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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. How does the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" characterize the attempt by some white people to amend the language of the Black Lives Matter movement to All Lives Matter?
(a) Subliminal racism.
(b) Unintentional ignorance.
(c) Ethnocentrism personified.
(d) Centralizing whiteness.

2. Kiese Laymon reports that it "was only after listening to ATLliens" that he realized where he needed to go as a human being and an artist. What did he decide he needed to do?
(a) Be an emcee.
(b) Write fiction.
(c) Make music.
(d) Write memoirs.

3. What musician does Kevin Young name as the most prominent example of a white person living as a black person?
(a) Bobby Darin.
(b) Little Richard.
(c) Rufus Wainwright.
(d) Johnny Otis.

4. What two things does Kevin Young state that people must not have done in a while if they are surprised by "a white lady darkening her skin and curling her hair"? (106)
(a) They have not read the newspapers or watched the news.
(b) They have not watched a sitcom or read a book.
(c) They have not opened their eyes or taken a walk.
(d) They have not been out of the house or been online.

5. To which book of the Bible does the OutKast song "Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 2)" refer?
(a) Psalms.
(b) Genesis.
(c) Job.
(d) Revelations.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the author and her friend laugh at the immediate thought of getting one's child out of the country upon his birth, what is NOT named as one of the sources of their laughter?

2. To what danger is the author of the essay "Black and Blue" referring when he writes, "The streets had their own safety. Unlike at home, there I could be myself without fear of bodily harm" (130)?

3. When Kiese Laymon was busy analyzing the Outkast song "Wailin'," what was he supposed to be doing instead?

4. What does Emily Raboteau name as her first instinct when she first sees the first Know Your Rights mural in her neighborhood?

5. What two qualities of his grandmother's does Kiese Laymon say he did not understand or feel inspired by until he heard his first OutKast album?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is People's Justice and what is the organization's goal?

2. What was the object mentioned in the very first lines of OutKast's music first heard by Kiese Laymon and why did the object's mention draw him in?

3. How is repetition employed within the poem "Queries of Unrest" and to what effect?

4. Who does Claudia Rankine name as the person who created "a new pathway for how to think about a lynched body" (147) and what does she mean?

5. What does Kevin Young write is one of the best things about being black?

6. What event does the author of "Composite Pops" name as the one that taught him that he must be able to save himself?

7. What does the author of "Composite Pops" say that a boy must do if he is "not blessed with a father or gifted with a dynamic stand-in" (180)?

8. What contrast does the author of "Black and Blue" set up by using a quote from Fats Waller and a quote by Walt Whitman prior to the body of his essay?

9. Why does Garnette Cadogan hold out hope that he will not encounter the same problems while walking in New York City that he had while walking in New Orleans?

10. How is paradox employed within the poem "Queries of Unrest" and to what effect?

(see the answer keys)

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