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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 anecdote of the book, what escapes from the melting permafrost?
(a) Mercury.
(b) Nuclear waste.
(c) SARS-CoV-2.
(d) Anthrax.

2. 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?
(a) "Colored folks around here have better manners."
(b) "We should never have had you in our home."
(c) "Why on earth would you want to go back there?"
(d) "There was a time when I could have made you stay."

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

4. In "The Vitals of History," what does Wilkerson compare an honest and rigorous study of history to?
(a) A mechanic using a diagnostic computer.
(b) A child learning a new language.
(c) An archaeologist uncovering artifacts.
(d) A doctor taking a patient history.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Wilkerson, what serves as a signal of rank within the American caste system?

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. To whom is Wilkerson referring on page 4 when she describes someone as "a no-nonsense national figure overqualified by some estimates"?

4. On page 15, Wilkerson says of the old house that "whatever is lurking will fester." What is especially apt about her choice of the word "fester"?

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

(see the answer key)

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