Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo is a deep dive into the damage caused by the drive to uphold the power of white men. No matter how qualified or unqualified those individual white men may be.
Charting the history of America—by way of Buffalo Bill, the civil rights movement, Joe Biden’s flip flopping record on school desegregation busing, racism within the NFL, and the backlash against the increasing number of women in politics on both the right and the left (Bernie bros, rightfully, do not get a pass here!)—Ijeoma Oluo examines the destructive impact white male supremacy has on Black people, people of colour and women.
This is how patriarchy and white supremacy were designed to work. And since they are both built into the fabric of daily life, they are inescapable. This is particularly true for people who live at the intersection of race and gender. Completely dismantling these systems of oppression is necessary because incremental changes have not been enough.
Oluo’s analysis is clear-thinking. Her writing is sharp, focused, and accessible despite the academic nature of some of the research involved.
I started reading Mediocre at the end of December and finished it the week of the US Capitol insurrection, which was an all too real manifestation of everything Oluo discusses. This added to the intensity of the book, but emphasised how vital a read Mediocre is.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo is published by Seal Press, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.