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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," where does Wilkerson say the term "Caucasian" came from?
(a) A German professor who thought a skull from the Caucasus Mountains was especially attractive.
(b) An eighteenth century novel about a fictional people who migrated from Central Europe to Western Europe.
(c) A long-discredited theory about human origins in Western Russia.
(d) A Sanskrit word that originally referred not to race but to caste.

2. According to Wilkerson, what constituency does the Republican Party represent?
(a) Those who want to protect an older social order that benefits whites.
(b) People whose first concern is the sovereignty of the United States.
(c) Progressives and nativists.
(d) Humanitarians and the marginalized.

3. According to Wilkerson, what serves as a signal of rank within the American caste system?
(a) Education.
(b) Religion.
(c) Wealth.
(d) Race.

4. In "Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority," what is Wilkerson's central claim?
(a) That American Blacks have historically been treated like animals.
(b) That even ordinary events like getting onto a bus reflect the premise that Blacks are inferior.
(c) That Black Americans have had to learn an elaborate performance of inferiority.
(d) That the caste system depends on all members of the lowest caste being treated as inferior to all members of the highest caste.

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

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

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

8. 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."

9. Besides the caste systems in India and the United States, which other caste system does Wilkerson say that she will focus on?
(a) Nazi Germany.
(b) Apartheid South Africa.
(c) Yuan China.
(d) The Nigerian Osu System.

10. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say we are doing when we "see" race?
(a) Participating in a self-reinforcing cycle that causes us to "see" what we expect to see.
(b) Noting arbitrary physical signs that we have been taught to read as "race."
(c) Taking in only a small number of the features that actually differentiate races.
(d) Perpetuating a system of oppression.

11. At what famous Alabama bridge did the police violently attack peaceful protesters on their way to Montgomery?
(a) The Benson Bridge.
(b) The Edmund Pettus Bridge.
(c) The New River Gorge Bridge.
(d) The Seven Mile Bridge.

12. 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?
(a) They were welcomed into trade unions, because larger union numbers benefited all workers.
(b) Although occupations were not closed to them by law, they were closed in practice.
(c) The same sets of laws they were trying to escape in the South started to be enacted in the North.
(d) They were finally able to own property and begin creating family wealth.

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

14. 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) Dinnertime.
(b) School lunch time.
(c) Sunday mornings.
(d) Recess at public schools.

15. In "Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the detail of the fog that Wilkerson sees when her plane lands?
(a) Wilkerson is metaphorically challenging the reader to reason past a "fog" of propaganda.
(b) It symbolizes the difficulty of seeing the Indian social system clearly.
(c) Wilkerson personifies the fog in an analogy that demonstrates how tradition "clouds" an understanding of present realities.
(d) It foreshadows the difficulties Wilkerson will have in gaining cooperation during her visit.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What social trend does Wilkerson link to the 2016 election?

3. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," where does Wilkerson say that the American caste system was born?

4. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does Wilkerson say Americans want to dismiss as a "sad, dark chapter" of American history (43)?

5. On page 6, Wilkerson calls a financial crisis "cataclysmic." What kind of crisis was it?

(see the answer keys)

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