The premise of a story like this one, on the impact of the administration's decision to stop defending DOMA on Obama's relationship with the black community, would inevitably lead to a hilarious nutgraf:
Some say the decision is dismaying, though not damning. Others may be rethinking their views, given the influence Obama has in the African American community. And there are those who don't seem to care much at all.
Wait, so you're saying black people have different opinions on stuff? Where's the Drudge siren?
The most irritating thing about coverage of race and gay rights generally is that it departs from a place of polls showing black Americans, who tend to be more religious, being more resistant to gay rights. But those polls don't measure salience, so the media often fail to recognize that regardless of how most black people feel about gay marriage, it's not an issue that is going to move significant numbers of black voters away from the Democratic Party, let alone the first black president.
My guess is that the overall impact of the first black president and attorney general opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and drawing connections between gay rights causes and the struggle for black rights will nudge the black community toward greater acceptance of marriage equality. But even if it doesn't, black people are not going to vote for a party that wants to entirely defund public services, fixates on the imagined persecution of whites, and believes in the inherent moral virtue of the wealthy. At least not until race and socioeconomic status are entirely decoupled or Republicans become a very different party.
