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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In order to get away from the site of the murder of her son, Tamir Rice, Samaria Rice moved out of her Cleveland home and into what type of dwelling?

2. The final line of the poem "Queries of Unrest" references "trying to save them the time of" doing what "to darkness when all they have to do is close their eyes" (100)?

3. In what Jamaican city did Garnette Cadogan, the author of the essay "Black and Blue," grow up?

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

5. In his essay "Blacker Than Thou," Kevin Young says that "racism's daily injustices are almost" a what "against it" (112)?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What does Garnette Cadogan mean when he writes that "the way home became home" (130) during his childhood in Jamaica?

3. How does Garnette Cadogan misunderstand the advice of the university officials who tell him to walk only in certain areas of New Orleans after his move there to attend college?

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

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

6. 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)?

7. How does Kevin Young, the author of the essay "Blacker Than Thou" support his point that similarities and solidarity among black people are more about culture than about physical appearances?

8. 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?

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

10. What does Kevin Young identify as the main problem with Rachel Dolezal's claim of African ancestry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Determine the main message put forth within Natasha Trethewey's poem "Theories of Time and Space" and use examples and concrete details from the poem to prove your claim.

Essay Topic 2

Investigate the overarching ways in which James Baldwin's life and works resonate throughout the collection The Fire This Time.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the theme of expectation versus reality is explored within the collection The Fire This Time.

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