Judging all of Chicago based on Hyde Park is like judging DC based on Anacostia, or San Francisco based on the Tenderloin. Every large city has certain neighborhoods with high crime, unfortunately. One of Chicago’s just happens to host a world class university. It’s just a very narrow and unflattering view of an entire metropolitan area. Everyone I know who lives in Chicago laughs at all the national press proclaiming it a war zone, it just doesn’t match up with the lives experience of so many people. Now, I think that points to a larger issue of inequality and socioeconomic segregation, but nonetheless it just isn’t reality that all of Chicago is a wasteland.

They shouldn't laugh. Gang violence in Chicago won't impact them and doesn't change how nice a city Chicago is to live in if you're wealthy and if you want to run a business; it is one of the great US cities. But it is also other things, at the same time. The violence in Chicago is no joke. I live just outside the city, in Oak Park, which is across Austin Blvd from the (rough) west side of Chicago. Black kids in Oak Park have friends in Austin --- why wouldn't they? It's across the street! --- and if they go hang out with their friends in Austin, they get shot.

The safe parts of Chicago are very safe. The dangerous parts of Chicago are, for residents or people who could be mistaken for residents, a calamity and a legitimate national embarrassment.

There is a well known story of an African chemistry PhD student at UChicago in the last decade who had just defended and was shot to death in a robbery right next to Midway Market. One of the perps got 120 years.

do non-black kids in oak park have friends in Austin that they go hang out with and get shot in the process?

Not that I know of.