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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. In "Chapter Fourteen: The Intrusion of Caste in Everyday Life," what figure of speech does Wilkerson use when she says that modern caste protocols "are like the wind" (212)?
(a) Understatement.
(b) Simile.
(c) Personification.
(d) Metaphor.

2. In "Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control," what common misunderstanding of the slave system in America does Wilkerson dispute?
(a) That many slaveholders were cruel just because they could be.
(b) That many slaves entered into consensual relationships with slaveholders.
(c) That brutality against slaves was the result of whites' fear of slave rebellion.
(d) That slaves were too "valuable" to be mistreated.

3. According to Wilkerson, who is at the top of the "ladder of humanity" created by colonists in North America?
(a) Northern Europeans.
(b) White men.
(c) Christians.
(d) English Protestants.

4. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say human-genome testing has revealed about race?
(a) There is tremendous variation within each of the five races.
(b) It does not exist.
(c) It is entirely dependent on geography.
(d) There are up to 36 divisions that could be called "races."

5. In "Chapter Twenty: The Inevitable Narcissism of Caste," which group does Wilkerson say is the most susceptible to collective narcissism?
(a) The white working class.
(b) Poor and marginalized whites.
(c) The white upper class.
(d) The white middle class.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma," Wilkerson explains that enslaved people were not allowed to cry as their families were separated. What is this meant to serve as an example of?

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

3. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what happened to Forest Whitaker at a Manhattan Deli?

4. 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?

5. In "Epilogue: A World Without Caste," how long does Wilkerson say that researchers think it will take Black families to accumulate the same level of wealth that white families already have?

(see the answer key)

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