How does North Carolina compare to other Southern states in terms of % black population?
22% black. More than Virginia, less than Obama's other Southern states. But the racial divide is considerably less stark in North Carolina than in the Deep South, more similar to Virginia. Racist voting patterns are still somewhat stronger in NC than in VA, however, as the "Northernized" (for lack of a better term) urban and suburban white population is smaller.
Far western North Carolina will be brutal for Obama, although not quite as bad as southwestern Virginia; more like eastern Tennessee. Obama will win white voters in some parts of the center of the state, where most of the population (and especially most of the Democrats) live.
