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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many men does Mitchell Jackson name as belonging to his group of father figures?
(a) Seven.
(b) Five.
(c) Six.
(d) Four.

2. In what Jamaican city did Garnette Cadogan, the author of the essay "Black and Blue," grow up?
(a) Negril.
(b) Montego Bay.
(c) Portmore.
(d) Kingston.

3. When Kiese Laymon invites his grandmother up to Oxford where he lives at the time, why does she refuse to come?
(a) Because Kiese is the only black person she knows in Oxford.
(b) Because her health is too poor for such a long trip.
(c) Because there is a music festival happening in her hometown.
(d) Because she does not like to infringe upon Kiese's privacy.

4. The author of the essay "Black and Blue" states that seeing a lone woman walking at night in Jamaica was as common a sight as the sight of what mythic creature?
(a) Sasquatch.
(b) Unicorn.
(c) Leprechaun.
(d) Loch Ness Monster.

5. When the author and her friend laugh at the immediate thought of getting one's child out of the country upon his birth, what is NOT named as one of the sources of their laughter?
(a) Fear.
(b) Vulnerability.
(c) An absurd stuckness.
(d) Mirth.

6. In what decade did the the use of blackface begin?
(a) 1820s.
(b) 1860s.
(c) 1830s.
(d) 1790s.

7. What name did Kiese Laymon call his grandmother?
(a) Mama.
(b) Granny.
(c) Gran.
(d) Grandmama.

8. What musician does Kevin Young name as the most prominent example of a white person living as a black person?
(a) Johnny Otis.
(b) Bobby Darin.
(c) Rufus Wainwright.
(d) Little Richard.

9. For how many years had The High Bridge been inactive before reopening again just before Emily Raboteau and her family took a walk across it?
(a) Fifty-plus.
(b) Forty-plus.
(c) Twenty-plus.
(d) Thirty-plus.

10. The series of Know Your Rights murals were placed in all of New York City's burroughs, with the exception of which burrough?
(a) Queens.
(b) Brooklyn.
(c) The Bronx.
(d) Staten Island.

11. When Kevin Young, the author of "Blacker Than Thou" outlines his next book for the reader, under what type of text does he say his new book falls?
(a) Nonfiction.
(b) Satire.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Memoir.

12. The final line of the poem "Queries of Unrest" references "trying to save them the time of" doing what "to darkness when all they have to do is close their eyes" (100)?
(a) Burying.
(b) Ignoring.
(c) Planting.
(d) Witnessing.

13. To begin the essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning," Claudia Rankine relates a story about a friend of hers who had just given birth to a baby boy and whose first thought upon his birth was how she could get him out of the country. This thought occurred to her even before she had performed what two actions?
(a) Named him or nursed him.
(b) Painted the nursery or weaned him.
(c) Potty trained him or weaned him.
(d) Checked out of the hospital or brought him home.

14. The essay entitled "Black and Blue" takes its name from a song by what African-American musician?
(a) James Brown.
(b) Muddy Waters.
(c) Jelly Roll Morton.
(d) Fats Waller.

15. How old was Tamir Rice at the time he was shot and killed by Cleveland police officers?
(a) 16.
(b) 20.
(c) 18.
(d) 12.

Short Answer Questions

1. What emotion did Emily Dickinson define as "the thing with feathers" (166)?

2. From what state does Kevin Young say that his family hails?

3. In what state did Kiese Laymon's grandmother live and work?

4. What does Emily Raboteau say had been the primary goal of the perpetrator of the previous week's tragedy on the day her family walks over The High Bridge?

5. Who requested an open coffin for Emmett Till's funeral and granted permission for photographs of his mutilated, lynched body to be taken and published?

(see the answer keys)

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