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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 did the dead boy's mother decide to do after the trial in the chapter "The Dream"?

2. What regret does the author have about the friend he made in France?

3. How did the author react to his son being pushed off the escalator?

4. What regret does the author have about the incident with his son and the escalator?

5. How does the author describe Prince Jones?

Short Essay Questions

1. What role has fear played in Samori's (the author's son) life?

2. How is the author disappointed by the lack of education during his Civil War battlefield tour?

3. How, does Coats write, have his eyes been damaged by what he has seen?

4. How does the author contrast black and white societies?

5. According to the author, how does the fear of losing one's life promote violence?

6. What lesson does the mother of the boy on page 112 (Lucia McBath) try to impart to the author's son?

7. According to the author, how is racism experienced through city planning and real estate?

8. What is the significance of the author's description of the slave burial plot in southern Manhattan?

9. What reasons does the author give for the woman feeling validated in pushing his son off the escalator?

10. How does the author compare the flight of Abraham Brian to the fear of the modern black man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

The author was not raised in a religious family, nor did he develop an interest in subscribing to a personal religion or spirituality as an adult. How might his completely academic nature conflict with the traditional religious views of the black community? How might his spiritual beliefs, or lack thereof, affect the tone of his writing? How might a traditionally religious black community react to such a tone?

Essay Topic 3

The author speaks often of a body that is easily broken. The theme of impending violence is an undercurrent that runs throughout the memoir. Is the author referring solely to physical violence or to a deeper emotional state of being? Based off of the author's observations, which might be more damaging in the long run - the threat of physical violence or a constant undercurrent of emotional upheaval?

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