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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) The fear of people from outside of one's own group.
(c) Active interest in and welcoming of new people into one's group.
(d) The practice of marrying outside one's own group.

2. What departure from legal precedent was made in the Virginia Assembly's decision that the children of enslaved women should also be considered slaves?
(a) Prior to this, status was legally passed from father to child.
(b) Prior to this, slavery was not considered a permanent condition.
(c) Prior to this, slavery was not considered to be inherited.
(d) Prior to this, the status of both parents was factored into a child's status.

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

4. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," how does Wilkerson say North Carolina prevented Blacks from achieving economic independence?
(a) By passing a law that said Blacks could only be paid in goods, not money.
(b) By making it illegal for Blacks to purchase property.
(c) By taxing inheritances in Black families at close to 100%.
(d) By making it illegal for them to sell or trade goods.

5. 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?
(a) The degree of segregation.
(b) Racial absolutism.
(c) The size of the highest caste.
(d) Privileges that increase with increasing "degree of Whiteness."

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the Hammond quotes?

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

3. According to Wilkerson in In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what do social scientists say combines with racial bias to produce racism?

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

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. To what cause does Wilkerson ascribe the election of Donald Trump?

2. According to Wilkerson, what relationship exists between immigration or transportation to America and "becoming" white or Black?

3. What is the rhetorical purpose of including the anecdote about Willie James Howard in "Pillar Number Three: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating"?

4. According to Wilkerson, how did slavery create the conditions for American stereotypes about Black people?

5. In "'The Container We Have Built for You,'" how does "Miss" end up with her unusual first name?

6. For what reason does Wilkerson say that race is a social concept, not a biological one?

7. Explain the analogy that Wilkerson makes in "The Vitals of History."

8. According to "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what was the original justification for lifetime enslavement, and how did that justification need to change as circumstances changed?

9. In "The Hierarchy of Trace Amounts: Griffes, Marabons, and Sangmelees," what are the words "Griffes, Marabons, and Sangmelees," and what point do they illustrate?

10. In "Pillar Number Two: Heritability," what difference does Wilkerson note between the way caste is inherited in India versus the way it was historically inherited in the U.S.?

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