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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. According to "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution," what makes the United States's racial hierarchy different from those in the rest of the Americas?
(a) Racial absolutism.
(b) The degree of segregation.
(c) Privileges that increase with increasing "degree of Whiteness."
(d) The size of the highest caste.

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

3. In "Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority," what is Wilkerson's central claim?
(a) That even ordinary events like getting onto a bus reflect the premise that Blacks are inferior.
(b) That Black Americans have had to learn an elaborate performance of inferiority.
(c) That American Blacks have historically been treated like animals.
(d) That the caste system depends on all members of the lowest caste being treated as inferior to all members of the highest caste.

4. Which leading Black intellectual corresponded with Bhimrao Ambedkar about race in America?
(a) W.E.B. Du Bois.
(b) Thurgood Marshall.
(c) William Monroe Trotter.
(d) Booker T. Washington.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say human-genome testing has revealed about race?

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

3. According to Wilkerson, how are jobs assigned under the Indian caste system?

4. What is the name of Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 study of race in America?

5. According to "The Trials of the Middle Castes: The Race to Get Under the White Tent," what caused the Supreme Court to rule that "White" means "Caucasian"?

(see the answer key)

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