This report examines one subset of the 1980 U.S. Census to assess the socioeconomic status of Blacks and Hispanics relative to non-Hispanic Whites in Chicago, and to minorities in the 10 other Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in the United States with populations greater than 2.5 million. Eight indicators of socioeconomic disparity (including such factors as median family income, percent of individuals and families below the poverty level, and unemployment rate) are examined and presented in a series of tables. The report points out that Hispanics and, even more so, Blacks continue to fare worse than Whites; and that these disparities are far greater in Chicago than in other major urban areas. Several hypotheses based on demographic explanations (such as, "the greater the Black proportion of the population, the lower will be Blacks' relative socioeconomic status") are explored, but each is disproved and the report concludes that no single factor explains these racial inequities. Alternative hypotheses tentatively advanced are that Blacks are more segregated residentially in Chicago than in any other major metropolitan area; that "boss" politics have funneled most resources to non-Black sections of the community; and that midwestern conservatism and ethnic hostility are part of the root causes of the large socioeconomic gap between races. (CJM)