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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 4: "Part Four: The Tentacles of Caste".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," how does Wilkerson say North Carolina prevented Blacks from achieving economic independence?
(a) By passing a law that said Blacks could only be paid in goods, not money.
(b) By taxing inheritances in Black families at close to 100%.
(c) By making it illegal for Blacks to purchase property.
(d) By making it illegal for them to sell or trade goods.

2. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say we are doing when we "see" race?
(a) Noting arbitrary physical signs that we have been taught to read as "race."
(b) Taking in only a small number of the features that actually differentiate races.
(c) Participating in a self-reinforcing cycle that causes us to "see" what we expect to see.
(d) Perpetuating a system of oppression.

3. In "Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control," what common misunderstanding of the slave system in America does Wilkerson dispute?
(a) That many slaves entered into consensual relationships with slaveholders.
(b) That brutality against slaves was the result of whites' fear of slave rebellion.
(c) That many slaveholders were cruel just because they could be.
(d) That slaves were too "valuable" to be mistreated.

4. In "Pillar Number One: Divine Will and the Laws of Nature," what is Wilkerson's central claim?
(a) Caste in America and India is or was upheld by religious beliefs.
(b) Caste systems require obvious misinterpretations of religious texts.
(c) Caste systems are the result of divine will.
(d) Caste in America and in Nazi Germany contradicts fundamental precepts of Christianity.

5. In "An American Untouchable," how does the high school principal in India refer to Martin Luther King'?
(a) As an "American Gandhi."
(b) As a great leader.
(c) As a "Negro."
(d) As an "untouchable."

Short Answer Questions

1. As Wilkerson explains on page 9, under what circumstances can mental health professionals make a diagnosis public?

2. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" why does Harold Hale's daughter get called into her principal's office?

3. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what happened to Forest Whitaker at a Manhattan Deli?

4. In "Chapter Fourteen: The Intrusion of Caste in Everyday Life," what figure of speech does Wilkerson use when she says that modern caste protocols "are like the wind" (212)?

5. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what reason does Wilkerson give for most people's participation in the American caste system?

(see the answer key)

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