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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. What is the oldest formula of aggression, according to Steele?

2. At the beginning of Chapter 1, how many of his friends was Steele sipping chardonnay with?

3. In what ways did Steele say blacks are excommunicated by their race when they create their own individual identity?

4. What did Steele say of the president mentioned in Chapter 1?

5. What does Steele say is the first step to pursuing power?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Steele mention individualism is powerful? What did he say it requires people to do? What could be the drawbacks of it?

2. Steele shared his thought that blacks use themes of re-composition to create black identity. What did he say are these themes?

3. What tool do blacks use to create a tolerable, false sense of reality, in Steele's estimation?

4. Steele quoted a former professor by saying, 'Ideas themselves come a dime a dozen.' Why is understanding this relevant to understanding this book?

5. What is Steele's opinion of the black identity?

6. Why did Steele say he was accused of being inauthentic? How do many blacks say Steele views the priority of the black race? Have other blacks followed in Steele's footsteps? If so, how and why?

7. What are the three ways that Steele said integration shock manifests as segregation?

8. In Steele's opinion, why is the black, underclass group continually expanding?

9. According to Steele, how does black nationalism ultimately affect blacks?

10. What caused Steele to experience discrimination in a segregated school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the 'double-bind' , according to Steele, that middle class blacks are typically a part of? How does it affect their 'blackness'?

Essay Topic 2

As a youth, what was Steele's experience with the black power movement? How did it affect the way he thinks today? What are some of the positives and negatives that Steele mentioned about the movement? How did Steele say individualism relates to the collective attitude of the movement?

Essay Topic 3

Steele said that integration shock produces a new form of segregation that takes three forms. What are those three forms? Define each form. What did Steele say eradicating these forms of segregation would lead to for blacks?

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