After Barack Obama's historic victory in 2008, most people in the United States believed that race relations would improve.

Nearly four years later, has that dream come true?

Americans have no shortage of thoughtful opinions and no consensus.

As the nation moves toward the multiracial future heralded by this son of an African father and white mother, the events of Obama's first term, and what people make of them, help trace the racial arc of his presidency.

The president has discussed race in occasional speeches to groups such as the National Urban League or the National Council of La Raza, and in interviews with Hispanic and African-American media outlets. But he usually walks a careful line.