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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. In Chapter 30: My Good People, Irving tries to rectify her concept of herself as a good person with her certainty that she has also been displaying which other quality?
(a) Apathy.
(b) Cruelty.
(c) Cluelessness.
(d) Xenophobia.

2. Irving states in Chapter 5: Within the Walls, "If I could turn back time and rewrite the script for those years, my parents would be deft at sharing with me the realities of American history, especially" what?
(a) Reconstruction.
(b) The civil rights movement.
(c) The Civil War.
(d) The history of slavery.

3. In the story Irving uses to open Chapter 1: What Wasn't Said, how old was she at the time?
(a) 10.
(b) 7.
(c) 3.
(d) 5.

4. In Chapter 6: From Confusion to Shock, Irving describes moving to the city of Cambridge in which state after college?
(a) Virginia.
(b) California.
(c) New Mexico.
(d) Massachusetts.

5. Irving asserts that American culture and government have always embraced the idea of America as what object?
(a) A melting pot.
(b) A black hole.
(c) A mosaic.
(d) A city on a hill.

Short Answer Questions

1. Irving remarks on the recent push to use the term "enslaved African" (107) in lieu of which term?

2. When Irving was not yet ready to examine her own white privilege, which other quality of her identity did she decide to start with?

3. In what year did Dr. McIntosh write an essay called "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (86)?

4. In Chapter 15: The Whole Story, Irving warns the reader of the dangers associated with what types of stories?

5. What term is used to describe the rule in which people of mixed races in America are assigned the identity of the race considered inferior by the dominant white culture?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which movement within history does Irving wish her parents had discussed with her?

2. What was the Carlisle School and what effect did it have on the rest of the country?

3. Compare and contrast the answer Irving's mother gave her in Chapter 1: What Wasn't Said with the answer Irving believes should have been delivered.

4. For what reason does Irving use an allusion to the television show I Love Lucy in Chapter 12: Icebergs?

5. What solution does Irving offer for creating a more complete picture of American history?

6. Discuss an instance when Irving uses statistics to back up one of her points regarding racism.

7. Describe one theme present within the epigraph presented at the beginning of Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race.

8. Which characteristic did Irving's father stress above all others and why is this fact ironic?

9. In what way does Irving use repetition to underscore the importance of her message in Chapter 14: Zap!?

10. What major myth propagated within the population of Baby Boomers does Irving discuss in Chapter 4: Optimism?

(see the answer keys)

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