states today and i do have to go along with that barack obama received approximately 95% of the black vote this past election. blacks are far worse off now than george bush and the black caucus savage all the time. >> host: wait a minute. >> host: john? we will say goodbye i wanted him to define what he meant by black racism. >> guest: i am happy to respond he raised a number of interesting issues but first is their black racism? sure. there are people who look down on other people because of their race. sometimes a look down on asian people and that is terrible and to the extent there are black people to act badly toward other people because of their racial background it is a bad thing. sure it exist within black america. now on the question of barack obama and the black vote, in presidential politics, then the democratic nominee who ever that is coming typically gets the lion's share of the black vote. bill clinton got over 9% of the black vote and the same was true of all gore. they are white but they are democrats in presidential politics in particular, black america overwhelmingly goes with the democratic nominee. was that instinctual the case of barack obama? of course, it was. his color has something to do with that. those are some of my reactions. >> host: cancun mexico. good afternoon. >> caller: dr. kennedy. i am so happy for your rise to your position but i have a lot question. first of all,, there is the lot of incarcerating the thousands in thousands of young men am present in women to come i am sure for such a minor minor thing when the total the basis of the whole country is based on criminal activity. the criminal activity takes someone's land by force. if you would address at as the lot issue then making it to the basis of the whole concept of incarceration to break the law. thank you. >> guest: i think we really do have a major problem on our hands that very few of our political officials have dealt with adequately and that is the problem of mass incarceration i do think the criminal justice system is highly punitive and there are far too many people who are allowed to waste away in prison and it is a terrible thing i wish the congress and the president and the judiciary was more attentive to that problem. unfortunately i don't say our political officials are going to do with that problem any time soon in the way in which they ought to. hopefully there will be petition am protesting get that problem higher up on politicians priorities. >> host: "the persistence of the color line" racial politics and the obama presidency" is the name of the newest book from randall kennedy. professor come as a move into the 2012 cycle how does things change from publishing this book this year? >> guest: the president of the united states, barack obama is no longer seeking to become the first hot-- black president he became president and in 2012 the first black president standing for reelection. i think rates will continue in both spoken and unspoken form to be an issue in the background, not the only issue by any means but it will continue to be a force. the 2012 election will be very tight and it will be hard fought and it will circuit they certainly occupy energy as a writer i can imagine right teeing another book about the election to come. >> host: did the president speak with you about this book? >> i knew the president a a little bit when he was at harvard law school never in any of my class is but an excellent student and a very outstanding student members of the faculty talked about him because he was so at outstanding i did not talk to the president about this book i use public sources that are available to anyone >> host: las vegas good afternoon you are on booktv with randall kennedy a. >> caller: professor i'd like to bring up the jeremiah wright issue again i heard the pundits bring that up again. i think he is a wonderful man of god what he says is scriptural the correct, will not bless america but what he said was very easy to mou explained instead of letting them hammer the man in making the president run out of the church. why doesn't somebody bring this up? he is a wonderful minister now all these years let him act like that he can live anywhere in the world. why do we accept this? is pure racism and no other reason and you can stop it. >> guest: thank you for your call. picked up my book there is a chapter in my book about reverend wright. and it is called reverend wright and my father because my father's views were very similar to reverend rights. probably a more extreme frankly in the criticism of the united states. one of the things i tried to do is to show that the views the reverend wright had do have a place in black america and he does represent an important strand of thought about black america is big. there's a lot of strands of thought. black conservatives, liberals, lef tist and nationalist nationalist, reverend rights views were an important part and are an important part of black american political thought. they are an understandable part. one of the things i tried to show is he had the basis for saying what was said and i also agree with the caller when he suggested reverend wright was by no means being crazy when he talks about the view that god would look at america with disfavor there is any number of american states men who have said that. thomas jefferson had the view and said he troubled when he imagined