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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 6: "Part Six: Backlash".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Defining Purity and the Constancy of the Bottom Rung," what does Wilkerson note is referred to as "the most segregated hour in America" (128)?
(a) School lunch time.
(b) Dinnertime.
(c) Sunday mornings.
(d) Recess at public schools.

2. In "Chapter Twenty-Six: Turning Point and the Resurgence of Caste," what does Wilkerson tell Gwen Ifill she thinks is behind Trump's popularity?
(a) Illegal immigration.
(b) A rise in evangelicalism.
(c) Demographic shifts.
(d) Economic problems.

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Four: Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste," what are the "telomeres" Wilkerson talks about?
(a) Diseases related to stress.
(b) The cell sites that respond to chemicals like cortisol.
(c) A part of the DNA strand that shortens with aging.
(d) Stress hormones.

4. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," Wilkerson mentions two films that "fed the country and the world the Confederate version of the war" (335.) One is Birth of a Nation. What is the other?
(a) Gone with the Wind.
(b) Shenandoah.
(c) Ride with the Devil.
(d) The Outlaw Josey Wales.

5. 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) Privileges that increase with increasing "degree of Whiteness."
(c) The size of the highest caste.
(d) The degree of segregation.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the best definition of "heritability" as used in "The Second Pillar: Heritability"?

2. In the conference described in "Chapter Ten: Central Miscasting," what difficulty does Wilkerson face?

3. On page 283 of "Chapter Twenty-Two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Class," what does Wilkerson quote anthropologist Edmund Leach as saying about the lowest caste in India?

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. According to "Chapter Twenty-Five: A Change in the Script," what percentage of White voters voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012?

(see the answer key)

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