ABSTRACT
Recently, a colleague stopped by my office after her class. She was laughing because her students had just asserted that 65 percent of the population of nearby Chicago was African-American. They based their estimate on the anecdotal evidence gained through everyday observations of those whom they see waiting for trains, taking their money in checkout lines, and shopping in stores. When she corrected them, the students were stunned. In fact, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, the percentage of blacks in Chicago is only 37 percent.
