The damage Obama did to black people

Scrolling through some comments following an article by Bret Easton Ellis, I came across this comment that is worth pondering.

We were out with a black couple shortly after the election and they were saying things that I hadn't even thought about. "Race relations were getting SO MUCH BETTER before Obama took office, but now look what's happened .. he is teaching young black kids that cops are out in the streets hunting them down, we have riots in the streets and cops are getting shot. Obama started this mess and now we black people have to live in this mess". "Obama tried to convince blacks that we are the victims of white privilege ... he had a huge chip on his shoulder towards white people, probably from listening to that Reverend Wright for 25 years".

"Obama doesn't realize that white people now avoid us in public and even in my office. Before Obama, lots of white people would introduce themselves and it was easy to make friends with white people ... but now white people avoid eye contact with us and I can't really blame them for that". "This could impact my ability to get promoted and I definitely think it will be a factor in hiring ... white managers might now hesitate to hire blacks because of all the bad feelings out there right now".

Wow --- That was Deep. I hadn't thought of any of those aspects of Obama's attitude towards whites. I had to admit to these folks that there have been instances in the past year where I definitely found myself avoiding eye contact with blacks (and I noticed cases where they were avoiding eye contact with me). I had to think and I realized it was true that during the past year, I haven't been walking up to blacks and introducing myself like I normally did before Obama started poking the nation in the eye. I guess this will be his lasting Legacy (setting race relations back 40 years).

From my perspective as a white male, I can see the damage that Obama has done to race relations, but it has not affected my personal life.  But I can see that it may set back the opportunity that non-radical Black professional have outside of the academy (where blackness is a virtue).   When you see Black people on the street do you think to yourself: "odds are high that he's an Obama supporter."  How does that make you feel?