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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was decided at the conference depicted in the opening of "The Nazis and the Acceleration of Caste"?
(a) The Nuremberg Laws.
(b) Forced sterilization of Jews.
(c) The plan to exterminate German Jews.
(d) The Lebensraum program.

2. How many American states had laws officially prohibiting marriage between Blacks and whites?
(a) 12.
(b) 41.
(c) 50.
(d) 26.

3. In "Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma," what is the best definition of the word "stigma"?
(a) A set of negative beliefs attached to a particular characteristic, action, object, etc.
(b) A marking believed to indicate evil, corruption, etc.
(c) The practice of separating or segregating something believed to be polluted.
(d) A cultural system of disguised aggressions.

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

5. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what does Harold Hale do when people knock down his mailbox?
(a) Resets it, in concrete.
(b) Complains to the police.
(c) Forms a neighborhood watch committee.
(d) Moves to a safer neighborhood.

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

7. According to Wilkerson in In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what do social scientists say combines with racial bias to produce racism?
(a) Extremism.
(b) Systemic power.
(c) Overt hatred.
(d) Personal intention.

8. 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 are afraid to come to the U.S.
(b) They are also prejudiced against Black Americans.
(c) They also have a history of slavery.
(d) They do not exist.

9. In the 1863 Draft Riots, what immigrant group perpetrated violence against Blacks?
(a) Irish.
(b) Chinese.
(c) Germans.
(d) Italians.

10. According to Wilkerson in "The Second Pillar: Heritability," what distinguishes "caste" from "class"?
(a) Caste is permanent and inescapable.
(b) Class is not a status marker.
(c) Caste is not related to economics.
(d) Class cannot be inherited.

11. On page 12, Wilkerson says that some contagions can only be managed with "vigilance." How is she proposing they should be managed?
(a) With great speed.
(b) With constant watchfulness.
(c) With brute force.
(d) With careful thoroughness.

12. 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.

13. To what part of history does Wilkerson explicitly link the Electoral College?
(a) Slavery.
(b) Reconstruction.
(c) Colonization.
(d) The Jim Crow South.

14. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the Hammond quotes?
(a) It demonstrates that religious belief is incompatible with endorsement of a caste system.
(b) This is a defining historical moment that explicitly supports the chapter's central claim.
(c) It bolsters Wilkerson's ethos, making the reader more receptive to her claims about India.
(d) This illustrates the depth of hatred that White Southerners had for the lowest caste.

15. On page 6, Wilkerson refers to white "preeminence." What quality is she referring to?
(a) Having the highest rank or position.
(b) Devotion to tradition or already existing institutions.
(c) Unjustified rage.
(d) Using language and mannerisms that indicate superiority.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the page 15 sentence "An old house is its own kind of devotional, a dowager aunt with a story to be coaxed out of her," the reference to a dowager aunt is an example of what literary technique?

2. What is the best definition of "endogamy" as used in "The Third Pillar: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating"?

3. Where does the word "caste" come from?

4. To whom is Wilkerson referring on page 4 when she describes someone as "a no-nonsense national figure overqualified by some estimates"?

5. 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?

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