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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How are racism and race linked?
(a) They are both unfair.
(b) Categorizing people groups inevitably causes a power struggle.
(c) They are not linked.
(d) People don't like what they don't understand.

2. As a child, what baffled the author about the nonviolent protests of the civil rights moment?
(a) He felt the police should have helped more.
(b) Violence is illegal.
(c) Kids should not see violent television.
(d) He had been raised in a violent society.

3. What hobby did the author pursue while at Howard University?
(a) Music.
(b) Poker.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Bowling.

4. What does the author tell his son about promises?
(a) A man's word is his bond.
(b) No promise is unbreakable.
(c) A promise lasts forever.
(d) A promise is worth its weight in gold.

5. What surprised the author about the sixteenth and seventeenth century portraits of Africans?
(a) The appeared regal and serene.
(b) Their facial features had be Anglicized.
(c) The looked ethnically different from African-Americans.
(d) They were drawn in a ravenous, lustful, simian manner.

6. How old was Tamir Rice when he was shot?
(a) Six.
(b) 21.
(c) Two.
(d) 12.

7. Why did the author refrain from comforting his son when Michael Brown's killers were set free?
(a) He was busy calling the news station.
(b) He was too sad to move off the couch,
(c) His son locked the bedroom door.
(d) He feels he pain of grief is an important lesson.

8. Why does the author feel the interview at the beginning of his memoir was a failure?
(a) No one would comment on his new book.
(b) The interviewer discussed hope for racial peace and equality.
(c) He was insulted by a caller to the radio station.
(d) The interview was cut short.

9. The author admires Malcolm X because he never:
(a) Gave up.
(b) Ran.
(c) Hesitated.
(d) Lied.

10. How did the author spend most of his time at The Mecca?
(a) Listening to and writing poetry.
(b) Reading and taking notes on black literature and essays.
(c) Absorbing culture and music.
(d) Arguing politics on the Lawn.

11. Whom does the author describe as his "wedding ring"?
(a) God.
(b) His son.
(c) His soul.
(d) His wife.

12. How did the author's father react when the author threatened his 9th grade teacher?
(a) His father confronted the teacher.
(b) His father called the police.
(c) His father beat him.
(d) His father confronted the principal.

13. Who is Linda Heywood?
(a) An American poet.
(b) A Howard professor specialized in Central Africa.
(c) A musician the author met at The Mecca.
(d) A protester from the Lawn.

14. According to the author, slavery transfigured black bodies into:
(a) Beasts of burden.
(b) Animals.
(c) Hollow shells of former men.
(d) Sugar, tobacco, cotton and gold.

15. How did Queen Nzinga address the social insult of the Dutch ambassador?
(a) She sat on the ambassador's knee.
(b) She ordered one of her advisers to become a human chair.
(c) She stabbed the ambassador.
(d) She stood on the table.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who were the first white people the author knew on a personal level?

2. Where is Howard University located?

3. Which writer inspired the author as a young man?

4. According to the author, when Lincoln spoke of the "government of the people," to whom was he addressing?

5. What did the author's mother urge him to do when he was in trouble at school?

(see the answer keys)

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