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  • Mediocre

  • The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
  • Written by: Ijeoma Oluo
  • Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo
  • Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (84 ratings)

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Mediocre

Written by: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo
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Publisher's Summary

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, an “illuminating” (New York Times Book Review) history of white male identity.

What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color, instead of by actual accomplishments?

Through the last 150 years of American history—from the post-reconstruction South and the mythic stories of cowboys in the West, to the present-day controversy over NFL protests and the backlash against the rise of women in politics—Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves. Mediocre investigates the real costs of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism.

As provocative as it is essential, this book will upend everything you thought you knew about American identity and offers a bold new vision of American greatness.

©2020 Ijeoma Oluo (P)2020 Seal Press

What the critics say

"Ripped, tragically, from yet another and another and another set of headlines, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America breaks ground and forces a bold, startling, and necessary conversation about the implications of institutional supremacy, and its crushing impact on people of color and women." (Patrisse Khan Cullors, cofounder, Black Lives Matter, New York Times best-selling author of When They Call You a Terrorist, joint recipient of The Sydney Peace Prize)

"Once again, Ijeoma Oluo uses her elegant voice to speak directly to the root issues at the core of the United States' seeming inability to reconcile who we have been with who we had hoped to be. This book goes beyond how we got here, and digs into where we are, what we're going to do about it, and what's at stake if the people with the most power refuse to do better." (Ashley C. Ford, writer)

"Oluo is one of our great voices and Mediocre not only educates us, but it inspires us all to act and change the world for the better. But first, I need to read this book again. It's just that damn good." (Phoebe Robinson, New York Times best-selling author of You Can't Touch My Hair)

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Brilliant!

Timely and hopeful. Oluo is as generous as she is astute. Sophisticated analysis that is accessible. It is a must read. A sobering invitation to action. I am thank for for her courage, tenacity, and insights.

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Must read/listen

Heavy, but important. Another thought -provoking, extremely well researched, and engaging book by Ijeoma Uluo

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Great read

she's by far my favorite writer, especially in the issue of race thank you for your knowledge ☺️

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  • Firewhiskey Reader
  • 2021-01-07

This was so enlightening.

I read So You Want to Talk About Race soon after it’s release and adored how Ijeoma Oluo explained things in a way that just really worked with my brain. I was a little nervous going into this one because it seemed like it was going to involve a lot more history and despite loving history as a student, I’m not always good at reading about it now. I am pleased to report that all of my concerns were for naught. Ijeoma Oluo is remarkable at how well she takes this pretty huge idea and cuts it down into very understandable pieces with perfectly chosen illustrative examples. I think this book likely could have spiraled into such a huge project that would have felt overwhelming, but Oluo is deliberate in what she chose to include and discuss. You can tell that her examples were chosen with care and really expanded and shed light on things and people who have a very one-sided positive history most commonly told today. I am still seething over the fact that President Teddy Roosevelt has a reputation of being a conservationist when he just kept ignoring the treaties the US made with Native people and took land that was never meant to belong to this country.

This book was well organized and has section headers that I really appreciated. In the introduction, Oluo talks about how things “work by design” so even when something is infuriating and unjust, but there’s “nothing to be done” that it’s often a sign of something working just as it was designed. This is a theme that carries through the entire collection and is really powerful. Oluo makes the case that we have to try something different if we are to save the planet and our country and it’s a compelling argument. It’s also subtle in some ways. She pulls back sometimes on sharing her opinion to give space for the reader to come to their own conclusion. It’s the cross-examination method of asking every question but the last one because you want the jury to be forming the answer to that last question themselves. All of the pieces are there and at the very end, in her closing argument, Oluo hammers her points home. She does so effectively in large part because of how beautifully the rest of the book is laid out. Her conclusion introduces us to a new white man and takes a trek down the mass and school shooter line of reasoning. I would have appreciated more time on this topic, but I think it’s a brilliant place for her to end with an appeal to readers to do something. To change the design.

One final point, y’all may know I mostly read romance novels, and Oluo’s last paragraph in the acknowledgements is one of the most romantic things I’ve ever read and I would like someone to please point me in the direction of any romance novel that sounds similar to her real life love story. I hope Oluo and her partner have many, many years of happiness.

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  • Phillip
  • 2021-03-29

Solid Introduction

As a white man, I definitely felt uncomfortable with parts of this book. Happy I stuck with it though. If you’re someone who likes to understand the world through the lens of history Ijeoma Oluo and her research team do a great job of tying America’s past to its present. Certainly doesn’t live in the fantasy world of my high school education where the civil rights movement solved all racial injustice and every problem/success is now the responsibility of the individual. Will be listening to “So You Want to Talk About Race” next.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2021-01-22

Thank you

Thank you so much for the bravery and brilliance in this book. It is absolutely enlightening and so important. I am a Psychologist and am often blamed and ridiculed for calling out white, male privilege. This is ruining all of our lives and our children’ futures. A thousand thank yous for your work.

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  • Gregory J Evans
  • 2020-12-01

Mediocre is an Epic Title

As a mindful communication and sensitivity (awareness) speaker and developer for seminars, workshops and conferences towards the idea of anti racism Ijeoma has it down to a micro-science.

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  • Kit McGee
  • 2020-12-05

SIMPLY THE BEST

The book you didn’t know you needed. It’s the US history lessons we were all deprived of in high school. It’s also a biting political commentary for our modern age that answers questions such as, “Why are Bernie Bros so unbearable?” I’m sending this to all my femme coworkers.

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  • Natasha Michalowsky
  • 2021-01-11

Must read

An excellent book. Well researched, artfully crafted and frighteningly apt. Highly recommend reading, and sharing.

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  • Sharif
  • 2021-04-20

Great Start but Got Lost on Digression

This has a fantastic compelling start and I was following along through the chapter on how white male feelings wreck social movements, but then there's one part that feels like the author is relitigating online arguments rather than supporting her point. She gives more reasons to support Bernie Sanders than solid reasons to hate him, just the people around him. The irony being her point is how woke people will disrupt social movements because of their own hurt feelings. She admits that Sanders is strong on class issues but accuses him of placing too much emphasis on class to solve racial issues, which to me reads like a criticism that rewards Sanders as trying to solve racial inequality with an economic theory but just that the author doesn't feel like it does enough. I saw Hillary Clinton tell Black Lives Matter that as leadership it wasn't her role to solve black issues, it was their job to come up with solutions. Clinton said that she'd not support Palestinian human rights. To me as a poor child of Palestinian parents, I was open to the author's want to disabuse me of the idea that Sanders was not the best option and Clinton was. But the author didn't hold Clinton to any scrutiny nor champion her with any logos argument as the better. So her argument in that chapter to not give praise or boost people whose personal feelings get in the way of social movements was so compelling that it felt like an immediate challenge to then close the book as she tried to catastrophize Bernie Sanders. The on-thesis angle here is that Sanders' awful supporters do damage and fracture social movements. The white feelings of angry men trying to use woke to grab what is there's do more damage than good. The Bernie Bros did such damage by fracturing progressives and alienating women in the Democratic Party. But instead Oluo takes on a progressive movement she doesn't seem to actually disagree with because she was deeply wounded by the followers. The irony was too much for me.

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  • Di Christa Johnson
  • 2021-01-25

It's never to late to Wake the f*** Up!

Awareness of truth is an eye-opening experience. Just when I thought I knew something someone like you comes along and makes me get back into history and more truth. Thank you!!

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  • Nathaniel Cox
  • 2021-01-25

Do yourself a favor and read this book!

This book examines the trauma of white male supremacy on all people including white males. it is done with thoughtfulness and world class thoughtfulness. Ijeoma Oluo speaks in the direct yet hopeful spirit of the Hebraic prophets. Ijeoma Oluo, thank you for this work!

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  • Elisa Sparkman
  • 2021-01-28

This is such a great book.

Everyone should read this book. It has thorough research with compassionate and vulnerable story-telling. Important context for navigating life in this world.

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