Check Those Statistics

From Don’t Believe the Hype by Farai Chideya

Try this quiz using facts from Farai Chideya’s book
Don’t Believe the Hype:
(answers are below)

1. What percentage of U.S. newspapers don’t have any black reporters on staff?

a. 53% b. 45% c. 33% d. 15%

2. How many poor black families and poor white families are there in America?

a. 5 million black, over 2 million white

b. 3 million black, 3 million white

c. Over 2 million black, 5 million white

d. 4 million black, over 5 million white

3. From 1980 to 1990, in terms of the rate of increase for children born to single mothers:

a. The black rate grew nine times as much as the white rate

b. The white rate grew nine times as much as the black rate

c. Both rates are increasing rapidly

d. The black rate is increasing and the white rate is decreasing

4. What percentage of the 71,000 Americans employed as any type of professional athlete are African-Americans?

a. 60% b. 25% c. 10% d. 7%

5. In a phenomenon called “tipping”, white residents of a neighborhood tend to move out when a certain percentage of neighbors are black. What percentage of black neighbors causes “white flight”?

a. 20% b. 15% c. 8% d. 4%

6. The first person to die in the American Revolution, during the Boston massacre in 1770, was:

a. A free black man

b. A free white man

c. A white indentured servant

d. A black slave

7. In what year did Patrick Francis Healy become the first president of Georgetown University and the first African-American to head a white institution of higher learning?

a. 1774 b. 1832 c. 1874 d. 1932

 

8. Powder cocaine (largely used by whites) and crack cocaine (largely used by blacks) contain roughly the same amount of the drug per gram. How much of either substance must an individual be convicted of possessing to be sentenced to a mandatory minimum of five years in jail under federal law?

a. 500 grams of powder or crack cocaine

b. 50 grams of powder or 5 grams of crack cocaine

c. 500 grams of powder or 5 grams of crack cocaine

d. 5 grams of powder or crack cocaine

9. What percent of America’s drug users are black and what percent are white?

a. Over 50% black, 35% white

b. Over 25% black, 50% white

c. 12% black, 50% white

d. 12% black, 70% white

10. True or False: In 1991, there were more black males aged 18 to 24 in prison than in college.

Answers:

1. b

2. c

3. c

4. c

5. b

6. a

7. c

8. c

9. d

10. False: In 1991, there were 378,000 black males aged 18-24 in college, while there were only 136,000 black men the same age in prison!

 

Have you been misinformed?

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