{UAH} ALLAN and NEKYON

Moses and Allan,

I'll explain the numbers again:

The Washington Post poll (and article) that you posted showed that 51% of the respondents approved of Obama's job performance. 

Moses pointed out that 13% of the US population is black.  i.e black people = 13/100x100=13

The Washing Post poll showed that 98% of blacks approve of Obama's performance.  We know that blacks are 13% of the whole population (see above). The 98% of the blacks that approve Obama's job performance are 12.74% of the whole US population. i.e 13x98/100=12.74

With 51% support base out of 100, this means 51 people support Obama out of every 100 people.

We already have the total number of blacks who support Obama, which is 12.74%.

To find out the effect of the blacks on Obama's 51% job approval, we divide 12.74 by 51 and multiply that by 100 to get a percentage.  i.e the share of the 51% that is attributable to blacks, is 12.74/51x100=24.98%

This means that one quarter of Obama's job approval numbers comes from blacks...if every race approved of his performance by 98%, his job approval would be at 98%. 

I hope this clears the confusion you and Allan had.  If not, please post your own numbers and we compare. 

thanks