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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Coats quotes that sixty percent of all young black men who drop out of high school will:
(a) Die before the age of 25.
(b) Join the military.
(c) Go to jail.
(d) End up homeless.

2. According to the author, who controls the streets of Baltimore?
(a) The students.
(b) The crews.
(c) The parents.
(d) The police.

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

4. How does the author describe his experience in the Baltimore public schools?
(a) Hopeful.
(b) Pointless.
(c) Enlightening.
(d) Safe.

5. According to the author, what do many of his black contemporaries have in common?
(a) They are unhappy with their lives.
(b) They are searching for a better future.
(c) They have never known their fathers.
(d) They are proud of their heritage.

Short Answer Questions

1. What sense does the author describe experiencing as he watched television as a child?

2. Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus, according to Coats?

3. According to the author, America believes itself to be:

4. Whom does the author describe as his "wedding ring"?

5. Which name symbolically means "The Struggle"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is meant by "Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?"

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

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

5. What role did religion play in the author's childhood?

6. According to the author, how have American police departments been given the right to destroy black bodies without the fear of recrimination?

7. According to the author, why is America blind to it's racially defined shortcomings?

8. What does the author mean when he says the school system and the streets are "two arms of the same beast"?

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

10. What is the symbolism behind the author's son's name?

(see the answer keys)

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