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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. What belief did Kiese Laymon's grandmother hold that he points to as the only reason he is alive?

2. 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)

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

4. Kevin Young begins his essay "Blacker Than Thou" by discussing which movie in which Steve Martin plays the lead role?

5. When all flags in the United States flew at half staff after the killings at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, which state did not lower its Confederate flag on state-house grounds?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. How does Emily Raboteau say she wishes to distinguish her role as a mother from both types of mothers depicted in the widely-circulated comic entitled "Still Two Americas"?

3. 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?

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

5. 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?

6. 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?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze how the author of "Blacker Than Thou" uses humor as a way to gain entry into the serious subject of cultural appropriation both historical and current.

Essay Topic 2

Conduct an analysis of the rhetorical devices used by the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" in order to assert her claim that shared grief is the key to unifying the United States in its pursuit of racial equality.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Daniel Jose Older's purpose in choosing the form of a letter to write his piece "This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution." How does the form chosen serve to further his included messages and themes?

(see the answer keys)

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