<p>@Fickle: Fair point in the second paragraph (I still agree with that pragmatism-focus address in the first one, and regardless of the reasons, I think bad relationships with your home neighborhood AND with minorities is bad).</p>
<p>@ILoveUofC: I never implied that the tour person was from the university, nor that, even if he or she had been, that it wasn’t someone else who made the comments. If it had been, that would have been much worse – my framing of the incident as something fairly ramificationless indicates, in fact, that it was someone outside. The point relevant to race relations, one which you haven’t actually disagreed with, is that Chicago is perceived as a place so lacking in black students that a random person of color walking on campus would more likely be thought not to attend (this is the real “whatever reason”). The comments on that Overheard thread don’t indicate that much surprise at these goings-on, which I also think is noteworthy in terms of the prevalence of similar events.</p>
<p>Also, however, I said that the numbers don’t matter when it comes to actual student life and participation, which seems fine/even better than several of the Ivies I can think of offhand. I wrote four paragraphs which employed cultural, statistical, anecdotal, and policy analysis perspectives because I do realize this is a sensitive question. If it’s one you care about, you should probably contribute something better than inflammatory rhetoric and a minor clarification that didn’t necessarily need clarifying.</p>