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A History of Mediocre White Men (and How They Get Ahead)
Author Ijeoma Oluo dissects the issue in new book ‘Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America’
We all joke about having the confidence of a mediocre White man, but New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo breaks down what this really means in her new book, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Your ultra average, angry White man didn’t happen by accident. Oluo methodically identifies and explains the structures that create, multiply, and embolden him.
Unlike Oluo’s 2018 bestseller, So You Wanna Talk About Race, Mediocre is no “primer,” as the author describes it. The first chapter, for example, deals with the mythology surrounding Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, and the so-called Wild West. As Oluo weaves U.S. mythologized history with the stories of modern-day militants, it’s easy to see the through line between today’s White male embrace of standing their ground and its origins in a false Western narrative of “White male righteous victory” over the land and the people.
Oluo writes of President-elect Joe Biden’s conflicted history of being both for and against bussing. She interrogates the Ivy League and examines our nation’s love and creation of White-intended but Black-in-reality football and how the “rough sport” was introduced to help ease White middle-class anxieties. The book offers easily accessible yet little-discussed examples of the institutions created to help White men overcome feelings of inadequacy while maintaining power. We all know the system is rigged, but Oluo offers a few more fascinating and underreported footnotes for your stash.
ZORA: I felt validated while reading this book. Our national mythology — as you described with Buffalo Bill — is so insecure, it won’t even broadcast when a White man owns up to his mistakes.
Ijeoma Oluo: First and foremost, I want this to be a book that helps battle the collective gaslighting regarding White supremacy. It is vital that when things are happening to us that we can put it in context and we can see what’s happened in the past and whether or not what’s happening is a part of a pattern or a bigger problem. It helps us know how to address things. It helps us know whether this is a battle we…
