Mediocre
The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
-
-
4.5 • 61 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freelance writer Oluo (So You Want to Talk About Race) contends in this incisive treatise that American society revolves around "preserving white male power regardless of white male skill or talent." This privileging of white male mediocrity has brought the U.S. to "the brink of social and political disaster" in the Trump era, Oluo writes, and led to the devaluing of a college education, the promotion of leadership styles that hurt businesses, and the marginalization of policy issues that primarily affect communities of color, including police brutality and gerrymandering. Surveying American history through the lens of white male entitlement, Oluo reexamines the actions and legacies of Wild West performer Buffalo Bill Cody, early 20th century "socialist feminists" Floyd Dell and Max Eastman, and segregationist NFL team owner George P. Marshall, among others. Skewering political pundits who contend that white men's needs still must be catered to in an increasingly diverse country, Oluo asks, "If white men are finding that the overwhelmingly white-male-controlled system isn't meeting their needs, how did we end up being the problem?" Erudite yet accessible, grounded in careful research as well as Oluo's personal experiences of racism and misogyny, this is an essential reckoning with race, sex, and power in America.
Customer Reviews
Too real for my family book club
My white family gathered together to read So You Want to Talk About Race and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower in 2020, but threatened to dissolve the book club if this one was chosen (we dissolved anyway). How could I resist reading it?
We are all told in this country to respect or emulate white men and the qualities they are supposed to have like competitiveness and domination, lack of emotion, and not apologizing for their mistakes. To succeed and feel happy, just have the confidence of a mediocre white man, right? But what if mediocre white masculinity is the actual problem, hurting everyone including white men themselves? Can white male supremacy be stopped? Will white men themselves ever be able to change?
To anyone out there like me (white non-binary in my thirties) and my white family, get over your fear and read this book! You will need it!
This book was amazing
I loved the humor, truth and history and how Ijeoma connects her experiences to other stories and ideas.