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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 2: "Part Two: The Arbitrary Construction of Human Divisions".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To what part of history does Wilkerson explicitly link the Electoral College?
(a) Reconstruction.
(b) The Jim Crow South.
(c) Slavery.
(d) Colonization.

2. When 20 Black people arrived in the New World on a Dutch ship in 1619, what were they classified as?
(a) Colonists.
(b) Indentured servants.
(c) Slaves.
(d) Merchandise.

3. 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 idea that the house has a story to tell is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Litotes.
(b) Personification.
(c) Metonymy.
(d) Apostrophe.

4. According to Wilkerson's explanation on page 9, why did Democrats hesitate to impeach Trump?
(a) Fear of backlash from his base.
(b) Many had investments in Trump businesses.
(c) Fear of retribution from Trump himself.
(d) The evidence was unclear.

5. In "Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America," what is one of the main differences that Wilkerson notes between caste in America and caste in India?
(a) There is no attempt being made in modern India to improve the situation of the lowest caste.
(b) Blacks in America are not permanently confined to the lowest caste.
(c) The lowest caste in India was never enslaved.
(d) The American system is for the most part a binary one.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what does Harold Hale do when people knock down his mailbox?

2. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," where does Wilkerson say the term "Caucasian" came from?

3. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," where does Wilkerson say that the American caste system was born?

4. On page 6, Wilkerson calls a financial crisis "cataclysmic." What kind of crisis was it?

5. On page 6, Wilkerson refers to white "preeminence." What quality is she referring to?

(see the answer key)

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