View a FREE sample

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 Mecca" that the author describes to his son?

2. How old was Tamir Rice when he was shot?

3. According to the author, slavery transfigured black bodies into:

4. Coats quotes that sixty percent of all young black men who drop out of high school will:

5. According to the author, it is important that whether one wins or loses the fight, who should be by your side?

Short Essay Questions

1. What assumptions does the author make about PG County (Prince George's County) police officers and why?

2. What is the author's interpretation of "The Dream"?

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

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

5. How does the author compare his childhood to that of his son?

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

7. Why did the author's son experience such extreme grief when Michael Brown's killer was set free?

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

9. How did fear shape the author's childhood?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the author compare his experiences with public education to the expectations that society has for black people? What does it mean when he says that “the schools were not concerned with curiosity,” but with “compliance” ? What statement might the author be making about racial injustice in the American school system?

Essay Topic 2

The author spends a great deal of time describing his Mecca, Howard University, as an escape from the fear that once plagued his life as a child on the streets of Baltimore. Keeping in mind that Howard is a private university that not every student can afford, what other Meccas might exist in America that could parallel the author's experience? Are there other places or experiences that could provide a similar bond of safety and community for the black student? If so, what? Is the author's Mecca a physical place or a state of mind? Explain your answer citing examples from the author's work.

Essay Topic 3

The moment Samori realized the death of Michael Brown would not be avenged; the instant that a four-year-old (Dr.) Mable Jones was pulled away from the front of the bus; the split-second the author realized through the medium of television that there was another world outside of his inner-city Baltimore - what do all of these points in time have in common? What one lesson did each person learn in his or her critical moment? How might other black Americans have faced similar racial epiphanies?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,296 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample