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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. As a child, what baffled the author about the nonviolent protests of the civil rights moment?

2. Coats explains that the young men who walk the streets of Baltimore loud and rude do so because:

3. How did the author spend most of his time at The Mecca?

4. How old was the author when his son was born?

5. What sorts of toys was the author not allowed to have as a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. What conflicting thoughts does the author have about the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

2. How does research and study affect the author as a young man?

3. What assumptions does the author make about PG County (Prince George's County) police officers and why?

4. What role did violence play in the author's childhood?

5. How does the author define the word "black"?

6. Why did the author's son experience such extreme grief when Michael Brown's killer was set free?

7. According to the author, what is the purpose of the public school system?

8. What revelation does the author have about the European perception of Africans during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

9. For what reasons did the author's father punish him and why?

10. Why didn't the author console his son when Samori grieved over the release of Michael Brown's killer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Amidst multiple examples of police brutality, the author mentions an effort on behalf of some police departments to improve relations with black Americans by diversifying their staff, utilizing body and patrol car cameras and offering sensitivity training. In the same paragraph, he points out that there remains a significant distance between the police and those they are appointed to protect. Does diversity, sensitivity training and the use of cameras allow the citizens of America to build trust or dissociate themselves from the police force? Is is possible to overcome this dissociation of racism between authority and citizenship. If so, how?

Essay Topic 2

When the killer of Michael Brown was set free, Samori (the author's son) was overwrought with anger and sorrow. The author could not bring himself to console his son, although he did sit with him as Samori grieved. Why did Coates find himself unwilling to console his son? Why were things "not going to be okay"? What lesson was Coates trying to teach his son in that moment?

Essay Topic 3

The author speaks often of a body that is easily broken. The theme of impending violence is an undercurrent that runs throughout the memoir. Is the author referring solely to physical violence or to a deeper emotional state of being? Based off of the author's observations, which might be more damaging in the long run - the threat of physical violence or a constant undercurrent of emotional upheaval?

(see the answer keys)

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