View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part II, Reckoning: "Black and Blue"; "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning"; "Know Your Rights!"; "Composite Pops".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What topic is NOT listed among the issues that the author of "Lonely in America" feels unable to fixate upon in order to dispel her sense of loneliness?
(a) The failures of the federal government.
(b) Friendship.
(c) Poverty.
(d) Racism.

2. What was the first OutKast album Kiese Laymon ever heard?
(a) Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
(b) Aquemini.
(c) AtLliens.
(d) Stankonia.

3. What is the term used for a person's ability to be regarded as belonging to a different race, culture, or group different from their own?
(a) Tracking.
(b) Slinging.
(c) Joining.
(d) Passing.

4. To begin the essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning," Claudia Rankine relates a story about a friend of hers who had just given birth to a baby boy and whose first thought upon his birth was how she could get him out of the country. This thought occurred to her even before she had performed what two actions?
(a) Named him or nursed him.
(b) Checked out of the hospital or brought him home.
(c) Painted the nursery or weaned him.
(d) Potty trained him or weaned him.

5. In what decade did the the use of blackface begin?
(a) 1860s.
(b) 1820s.
(c) 1830s.
(d) 1790s.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Emily Raboteau say had been the primary goal of the perpetrator of the previous week's tragedy on the day her family walks over The High Bridge?

2. Which black female artist's work does Kiese Laymon set up as a counterpoint to the work of OutKast?

3. To what area of the United States does the author of "Lonely in America" say that her "cultural memory of slavery" is relegated?

4. At what type of factory did Kiese Laymon's grandmother work for 30 years?

5. The self-help book that the author of "Lonely in America" tries to live by within the essay says that "to become free of disappointment, one must acknowledge the obvious, then" (37) do what?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 359 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample