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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. The series of Know Your Rights murals were commissioned by a coalition of grassroots organizations called People's Justice for Community Control and what?

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

3. What is NOT one of the services Mitchell Jackson says had been provided to him by one or all of his group of father figures?

4. When Kevin Young, the author of "Blacker Than Thou" outlines his next book for the reader, under what type of text does he say his new book falls?

5. What song did President Barack Obama sing at the funeral for those killed in the Emanuel Mother Church massacre?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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?

6. How does the poem "Queries of Unrest" connect to the part of the collection that it opens, entitled Reckoning?

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

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two of the poems contained in The Fire This Time and write an essay comparing and contrasting their respective messages and literary techniques.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the use of Aristotle's appeals within a particular essay and how the author employs the three appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to put forth a solid argument.

Essay Topic 3

Many different areas of the United States are discussed within the works included in The Fire This Time. Discuss the sense of place contained in three particular essays and how the discussion of the sense of place helps each author further his or her message regarding race in America.

(see the answer keys)

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