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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. On page 283 of "Chapter Twenty-Two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Class," what does Wilkerson quote anthropologist Edmund Leach as saying about the lowest caste in India?
(a) "Knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful."
(b) "It is a feeling of danger."
(c) "The first moral duty is resignation and acceptance."
(d) "People embrace narratives about forgiveness."

2. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what happened to Forest Whitaker at a Manhattan Deli?
(a) A customer assumed that he was a busboy.
(b) He was accused of shoplifting.
(c) He was assaulted by a police officer.
(d) An employee referred to him using a racial epithet.

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Class," what does the Black bailiff do when the white killer of a Black man begins crying about her conviction?
(a) Tells her to shut up and stop crying.
(b) Shoves her as she is being escorted from the court.
(c) Tells her that it will be okay and calls her "honey."
(d) Comforts her by stroking her hair.

4. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," where does Wilkerson say the term "Caucasian" came from?
(a) A Sanskrit word that originally referred not to race but to caste.
(b) A German professor who thought a skull from the Caucasus Mountains was especially attractive.
(c) A long-discredited theory about human origins in Western Russia.
(d) An eighteenth century novel about a fictional people who migrated from Central Europe to Western Europe.

5. 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?
(a) That it was likely a hate crime.
(b) It might be drug-related, or House might have accidentally blown himself up.
(c) That it was probably the work of a serial bomber.
(d) That House was the probable suspect in a string of bombings.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution," what did the United States use to "curate" its population (123)?

2. In "Chapter Thirteen: The Insecure Alpha and the Purpose of an Underdog," what is Wilkerson arguing about the role of the "omega" wolf, at the bottom of the pack hierarchy?

3. When 20 Black people arrived in the New World on a Dutch ship in 1619, what were they classified as?

4. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what distinguishes "caste" from "class"?

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," Wilkerson mentions the "Lost Cause." What does this term refer to?

(see the answer key)

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