Unfortunately, conservatives talk about reaching out to blacks but have little real interest in actually looking for a way to do so.
I post about the vast changes in Detroit and its people and its met with a string of FReepers lining up to be the first to kick them in the teeth with idiotic comments. The MI GOP is driving everything good in the city but the national GOP is happy to sit back and hand those gains to the democrats.
The day before the election Obama was in Detroit claiming credit for a falling black unemployment rate. The still high but declining rate has nothing to do with Obama. It was driven by GOP policies here in Michigan but not one republican from outside the state did anything but bash Detroit.
After 30 years of trying Rick Snyder finally managed to get the deal of a lifetime for a new bridge over the Detroit river. Canada is paying the total cost of construction of the bridge but Obama refuses to approve a customs plaza or release the $250 million needed to build it unless Rick Snyder promises to give $100 million of it to Detroit municipal union pension funds. A customs plaza is federal infrastructure so we can’t legally do it ourselves but Rick Snyder has started anyway.
I suspect that the reason can be summed up in the phrase "One bitten, twice shy."