Although many Whites, noting the presence of some Blacks in the middle

@daagh@
please explain what happen "of a wide or wide of "

The intended meaning of the sentence is that the Blacks are aware of the high racial discrepancy the average income and unemployment figures show.
In this context, 'as wide of' is not idiomatic. Hence we can eliminate A,C,D.
Option E, aware of figures for.... can alter the meaning.
IMO, B

please highlight the difference between 'as wide of a' and 'as wide a'

Hello, Aman1012. Needless to say, given the content, this is not an official question. To answer your question, though, beyond the cosmetic difference of the former adding the preposition of, you can play around with the grammatical pieces of the sentence and see that the preposition really has no place in the comparison. Consider the following stripped-down clause:

Blacks are aware that the figures show a discrepancy that is as wide as ever.

The as... as construct is used to surround an adjective or adverb, and wide plays the part of the adjective. If you place the preposition back in, you will find that it cannot fit in anywhere seamlessly:

Option 1: Blacks are aware that the figures show of a discrepancy that is as wide as ever.
Option 2: Blacks are aware that the figures show a discrepancy that is as wide of as ever.
Option 3: Blacks are aware that the figures show a discrepancy that is as wide as ever of.

It is apparent that a noun should follow the preposition, but we have little to work with in the sentence. Credit to the person who wrote the question, the GMAT™ often does place words in tight spaces to make them feel right. In the original sentence, as wide of a radical discrepancy as ever does not seem glaringly incorrect, but you probably know not to trust your ear too frequently on Sentence Corrections. Sometimes it can help to straighten out exactly what the phrases and clauses are getting at to test whether an extra word or two may be necessary. In this case, the answer is definitely no.

I hope that helps clarify the issue. If not, feel free to ask away.

- Andrew

The option split is b/w - "that ..." and "of..."

Idiomatically, "that" has more of a logical sense as compared to "of" and so D and E are eliminated.

"that the figures for X and Y" is wordy as against "that X and Y figures" hence A is eliminated.

"as wide a racial discrepancy as" v/s "as wide of a racial discrepancy as"

The latter introduces a redundant "of" and hence option C can be eliminated.

Option B is, therefore, the correct answer.

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