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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 7: "Part Seven: Awakening" and "Epilogue: A World Without Caste".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the best definition of "heritability" as used in "The Second Pillar: Heritability"?
(a) Capable of being passed down from parent to child.
(b) A status based on genetics.
(c) Able to bind different families together.
(d) A privilege that stays within a particular family.

2. In "Chapter Twenty-Six: Turning Point and the Resurgence of Caste," Wilkerson says that when people vote, they often choose to vote in a way that will do what?
(a) Consider the needs of the many instead of the needs of the few.
(b) Show solidarity with those who share their lowest-status trait.
(c) Protect the best interests of their own highest-status trait.
(d) Empower a candidate who appeals to their worst instincts.

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," Wilkerson mentions the "Lost Cause." What does this term refer to?
(a) An alternative perspective regarding the contribution of enslaved Blacks to the economy of the South.
(b) A factually incorrect ideology that says that the Civil War was not fought over slavery but "states' rights" and that in any case slavery was not such a bad thing.
(c) The desire of modern progressives to base governance on science and humanism.
(d) The attempt to use Reconstruction to alter not only the legal position of Blacks in the South but their social status as well.

4. In "The Radicalization of the Dominant Caste," what is true about the restaurant's manager?
(a) She is a Black woman.
(b) She is angry and defensive.
(c) She tells Wilkerson not to come back to the restaurant.
(d) She also refuses to speak to Wilkerson and her companion.

5. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what reason does Wilkerson give for most people's participation in the American caste system?
(a) It allows them to discriminate without having to admit that they are racists.
(b) It preserves their place in the hierarchy.
(c) It is human nature to want to dominate others.
(d) It is too psychologically painful to admit that one's own position is unearned.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Thirty-One: The Heart Is the Last Frontier," why does Wilkerson say "I was reliant on this man and others like him, now that I was both widowed and motherless" (371)?

2. In "Chapter Twelve: A Scapegoat to Bear the Sins of the World," what does Wilkerson imply is true about the American response to the 2013 Ebola outbreak?

3. According to "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what percentage of Blacks worked in white-collar professions during the Great Depression?

4. In "Chapter Twenty-Four: Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste," how many years does Wilkerson say separate the average life expectancy of White college graduates from that of Black college graduates?

5. In "Chapter Twenty-Four: Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste," what does the Nigerian immigrant discover about living in America?

(see the answer key)

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