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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. Why is Rankine so mad at her friend for not following the instructions at the play in Part III?
(a) She thinks it was disrespectful to the playwright and that it was also a way of exercising white privilege.
(b) She thinks it was insulting to Martin Luther King Jr.
(c) She thinks it was her friend's way of showing how much more money she had than Rankine had.
(d) She thinks it demonstrates her friend's lifelong racist behavior.

2. 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) Are you stupid?
(b) Why can you never do anything right?
(c) Do you want me to hit you?
(d) Do you not realize how fat you are?

3. Who wrote the play Rankine goes to see in Part III with a white friend?
(a) Leslie Hinds.
(b) Stephen Retrow.
(c) Neil Simon.
(d) Jackie Sibblies Drury.

4. Which actress does Rankine mention as being blacklisted in the 1960s?
(a) Halle Berry.
(b) Sandra Bullock.
(c) Marilyn Monroe.
(d) Eartha Kitt.

5. What is one major difference Rankine understands between her life and that of her dear white friend in Part III, even though they share many similarities?
(a) Rankine did not have children, and her friend did.
(b) Rankine did not have any inherited wealth.
(c) Rankine did not have health insurance, and her friend did.
(d) Rankine did not have anyone else help her pay for college.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote the play Waiting for Godot?

2. What does Rankine think about the preschool teacher's tears when her friend removed her young son from the private school?

3. What is the name of former First Lady Michelle Obama's memoir, which Rankine references in Part III?

4. Which U.S. senator once said, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be in the front row"?

5. What does Rankine insist at a dinner party in Part III was a major cause of Donald Trump's presidential election in 2016?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why does Rankine think it is particularly puzzling that the white female judge in Part IV seems to fear for her son's life as he moves to Brooklyn?

4. Which trope does Rankine feel she is "sailing closer and closer to" in Part III at a dinner party and why does she feel this way (149)?

5. What does Rankine think will be the likely fallout from her speaking at the dinner party the way she does in Part III?

6. Where does Rankine say the term "people of color" first came from?

7. What does the term "people of color" mean to Rankine?

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

9. 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?

10. What upsets Rankine the most about the behavior of the other guests at the dinner party in Part III?

(see the answer keys)

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