c-span: frank wu, what is "yellow" all about? >> guest: that's a good question. it's -- well, it's a book of questions, not answers. i'm a law professor, so i'm much better at asking questions than i am at answering them. i wrote this book to try to provoke people to think for themselves, not to persuade them to think as i do. i wrote it to try to start dialogue about race and diversity and civil rights, and a dialogue that's different. i'm trying to move us beyond black and white in two different ways. first, in a very literal way. sometimes we talk about race as if everyone is either black or white, and that's it. and when you talk about race that way, you leave out, well, not just asian-americans. you leave out hispanics. you leave out thousands of people, millions of people of mixed-race background. it's as if they don't exist. and i'm suggesting it doesn't matter who you are, what your identity is, what your politics are, what sort of policies you think we should have, if you can't see yellow and brown and red and all the different shades, well, you leave ou

c-span: this is the cover of the book, it's called "yellow," and our guest has been frank wu. thank you very much. >> guest: thank you. >> the redesigned book notes web site features over 800 notable authors interviewed about their books. you can view the rams and use the searchable day a base and find links to the authors' blogs, web sites and twitter feeds. book notes dog with a brand new look --.org with brand new look and feel. a great way to watch and enjoy the authors and their books. >> you're watching booktv on c-span2. here's our prime time lineup for tonight: >> that all happens next on c-spans booktv. >> booktv continues with hugh wilford. mr. wilford recounts the cia's early forays in the middle east in the 1940s and '50s. the operations were led by theodore roosevelt's grandson, held of the region's covert actions, who was assisted by his cousin, archie roosevelt, chief of the beirut station. the author reports that these men's actions would inevitably lay the groundwork for current foreign policy relations between the u.s. and middle eastment this is about an hou