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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Menakem's brother do for a living?
(a) He is a doctor.
(b) He is an architect.
(c) He is a lawyer.
(d) He is a police officer.

2. What does Menakem advocate adding to one's life in Chapter 17 to improve it?
(a) Alcohol.
(b) Vegetables.
(c) More cheese.
(d) Softness.

3. What is most police training, according to Menakem?
(a) Tactical.
(b) Non-verbal.
(c) Psychological.
(d) Verbal.

4. How are police expected to act in many towns and communities, according to Menakem?
(a) Like religious leaders.
(b) Like teachers.
(c) Like friends.
(d) Like soldiers.

5. How many opposing forces does Menakem say a person will notice in attempting to mend trauma?
(a) 5.
(b) 2.
(c) 3.
(d) 4.

6. What is the second step of moving through clean pain focused on?
(a) Staying in the here and now.
(b) Journaling.
(c) Singing.
(d) Dancing.

7. What does Menakem say police officers do not have to choose between?
(a) Being happy and being a good cop.
(b) Being a loyal cop who enforces white-body supremacy and being a traitor.
(c) Being fit and being a good cop.
(d) Having a family and being a good cop.

8. What creature does Menakem use in an example of a hypothetical brutal act in the beginning of Chapter 16?
(a) A groundhog.
(b) A bird.
(c) A rabbit.
(d) A puppy.

9. What is one way for Black people to mend their own hearts, as Menakem explains it in the end of Chapter 15?
(a) To observe themselves carefully and notice when and how white-body supremacy operates inside them.
(b) To write.
(c) To participate in activism.
(d) To go back to school.

10. Why is white-body supremacy so intractable?
(a) It was taught in schools for years.
(b) It is financially beneficial.
(c) It offers a sense of belonging to white bodies.
(d) It is seen as an intelligent way of thinking.

11. Healing does not occur in which of the following?
(a) Solidarity.
(b) A light room.
(c) A vacuum.
(d) Darkness.

12. Which of the following are activities Menakem suggests to get the soul nerve functioning the way it should?
(a) Belly breathing, buzzing, and/or slow rocking.
(b) Playing a sport.
(c) Drinking alcohol.
(d) Finding a cat or dog to adopt.

13. Why did the police officer who killed Philando Castile say he felt in danger?
(a) The officer was angry from something unrelated that had happened that day.
(b) The officer was feeling sick.
(c) The officer was tired.
(d) Castile had a gun in the car.

14. What is helpful after one experiences a stressful event, as Menakem explains the process in Chapter 13?
(a) Buying things.
(b) Playing golf.
(c) Cooking a meal.
(d) Talking to someone who is an active listener.

15. Why does Menakem write that people often visit him for therapy?
(a) To be with his settled, regulated nervous system.
(b) To make jokes with him.
(c) To see his fish tank.
(d) To look at his books.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who shot Philando Castile?

2. Which of the following are body practices to do with those people we know and trust?

3. What is one area where the soul nerve does not connect to?

4. What traumatic historical event does Menakem ask the reader to look up online in Chapter 16?

5. In Chapter 8, what does Menakem explicitly say is not a valid defense for murder?

(see the answer keys)

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