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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Wilkerson's anecdote about the house inspector, how does he "see past the plaster" (17)?
(a) By using his professional experience.
(b) By using an infrared camera.
(c) By reading the blueprints.
(d) By using an x-ray machine.

2. 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?
(a) 5.
(b) 20.
(c) 10.
(d) 15.

3. In "Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority," what is the Louise Beavers anecdote meant to illustrate?
(a) That it is impossible to judge intelligence and character based on skin color.
(b) That Black Americans have been made to assume the markers of inferiority like an actor playing a role.
(c) That Mary Pickford was concerned about being upstaged by a Black actress.
(d) That White filmmakers feared the audience reaction to an attractive Black woman.

4. What is the best definition of "endogamy" as used in "The Third Pillar: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating"?
(a) The practice of marrying within one's own group.
(b) Active interest in and welcoming of new people into one's group.
(c) The practice of marrying outside one's own group.
(d) The fear of people from outside of one's own group.

5. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," where does Wilkerson say that the American caste system was born?
(a) In the American South.
(b) In the Virginia colony.
(c) In England.
(d) In South Carolina.

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

7. In "Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America," what is one of the main differences that Wilkerson notes between caste in America and caste in India?
(a) There is no attempt being made in modern India to improve the situation of the lowest caste.
(b) The American system is for the most part a binary one.
(c) Blacks in America are not permanently confined to the lowest caste.
(d) The lowest caste in India was never enslaved.

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

9. According to Wilkerson, how are jobs assigned under the Indian caste system?
(a) They are inherited from the mother's family.
(b) They are inherited with caste.
(c) The upper castes distribute them.
(d) They are assigned based on merit.

10. 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"?
(a) A Cuban immigrant sued for the right to own property in Florida.
(b) An Indian immigrant argued that he should be considered for citizenship.
(c) A Japanese immigrant tried to make the case that he should be considered "White."
(d) An Irish immigrant was arrested for shopping in a store signed "No Irish."

11. 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) There are up to 36 divisions that could be called "races."
(c) It is entirely dependent on geography.
(d) It does not exist.

12. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does the Nigerian playwright tell Wilkerson about Blacks in Africa?
(a) They do not exist.
(b) They also have a history of slavery.
(c) They are afraid to come to the U.S.
(d) They are also prejudiced against Black Americans.

13. What is the name of Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 study of race in America?
(a) The American Web of Class and Race.
(b) America's Race Problem.
(c) An American Dilemma.
(d) Caste in America.

14. 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"?
(a) Its connotations evoke the idea of a swamp or mire.
(b) Its sibilance is part of an alliterative pattern.
(c) It has a lighter and more comic "sound" than the synonyms Wilkerson might have chosen.
(d) It has meanings that can be applied to both literal structures and to abstract structures.

15. What technique does Wilkerson use for the first time in the beginning of "An Old House and an Infrared Light"?
(a) First person point of view.
(b) Anecdote.
(c) Analogy.
(d) Rhetorical questions.

Short Answer Questions

1. On page 11, what does Wilkerson indicate the term "evangelical voters" is code for?

2. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what does Wilkerson say Blacks found when they migrated North during the Great Migration?

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

4. In what year did Alabama repeal its law against interracial marriage?

5. In the beginning of "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what physical characteristic is the basis for Wilkerson's imaginary caste system?

(see the answer keys)

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