How racial appeals to black voters have changed — and worsened — under Obama

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Making appeals based on race is not new in politics. It can be subtle, like the posters of President Obama sitting in a barber's chair that hung in black barbershops in 2008. Or it can be overt and bordering on offensive, like the lynching images left on the car windows of black churchgoers in North Carolina. (For their part, conservatives in the state are running ads that ask this question: “Does Kay Hagan care that 1 out of 3 babies aborted in America are black?”)

As the push to get black voters to the polls comes down to the wire in the midterms, Democrats and progressive groups are using such images to engage black voters. Ferguson, Trayvon Martin and kids in bulletproof vests have all shown up in fliers, radio ads and Web videos. The goal behind the appeals — whether subtle or overt — is the same: to spark some sort of emotional connection, either positive or negative, in a voter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/30/how-racial-appeals-to-black-voters-have-changed-and-worsened-under-obama/

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There is clearly an Obama bounce in these numbers. In 2009, the year he was inaugurated, African Americans were especially high on their relationships with whites. Five years later, that's changed markedly.