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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the opening analogy of the book, what is the melting permafrost being compared to?
(a) The 2016 election.
(b) Racism.
(c) Denial of climate change.
(d) A "silent" earthquake.

2. On page 15, Wilkerson says of the old house that "whatever is lurking will fester." What is especially apt about her choice of the word "fester"?
(a) Its sibilance is part of an alliterative pattern.
(b) It has meanings that can be applied to both literal structures and to abstract structures.
(c) Its connotations evoke the idea of a swamp or mire.
(d) It has a lighter and more comic "sound" than the synonyms Wilkerson might have chosen.

3. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what does Harold Hale do when people knock down his mailbox?
(a) Forms a neighborhood watch committee.
(b) Complains to the police.
(c) Moves to a safer neighborhood.
(d) Resets it, in concrete.

4. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what distinguishes "caste" from "class"?
(a) Caste is not related to economics.
(b) Class is not a status marker.
(c) Caste is permanent and inescapable.
(d) Class cannot be inherited.

5. How many American states had laws officially prohibiting marriage between Blacks and whites?
(a) 41.
(b) 12.
(c) 26.
(d) 50.

6. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say we are doing when we "see" race?
(a) Perpetuating a system of oppression.
(b) Taking in only a small number of the features that actually differentiate races.
(c) Noting arbitrary physical signs that we have been taught to read as "race."
(d) Participating in a self-reinforcing cycle that causes us to "see" what we expect to see.

7. In "Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control," what common misunderstanding of the slave system in America does Wilkerson dispute?
(a) That many slaveholders were cruel just because they could be.
(b) That brutality against slaves was the result of whites' fear of slave rebellion.
(c) That many slaves entered into consensual relationships with slaveholders.
(d) That slaves were too "valuable" to be mistreated.

8. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," how does Wilkerson say the state of South Carolina tried to keep Blacks out of all jobs other than domestic service and farming?
(a) By assessing them an exorbitant fee for a license to do other work.
(b) By making it illegal for Blacks to work outside of farming and domestic service.
(c) Through terror and social pressure.
(d) By refusing them access to schooling.

9. In "The Third Pillar: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating," what does Wilkerson imply was the reason for the prosecution of Hugh Davis?
(a) Davis treated his Black partner as an equal.
(b) Davis raped a Black woman.
(c) The Black woman in the relationship was already married.
(d) Very few white men had previously admitted to relationships with Black women.

10. In "Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma," what is the best definition of the word "stigma"?
(a) A marking believed to indicate evil, corruption, etc.
(b) A cultural system of disguised aggressions.
(c) The practice of separating or segregating something believed to be polluted.
(d) A set of negative beliefs attached to a particular characteristic, action, object, etc.

11. At what famous Alabama bridge did the police violently attack peaceful protesters on their way to Montgomery?
(a) The Benson Bridge.
(b) The Edmund Pettus Bridge.
(c) The New River Gorge Bridge.
(d) The Seven Mile Bridge.

12. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say human-genome testing has revealed about race?
(a) It is entirely dependent on geography.
(b) There is tremendous variation within each of the five races.
(c) It does not exist.
(d) There are up to 36 divisions that could be called "races."

13. According to "The Trials of the Middle Castes: The Race to Get Under the White Tent," what caused the Supreme Court to rule that "White" means "Caucasian"?
(a) An Irish immigrant was arrested for shopping in a store signed "No Irish."
(b) A Cuban immigrant sued for the right to own property in Florida.
(c) An Indian immigrant argued that he should be considered for citizenship.
(d) A Japanese immigrant tried to make the case that he should be considered "White."

14. According to "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution," what makes the United States's racial hierarchy different from those in the rest of the Americas?
(a) Racial absolutism.
(b) Privileges that increase with increasing "degree of Whiteness."
(c) The degree of segregation.
(d) The size of the highest caste.

15. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does Wilkerson say Americans want to dismiss as a "sad, dark chapter" of American history (43)?
(a) Slavery.
(b) The Colonial treatment of Blacks.
(c) The Jim Crow era.
(d) The Trump presidency.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," how does Wilkerson say North Carolina prevented Blacks from achieving economic independence?

2. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what unusual name does Harold Hale give his daughter?

3. On page 68 of "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say is "one of the most contentious and misunderstood" words in American culture?

4. According to Wilkerson in In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what do social scientists say combines with racial bias to produce racism?

5. On page 59 of "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" when Harold Hale's daughter is about to return to school after a visit with a friend's family, what is the grandmother's response?

(see the answer keys)

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