Disregard the erratic pattern for 2005-2006.

The erratic behavior early in the graph may be due to early errors in sampling when Google Labs was trying to get this tool up and running. Source
Focus on 2008.

The average worldwide traffic in all years is indicated as a base index value of 1.00.
As we can see from the graph, the "Search Volume index" breached 4.00 in late 2008. In other words, the search term "race war" is receiving more than 4 times the average traffic. Could it have something to do with the results of the US elections ?...





Don't forget to try it yourself.