With all due respect, Ogletree has a point about the prevalence of racism in America, to some degree. I think he overstates it considerably, but having heard "nigger" uttered enough times in my 30+ years--along encountering problems (with parents) quite often when trying to date white women-- I assure you that racism isn't going away in my lifetime.
Is it as bad as it was? Of course not. Should reparations be paid to slave-descendants, such as myself? No. But these don't change the fact that life is still more difficult for blacks and other minorities in this country because of overt and covert racism, among other things.
Racism isn't the major social issue facing blacks and other minorities, but that doesn't mean it isn't there or at all relevant. His associations and plagiarism issues are considerably more relevant to his fitness for office than his observations on race relations.