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

2. In Chapter 4: Optimism, Irving finds significance in the fact that she did not live through which historical event?
(a) The Red Scare.
(b) The Great Depression.
(c) The Korean War.
(d) The Jonestown Flood.

3. Irving describes in Chapter 7: The GI BIll the way in which she came to view which object from her childhood in a negative light?
(a) Her bicycle.
(b) Her church.
(c) Her house.
(d) Her car.

4. Irving remarks on the recent push to use the term "enslaved African" (107) in lieu of which term?
(a) Indentured servant.
(b) Slave.
(c) African immigrant.
(d) Immigrant.

5. Chapter 5: Within the Walls asks readers to reconsider the definition of which term?
(a) Privilege.
(b) Poverty.
(c) Exclusive.
(d) Rich.

Short Answer Questions

1. At what age did Irving graduate from college, effectively ending the unexamined part of her life?

2. Irving states that American culture and government have always rejected the idea of America as what object?

3. At which institution was Dr. McIntosh teaching when she wrote an influential essay about white privilege?

4. Irving states that skin color symbolism plus favoritism plus power equals which element?

5. Between 1820 and 1920, how many million people with light skin immigrated from non-Anglo countries to the United States?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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.

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

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

4. What message does Irving send in Chapter 3: Race Versus Class about the distinction between those two elements of society?

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

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

7. What is the significance of Jean Elliott's experimentation in 1968?

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

9. What singular conclusion does Irving draw about culture in Chapter 3: Race Versus Class?

10. How does Irving explore the origins of the desirability of white skin in Chapter 8: Racial Categories?

(see the answer keys)

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