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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 does Rankine think about her friend's response to the incident at the play in Part III?
(a) She is encouraged that they are engaging in conversation about what happened.
(b) She is thankful for the response but she stops speaking to her white friend.
(c) She is even more upset by it.
(d) She wants to ask her other colleagues what they think about the whole situation.

2. What does Rankine question how far away she can get from by using the language of inquiry in Part IV?
(a) Racism.
(b) Blame.
(c) Peace.
(d) Confrontation.

3. What does Rankine write that George Wallace attributed his political success to?
(a) Lowering taxes.
(b) Helping farmers.
(c) The articulation of racist rhetoric.
(d) Trying to preserve the history of the South.

4. What question does a white man ask his female partner in an airport line that greatly turns Rankine and other passengers off in Part IV?
(a) Why can you never do anything right?
(b) Do you want me to hit you?
(c) Are you stupid?
(d) Do you not realize how fat you are?

5. What does Rankine insist at a dinner party in Part III was a major cause of Donald Trump's presidential election in 2016?
(a) Russian interference.
(b) Racism.
(c) The Democrats' incompetence.
(d) A very good communications team.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rankine write holds a place in her "referential memory" in a way it does not in white people's memory?

2. Which Latino poet does Rankine discuss briefly with her friend in Part IV?

3. Which experiment results were used in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case to show the adverse effect of racism on Black children?

4. What does Rankine do to small pieces of the text of her poem on page 213 that is visually striking?

5. What does Rankine's white friend tell her about why she refused to follow the play's instructions at the end of the play in Part III?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the very beginning of Part III, what does Rankine write that she is attempting to understand?

2. In Part IV, what does a white man say to a white woman - ostensibly his partner - when she arrives at the airport gate late?

3. What does the white man in the hallway in Part III say to Rankine that she finds flabbergasting?

4. Why does Rankine stop herself abruptly when comparing herself and a white friend in Part III?

5. How does Rankine eventually come to better understand her friend's actions at the play Fairview?

6. What did former President Lyndon Johnson tell journalist Bill Moyers about white and Black relations?

7. What cliched phrase that is often used to excuse terrible behavior on the part of boys and men did Rankine recall hearing after the Kavanaugh hearings in Part IV?

8. In Part IV, what kinds of conversations does Rankine include excerpts from?

9. What is one major way Rankine points out in which Black people are historically economically more disadvantaged than whites?

10. What makes Rankine so angry at the play Fairview?

(see the answer keys)

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