long vision, and dynamism (140).
|
|
|
reputable
|
adj: having a good reputation
|
Biblical scholars don't stretch their imagination--at least reputable ones don't (137).
|
|
|
fallacy
|
noun: a mistaken belief
|
They lean with the prevailing winds and employ every fallacy of logic... (141).
|
|
|
reprisal
|
noun: an act of retaliation (retaliate--to attack back).
|
They also keep a close eye on economic reprisals from the Councils and the Klans (141).
|
|
|
emancipate
|
verb: set free from social, legal, or political restrictions.
|
They recognized that economic emancipation was the key to the racial solution (141).
|
|
|
eminent
|
adj: famous in a certain area, used to emphasize a positive quality. antonym, notorious
|
|
|
|
bigotry
|
noun: intolerant to those who have a different opinion
|
And in the midst of it, the picture of the prejudice and bigotry from which I had just come flashed into my mind (148).
|
|
|
ominous
|
adj: an impression that something bad is going to happen, threatening
|
The silence was so unnatural, so ominous, it weighed heavy on us (150).
|
|
|
imbue
|
verb: to inspire or spread a feeling or quality, permeate
|
The Negro leader is deeply imbued with a sense of responsibility toward his community (142).
|
|
|
repercussion
|
Noun: an unintended consequence, usually unwelcome
|
I was afraid that my appearance would bring severe repercussions against him from the South (151).
|
|
|
resurgence
|
adj: increasing or reviving after a time of little activity or popularity, renew
|
I looked at him with a resurgence of faith in a public figure (152).
|
|
|
evade
|
verb: escape, avoid, elude
|
He asked pointed questions that did not evade the issue (152).
|
|
|
embroil
|
verb: to involve someone into a deep conversation of argument, or to bring into a state of confusion and disorder.
|
I particularly feared he would get embroiled in a religious discussion (152).
|
|
|
pretense
|
noun: try to make something seem true that isn't really the case, or to show false feelings, attitudes, ostentatious
|
He offered me a seat and without pretense asked I wanted to see the questions (153).
|
|
|
aghast
|
adj: filled with horror and shock
|
I was aghast (153).
|
|
|
fritter
|
verb: dwindle, diminish
|
Our talk frittered out (153).
|
|
|
effigy
|
noun: sculpture, model of a person made to be destroyed in protest or anger.
|
You were hanged in effigy form the center red-light wire (156).
|
|
|
constable
|
noun: a peace officer
|
the newspaper checked it out with the local constable (156).
|
|
|
eloquent
|
adj: fluent or persuasive in writing or speaking. articulate
|
Their silence was eloquent and devastating (157).
|
|
|
condone
|
verb: accept and allow to continue
|
Did the silence condone the lynching (157)?
|
|
|
lynching
|
verb: to kill someone by hanging
|
Did the silence condone the lynching (157)?
|
|
|
gantlet
|
noun: go through an intimidating crowd or experience in order to reach a goal.
|
I ran the gantlet driving through town (159).
|
|
|
laudable
|
adj: deserving of praise
|
This is laudable and tragic (160).
|
|
|
contention
|
noun: heated disagreement
|
This confirmed my contention that the average Southern white is more properly disposed than he dares allow his neighbor to see (160).
|
|
|
disposed
|
adj: inclined or willing
|
This confirmed my contention that the average Southern white is more properly disposed than he dares allow his neighbor to see (160).
|
|
|
chivalry
|
noun: courteous behavior
|
I does not take a genius to pierce to the heart of a situation to which Southern chivalry once gave, among other things, the mulatto (161).
|
|
|
mulatto
|
noun: a person of mixed black and white ancestry
|
I does not take a genius to pierce to the heart of a situation to which Southern chivalry once gave, among other things, the mulatto (161).
|
|
|
animosity
|
noun: strong hostility
|
All of them eyed me with animosity (162).
|
|
|
reticent
|
adj: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.
|
The youth knew me and had no reticence in talking since he was sure I was one of them (163).
|
