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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Rothstein say created the emotional time in which the Fair Housing Act was passed?
(a) Rosa Parks’ bus protest.
(b) Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
(c) The march in Selma.
(d) Robert Kennedy’s assassination.

2. How many African Americans moved north in the Second Great Migration?
(a) 19 million.
(b) 1 million.
(c) 118 million.
(d) 4 million.

3. What excuses does Rothstein say federal officials used to hide the racist consequences of housing policy?
(a) They were doing what they were elected to do.
(b) They were just making economic decisions.
(c) People were going to live with their own kind.
(d) People do not like change.

4. How does Rothstein say American histories typically tell the story of housing discrimination?
(a) They cherry-pick stories of success and integration.
(b) They omit most of the details.
(c) They use euphemisms to paint a rosier picture.
(d) They whitewash the systemic racism.

5. How does Rothstein say banks have reacted to the real estate market for black families in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse?
(a) They have started to offer subprime loans to other ethnic groups, to trap them in poverty as well.
(b) They have stopped offering subprime loans to black families.
(c) They have moved to making subprime car loans to black families, instead of home loans.
(d) They are again offering subprime loans to black families.

6. How much did a Levittown house that cost $75,000 in 1947 cost in 2017 when Rothstein published The Color of Law?
(a) $150,000.
(b) $300,000.
(c) $425,000.
(d) $200,000.

7. What does Rothstein say was used after the 1954 Brown decision to fix the problems created by segregated housing?
(a) Inclusionary zoning ordinances.
(b) Busing.
(c) Federal loan guarantees.
(d) Fair share programs.

8. What does Rothstein say organizations used tax-exempt status for?
(a) Legally discriminating against African Americans.
(b) Creating wealth in their properties.
(c) Skirting laws about discrimination.
(d) Getting favorable mortgages for their properties.

9. How does Rothstein characterize the federal, state and local government officials’ racial intent in suppressing African-American wages?
(a) Coded.
(b) Undisguised.
(c) Unintentional.
(d) Obfuscated.

10. What was the main mechanism Rothstein says whites in power used to suppress black wages?
(a) Denying them access to skilled positions.
(b) Denying them access to union representation.
(c) Classifying their labor as exempt from wage regulation.
(d) Stealing their wages through sharecropping.

11. Where did the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) find financing for an integrated development?
(a) Private backers.
(b) Metropolitan Life.
(c) Federal government.
(d) California government.

12. How does Rothstein suggest reforming the Section 8 program?
(a) Limiting recipients to descendants of slaves.
(b) Giving recipients larger subsidies.
(c) Ending the program.
(d) Giving subsidies to more people.

13. What did the development try to do to get Gary out of the development?
(a) Make him pay for his police protection.
(b) Charge him extra for his water and sewer services.
(c) Turn off his electricity.
(d) Buy his house for more than he paid for it.

14. How long did Bill Myers and his family stay in Levittown after the move-in riot?
(a) 4 days.
(b) 6 months.
(c) 4 years.
(d) 4 months.

15. What makes Rothstein say that real estate agents engaged in blockbusting were engaging in de jure segregation?
(a) They were licensed by state real estate boards.
(b) They swore an oath to uphold the non-discrimination local laws.
(c) They were advocating public policies that supported their trade.
(d) They were appointed by the government.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why was Stuyvesant Town not integrated, even though New York state forced the development to admit African Americans?

2. What flag did the mob fly outside of Bill Myers’ house, while the cops stood by doing nothing?

3. What does Rothstein say the American government will have to address along with housing discrimination?

4. What does Rothstein say the American myth that hard work leads to success overlook?

5. What is reverse redlining?

(see the answer keys)

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