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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 6: "Part Six: Backlash".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Chapter Eleven: Dominant Group Status Threat and the Precarity of the Highest Rung," what is one factor Wilkerson points to as an explanation for "dominant group status threat" in modern America?
(a) A decline in civil behavior in public spaces.
(b) Increased numbers of non-white immigrants.
(c) Misinformation and propaganda spread via the Internet.
(d) Rapidly rising income among Black Americans.

2. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," Wilkerson says that actions that reinforce the caste system are "autonomic." What is the best meaning of this word in this context?
(a) Involuntary, occurring without choice.
(b) Automatic, occurring without conscious thought.
(c) Spontaneous, occurring without planning.
(d) Autonomous, occurring without social or environmental input.

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Class," what is the purpose of including the story about Deandre Somerville's experience with jury duty?
(a) It is meant to show that even inside the supposedly impartial world of jury deliberations Black Americans are treated with prejudice.
(b) It is meant to show that even Black children are harshly penalized by the justice system for minor offenses.
(c) It is meant to show that Black and white Americans are not extended the same measure of "grace" by the justice system.
(d) It is meant to show that juries are still generally mostly white, even in the twenty-first century.

4. In the opening analogy of the book, what is the melting permafrost being compared to?
(a) A "silent" earthquake.
(b) Denial of climate change.
(c) Racism.
(d) The 2016 election.

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Five: A Change in the Script," whom does Wilkerson quote as saying that there was nothing more important than making sure that Obama did not win a second election?
(a) The pastor of the largest evangelical church in Alabama.
(b) The leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
(c) An Arizona governor.
(d) The Republican Senate Majority Leader.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the page 15 sentence "An old house is its own kind of devotional, a dowager aunt with a story to be coaxed out of her," the reference to a dowager aunt is an example of what literary technique?

2. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the Hammond quotes?

3. In "Chapter Twelve: A Scapegoat to Bear the Sins of the World," what does Wilkerson say Austin police initially said about the bomb-related death of Stephan House?

4. What departure from legal precedent was made in the Virginia Assembly's decision that the children of enslaved women should also be considered slaves?

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Three: Shock Troops on the Borders of Hierarchy," what solution does the flight attendant offer Wilkerson when other first class passengers seem to be making antagonistic comments about her race?

(see the answer key)

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