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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. What social trend does Wilkerson link to the 2016 election?
(a) The offshoring of manufacturing jobs.
(b) A decrease in undocumented immigration.
(c) An increase in hate crimes.
(d) A rise in anxiety and depression.

2. On page 12, Wilkerson says that some contagions can only be managed with "vigilance." How is she proposing they should be managed?
(a) With great speed.
(b) With brute force.
(c) With careful thoroughness.
(d) With constant watchfulness.

3. On page 6, Wilkerson calls a financial crisis "cataclysmic." What kind of crisis was it?
(a) Creating the necessary conditions for a later event; a precondition.
(b) Protracted; drawn-out.
(c) Violent and overwhelming.
(d) Overblown, lacking in substance.

4. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," where does Wilkerson say that the American caste system was born?
(a) In the American South.
(b) In England.
(c) In South Carolina.
(d) In the Virginia colony.

5. Where does the word "caste" come from?
(a) The Middle English "outcasten," meaning "to expel or reject."
(b) The Portuguese word "casta," meaning "breed" or "race."
(c) The Old Norse word "kasta," meaning "throw."
(d) The Latin "castus," meaning "chaste."

Short Answer Questions

1. In Wilkerson's anecdote about the house inspector, how does he "see past the plaster" (17)?

2. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does the Nigerian playwright tell Wilkerson about Blacks in Africa?

3. On page 16, Wilkerson says that people adjust to the "idiosyncrasies" of an old house. What is she saying that they adjust to?

4. Which leading Black intellectual corresponded with Bhimrao Ambedkar about race in America?

5. On page 59 of "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" when Harold Hale's daughter is about to return to school after a visit with a friend's family, what is the grandmother's response?

(see the answer key)

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