Between the World and Me

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Chapter 1, Pages 1-25

Reading Check

1. Who is Coates writing this book for?

2. What event inspired Coates to write this book?

3. What emotion characterizes the Black people Coates knew growing up?

Multiple Choice

1. When talking to the news host, what does Coates cite as the reason he fears losing his body?

A) White people have recently started taking matters into their own hands.

B) He is more concerned because of his father’s recent death.

C) American politics and media have become more polarized.

D) America has a long history of destroying the bodies of Black people.

2. What does Coates say about police who kill Black men?

A) They are reprehensible outliers.

B) They demonstrate that the system doesn’t work.

C) They correctly interpret their role in American society.

D) They believe their actions are justified, which is pitiable.

3. Why doesn’t Coates comfort his son after Michael Brown’s killer is exonerated?

A) He wants his son to be a strong man.

B) Comforting him would indicate that things would be okay.

C) He does not want to embarrass him.

D) He doesn’t know how to present the truth to such a young man.