Americans are by and large unwilling to address the racial divides that exist in this country, but that's never stopped author Paul Beatty from speaking his mind. As someone who never felt very at home in the United States to begin with, Beatty was hardly surprised when Donald Trump was elected president despite alienating large numbers of minority voters.

His latest book "The Sellout" was published in 2015 and last year became the first novel by an American author to win the U.K.'s Man Booker Prize. It centers around a narrator from Los Angeles who attempts to reintroduce segregation into his hometown - a decision that eventually lands him in front of the Supreme Court.

With real world events becoming more heightened by the minute, Beatty joins The Takeaway to give his perspective on how we got here.