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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 many of Mitchell Jackson's father figures were biologically related to him?
(a) Six.
(b) Four.
(c) Zero.
(d) Two.

2. What adverb is repeated 14 times within the poem "Queries of Unrest"?
(a) Possibly.
(b) Perhaps.
(c) Ostensibly.
(d) Maybe.

3. 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?
(a) Fear.
(b) Vulnerability.
(c) An absurd stuckness.
(d) Mirth.

4. Though Mitchell Jackson's father lived no more than a bike ride away from his mother's home, for how many formative years of his life was Mitchell's father absent?
(a) Four.
(b) Eight.
(c) Ten.
(d) Five.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When Kiese Laymon invites his grandmother up to Oxford where he lives at the time, why does she refuse to come?

2. To what city did the author of "Black and Blue" move in 1996 in order to attend college?

3. What does the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" ultimately determine is the one feeling that the whole United States needs to share before racially-motivated police brutality can end?

4. In what decade did the the use of blackface begin?

5. For which organization did Rachel Dolezal serve as a chapter president before the news broke that she was feigning her African-American ancestry?

Short Essay Questions

1. What two categories does Kevin Young say white thinking or acting out about being black almost always fall into and what example does he give for each category he names?

2. What two reasons does the author of "Know Your Rights" give for being bothered by her four-year-old son's tantrum during the family's walk to High Bridge?

3. Why does Kevin Young insert "[name withheld]" rather than naming the killer responsible for the murders in Charleston?

4. In what ways did Kiese Laymon feel validated and inspired by the words of Andre 3000 at the Source Awards of 1995?

5. Name at least three actions that the author of "Composite Pops" attributes to all of the men he describes as Pops, his composite father.

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

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

8. What distinction does Kiese Laymon make between "stank" and "freshness" (118) in his essay "Da Art of Storytellin' (A Prequel)"?

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

10. At the start of the essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning," why do the two women talking about one's recent arrival of a son laugh when the new mother says her first thought had been how she could get her baby boy out of America?

(see the answer keys)

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