so ibram, as a journalist i am always curious when someone publishes something so compelling, a thoroughly researched piece of work that you have done here. did you set out to write a 600 piece page, piece of nonfiction? how long did it take you to complete this book? >> first of all, it's a pleasure to sit here with you and be in conversation with you and to be here in chicago for this festival. and, first, i will answer the second question first. it took me about three years. it was three long years of working from the time the sun was down till the time the sun was still down, and i didn't actually set out to write a narrative history of racist ideas that literally covers the entire course of anti-black racist ideas. i actually set out to initially write the history of scientific racism up to the 1960s, and then expand it to let's write history of scientific racism up to the present. that expanded to let's write a history of racist ideas in general, which is ultimately what i ended up doing, and as many of you would imagine, there's been quite a few racist ideas in history. i had to cut

so ibram, as a journalist i'm always curious when someone publishes something so compelling, thoroughly researched piece like you, piece of work that you've don't here. did you set out to write a 600-piece page -- piece of nonfiction and how long did it take you to complete this book? >> first of all, it's a pleasure to sit here with you and be in conversation with you and to be here in chicago for this festival and, first, i will answer the second question first. it took me about three years, it was three long years of working from the time the sun was down till the time was still down, and i did not actually set out to write a narrative history of racist ideas that literally covers the entire course of antiblack racist ideas. i actually set out to initially write scientific racism up to the 1960's and then expand it to history of scientific racism to the present and let's write a history of racist ideas in general which is ultimately what i ended up doing and as many of you can imagine, quite a few racist ideas in history and so i actually had to cut a lot in order to make it -- [laug

he argued that so—called ‘black inferiority‘ had been stamped from the beginning on the bodies of africans at the moment of creation. ibramry book obviously, but it's motivation seems very of the moment. it is because i think i wanted to show readers that we have been engaged in a racial debate, the same racial debate we are engaged in right now, really for hundreds of years. that racial debate seeks to answer the question, why does racial inequality exist? why do racial disparities exist in our societies? this book really takes the reader through hundreds of years of different people answering that question. and those that have expressed racist ideas have stated racial inequalities, because black people are inferior, and those have expressed anti—racist ideas have been suffering as a result of racial discrimination. many people would point to the double election of barack obama as perhaps the beginning of the end of the history of racism. the one you describe. yet you describe him as a following in the racist footsteps of every president since richard nixon. one of the things i wanted to do is state a very clear definiti