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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 3: "Part Three: The Eight Pillars of Caste".

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What departure from legal precedent was made in the Virginia Assembly's decision that the children of enslaved women should also be considered slaves?
(a) Prior to this, slavery was not considered a permanent condition.
(b) Prior to this, slavery was not considered to be inherited.
(c) Prior to this, status was legally passed from father to child.
(d) Prior to this, the status of both parents was factored into a child's status.

4. What is the best definition of "endogamy" as used in "The Third Pillar: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating"?
(a) Active interest in and welcoming of new people into one's group.
(b) The fear of people from outside of one's own group.
(c) The practice of marrying within one's own group.
(d) The practice of marrying outside one's own group.

5. According to "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution," what did the United States use to "curate" its population (123)?
(a) Laws defining status based on degree of African blood.
(b) Jim Crow laws.
(c) Immigration policy.
(d) Anti-miscegenation laws.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the 1863 Draft Riots, what immigrant group perpetrated violence against Blacks?

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

3. Besides the caste systems in India and the United States, which other caste system does Wilkerson say that she will focus on?

4. To what Supreme Court case does Wilkerson allude in her "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution" story about the shoemaker who sued for the right to ride in the white car of the train?

5. What social trend does Wilkerson link to the 2016 election?

(see the answer key)

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