How Culturally Literate Are You?
This quiz is not graded; don't waste your time looking up the answers on wiki or whatever to get a great grade/score. Just choose the answer that you think is correct and an explanation of every answer will be provided (if you want to learn about these types of things - and you should). Scroll down at the end of the quiz to review your answers and learn more!
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This quiz is from the text "Turning on Learning: Five Approaches forMulticultural Teaching Plans for Race, Class, Gender and Disability" byCarl A. Grant and Christine E. Sleeter.
- 1.
The first clock in the United States was made by an African American mathematician.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
A. TrueExplanation
His name was Benjamin Banneker.Rate this question:
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- 2.
Charles Drew was an African American surgeon who performed the first successful heart operation.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
B. FalseExplanation
The surgeon was Daniel H. Williams. Charles Drew pioneered research on blood plasma. Both were African Americans.Rate this question:
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- 3.
Just over one hundred years ago, during the decade of the 1890s, the U.S. government took over Puerto Rico and the Philippines through war, legalized racial segregation in the United States, overthrew the government of Hawaii, consolidated the subjugation of Native American nations, and opened its gates to European immigrants.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
A. TrueExplanation
The revolutionary movements of Puerto Rico and the Philippines were betrayed by the United States when it forced both countries to become its protectorates and replaced Spanish rule with U.S. Colonial rule. This was the period of "Manifest Destiny" and the beginning of U.S. imperialism. The last decade of the nineteenth century could be considered the most aggressively racist and imperialist of U.S. History. Effects of that decade are still very real: the United States still occupies Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans and Filipinos live and work on the U.S. mainland but experience highly disproportionate poverty rates: segregation was not legally undermined in the United States until 1954, and its effects are still felt; American Indian nations and Hawaiian people are still attempting to reclaim land, treaty rights, and legal recognition; and the economic status of European Americans is considerably higher than that of other groups partly because of their legalized access to jobs over several decades.Rate this question:
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- 4.
The forced migration of the Sioux people from their homeland in Georgia to Oklahoma, during which 1/4 of them died of starvation, disease, and exposure is known as the "Trail of Tears."
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
B. FalseExplanation
It was the Cherokee who were moved, not the Sioux. This action was actually taken against a U.S. Supreme Court Ruling.Rate this question:
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- 5.
During WWII, the United States placed many innocent citizens in concentrations camps and confiscated their property.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
A. TrueExplanation
The victims of this action were Japanese American citizens; Italian Americans also experienced confiscation of property.Rate this question:
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- 6.
There was no federal ruling protecting U.S. citizens' rights to marry a person of another race until 1970.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
A. TrueExplanation
Many states protected this right, but some did not, and the federal government did not until 1970.Rate this question:
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- 7.
Mong people began to immigrate to the United States after their Southeast Asian country was destroyed in their defeat by the United States.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
B. FalseExplanation
Mong people had migrated to Laos before the Vietnam war; they had no country of their own. They sided with the United States during the war and lost many people then. Because they were allied with the United States, thousands were driven out of Laos to refugee camps in Thailand, and they subsequently immigrated to the United States.Rate this question:
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- 8.
During the Renaissance, the status of women (especially creative and independent women) in Europe rose fairly significantly.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
B. FalseExplanation
Paradoxically, although creativity flourished among European men during this time, women's status fell as women in large numbers were persecuted and burned as witches. Creative and independent women were especially vulnerable; women's power was suppressed and maligned to such an extent that today "witches" are laughed at and ridiculed, and the persecution of women is barely remembered.Rate this question:
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- 9.
Mexican women have never been involved in political or labor struggles because traditionally their place has been in the home.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
B. FalseExplanation
Mexican and Mexican American women traditionally have occupied an important place in the home but also have been involved in political and labor struggles. (A good source of inormation on this subject is Adelaida R. Del Castillo [Ed.], Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/Chicana History [Encino, CA: Floricanto Press, 1990].)Rate this question:
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- 10.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Timbuktu, in the African kingdom of Songhay, was one of the world's greatest cities, renowned as an intellectual and cultural center.
- A.
True
- B.
False
Correct Answer
A. TrueExplanation
Songhay was one of a number of highly advanced empires in Africa, a fact rarely developed in textbooks. Some books still perpetuate the myth of Africa as the "dark continent," despite increasing archaeological evidence that it may have been the seat of civilization where the human species originated.Rate this question:
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- 11.
The song "Yellow Rose of Texas" was written to refer to:
- A.
A flower
- B.
A poor African American women
- C.
A European American Southern Belle
- D.
A cow
Correct Answer
B. A poor African American womenExplanation
This is an example of how some European Americans have appropriated a song created by another racial group and passed it off as their own. This has happened over and over again, particularly with music created by African Americans.Rate this question:
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- 12.
LULAC is a:
- A.
Name of a song
- B.
Type of American Indian poetry
- C.
Filipino club
- D.
Latino American political organization
Correct Answer
D. Latino American political organizationExplanation
The acronym stands for League of United Latin American Citizens.Rate this question:
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- 13.
The National Women's Party first introduced the Equal Rights Amendment in Congress in:
- A.
1923
- B.
1949
- C.
1963
- D.
1972
Correct Answer
A. 1923Explanation
It has been introduced every year since then.Rate this question:
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- 14.
America was discovered by:
- A.
African explorers in CE 1252
- B.
Hwui Shan, a Chinese Buddhist priest in CE 458
- C.
Christopher Columbus in CE 1492
- D.
Leif Ericson in the eleventh century
- E.
None of the above
Correct Answer
E. None of the aboveExplanation
While there is evidence ranging from well established to speculative that all of the people mentioned (and more) arrived in the Americas on the dates indicated, the best answer is probably (E), inasmuch as millions of Native Americans were present long before any of these others arrived. In fact, the speak of the "discovery of America" is an insult to Native Americans, as it seems to imply that the Americas had no significance until someone who was not Native American arrived and "discovered" them.Rate this question:
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- 15.
"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office...I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality." This statement was made by which of the following?
- A.
Herbert Spencer, a leading exponent of Social Darwinism in the late 1800s
- B.
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy
- C.
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States
- D.
The Know-Nothing Party's presidential candidate in 1852
- E.
None of the above
Correct Answer
C. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United StatesExplanation
It is interesting that despite this attitude toward African Americans, Lincoln later became known as the "Great Emancipator." His position on slavery was probably dictated more by politics than by moral concerns.Rate this question:
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- 16.
Akwesanse Notes is currently the national newspaper of:
- A.
The Mohawk Nation
- B.
Puerto Rico
- C.
Japanese Americans in California
- D.
Bolivia
Correct Answer
A. The Mohawk NationExplanation
As semisovereign nations, several Native American nations have their newspapers. Some, such as the Menominee, produce their own license plates. Many maps of the United States still do not recognize American Indian reservations, which perpetuates the invisibility of these governmental units among the non-American Indian population.Rate this question:
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- 17.
The eleven persons who were murdered in a mass lynching in New Orleans in 1891 were members of which of the following ethnic groups?
- A.
Chinese
- B.
African Americans
- C.
Italians
- D.
French Indians
Correct Answer
C. ItaliansExplanation
There were also many other incidents of violence against Italians in the late 1800s.Rate this question:
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- 18.
A man and his son were involved in a car accident in which the father was killed instantly and the son seriously injured. The son was rushed to the hospital and taken immediately into surgery. The surgeon entered the operating room, looked at the patient, and exclaimed, "Oh my god! I can't operate. That's my son!" The explanation for this situation is that:
- A.
It was a case of mistaken identity
- B.
The surgeon was the boy's stepfather
- C.
The surgeon was the ghost of the boy's father
- D.
None of the above
Correct Answer
D. None of the aboveExplanation
A more plausible answer is, of course, that the surgeon was the boy's mother.Rate this question:
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- 19.
If you are a sansei, you are:
- A.
A master in Karate
- B.
A respected grandparent
- C.
A third-generation Japanese American
- D.
A foreigner in an Asian American community
Correct Answer
C. A third-generation Japanese AmericanExplanation
A first-generation Japanese American is called issei, and a second generation Japenese American is called nisei. These are Japanese terms that Japanese Americans use to describe themselves in the United States.Rate this question:
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Mar 22, 2023Quiz Edited by
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Apr 04, 2009Quiz Created by
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