In his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King urged Americans to avoid CONFLATING or mixing skin color with character. He famously looked forward to “a day when people will no longer be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Dr. King’s much-repeated admonition provides a memorable way to illustrate CONFLATE. Don’t expect to see this quote on a vocabulary in context question. Instead, SAT test writers chose to illustrate CONFLATE by noting that actors try to avoid CONFLATING their true personalities with the characters they portray in movies and television programs. OK, this works. But like my students, I prefer Dr. King’s quote.
CONFLATE – to combine or mix things or ideas