There could not be a more perfect moment for this book. Mediocre takes a look at the impact of while male dominance throughout history, with specific focus men who made the decisions that have impacted so much of our history and our current lives. I found the idea here, and the reporting, enthralling. Oluo looks are several key aspects of history and modern culture, including the NFL and the legacy of the 'cowboy', and explores how figures central to these things exerted their dominance over woman and people of colour. The author looks at how white male dominance has grown and developed over decades, and zeroes in on the lasting and continuing impacts of this on all of our lives. It's thoughtful, intelligent, and frightening. Hopefully, this becomes as big as Oluo's previous book. It needs to read.

I’m sure you’ve all heard Sarah Hagi’s famous quip, “Lord, grand me the confidence of a mediocre white man.” In her new book, Ijeoma Oluo takes that quotation and runs with it, examining precisely why mediocre white men are so often found in positions of power and influence when they’re just so mediocre. The book examines American social and power structures, from Buffalo Bill’s stage shows to American higher education to the NFL, asking why so many excellent non-white and non-male people are shut out of leadership roles in favor of less excellent white men. Don’t miss this one when it comes out in December!

I love this book so hard. Ijeoma Oluo writes something me serious truth. Reading this book is both enraging and empowering. The antidote to the constant gaslighting by non mediocre white men on our entire culture. Yaaaasssssss!

I will read anything that Ijeoma Oluo writes after learning so much from So You Want to Talk About Race. So, I jumped at the chance to read an early copy of Mediocre. And, the topic is "history of white male America and a scathing indictment of what it has cost us socially, economically, and politically." What perfect timing! What a time to be alive!

I have had such feelings of rage, and this book gave me an outlet. Is rage reading a thing? If so, this book is pure catharsis. It explores how we got where we are because honestly, nobody wants to be here. I found her exploration of the legacy of the NFL particularly illuminating. Highly recommend this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo explores the history and cultural pervasiveness of white male rage and white male mediocrity. Oluo uses historical events, personal interviews, and her own personal experience to frame an important discussion about our society and the men who shaped and continue to shape it, often to others' and their own detriment.

I'm not the kind of person who had to face a lot of sore truths when reading this book. I didn't need to be convinced that what I was reading was an honest reflection of the world I live in. I imagine it may be more difficult, even impossible, for some of the men this book is about to acknowledge their role in our country's oppressive system. Even so, Oluo presents a convincing, compelling argument that white male supremacy and white male rage have always been destroying, and continue to destroy, our society.

In all, this was a phenomenal read. I learned about history I'd never been taught, learned to look at common aspects of my society differently - I never thought about football that way before! - and I really couldn't put the book down. Like Oluo's other work, this is truly a must-read, and a book I will be adding to my physical collection as soon as it's released.

"It's as if when we continuously pass up the opportunity to listen to those most affected by the shortcomings of our systems, and instead continue to reward those who benefit most from those systems, we end up making no progress at all."

Mediocre is that rare book that overdelivers on what it promises. In our current moment, it's easy to be frustrated by struggling working-class white men who blame people of color for their problems rather than the generations of (mostly white, male, and privileged) politicians who were actually in a position to solve those problems and didn't; by the supposedly progressive white straight men who reveal racism and sexism the moment a movement threatens not to center their own wants and needs; and by the white people who would vote for an incompetent bigot like Trump rather than accept a candidate who recognizes diversity and the need for social justice. All of these groups are discussed in Mediocre, but the book also dives into the history of the United States and makes clear that the profound inequities of our society, which seem to get worse instead of better, are all by design.

From the violent founding of this country to Great Depression recovery plans that prioritized white men over everyone else to housing covenants that prevented Black people from being able to participate in homeownership to the constant assault on voting rights—all of this has been geared toward maintaining a white supremacist patriarchy, and all of it has taken a monumental amount of effort. Oluo makes a convincing and inspiring case that change is possible if we can all (all of us!) look at our own complicity and redirect our efforts. We don't lack the "strength or endurance" to make such change happen, as Oluo puts it. "We just seem to lack the imagination."

I was a fan of Oluo's earlier book So You Want to Talk About Race, but I think this one is even better—more comprehensive, more profound, and more compelling. Her first book has gained some attention this year as Black Lives Matter protests have continued; I hope this new book gets similar attention because it is similarly worthy.

Thank you to Seal Press for this galley!

I don't have writing a full review in me, but despite some unevenness, this is well-worth a read. Oluo has established herself as a vital read on race and power in the United States, and this book is no exception. Even as someone who considers himself relatively well-read, I learned a lot about the history of white power and dominance in the United States, and she pulls together a wide variety of other trends into a compelling synthesis. The share of this book I highlighted serves to emphasize the author's thoughtfulness.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

I loved the lenses through which Oluo examines the sociopolitical climate of America. It was a fascinating read, while also being frustrating, anxious, and uncomfortable. I think this will be an excellent book for an anthropology and sociology class, in addition to being a great read for the general public who picks it up.

I would not have believed that I could enjoy another book by Ijeoma Olou as much as I did the excellent So You Want to Talk About Race — and yet Mediocre is so much better.

A political science major in college and an avid reader, I know more than most people about history, including our shameful history with non-white people and women. Yet, Olou revealed so much that I didn’t know. Although this is heresy, I find Mediocre to surpass even Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist and rival Carol Anderson’s magnificent White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. I only wish that I could award Mediocre six stars.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Perseus Books, Basic Books and Seal Press in exchange for an honest review.

This was a blistering take-down of white men. I expect nothing less than from Ijeoma Oluo, so it met my expectations. It's pretty bleak to see it all laid out like this, but well worth the time.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. I loved @ijeomaoluo last book So You Want To Talk About Race that I reviewed earlier this year, so my expectations were high, but she blew them out of the water. Big thank you to @netgalley and @basicbooks for the approval on a #free advanced version.
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I think this is 100% a book worth preordering for when it comes out on 12/1/2020 (the day before my birthday, if you want to get me a gift, just buy yourself this book!!!)
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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.
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I LEARNED so much from the chapters on the NFL and the history of football and how it was basically built to foster white supremacy from President Roosevelt.
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There is an amazing chapter on America’s ‘bitter dependence’ on Black people that coincided perfectly with my audiobook I’m reading now by Morgan Jerkins. It made me really want to read Isabel Wilkerson’s book on The Great Migration — it’s been one my tbr way too long.
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Her chapter on Women in the Workplace that talked about Reddit’s first female CEO Ellen Pao and all the misogyny and hateful subreddits she had to endure before being forced to resign, while Reddit reaped the rewards of all the amazing changes she made to a failing, incel-dominated space was 🤬🤯.
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She also included chapters on the centering of white men in social justice movements (BernieBros), white mens assault on higher education, and women of color facing attacks in our government because of their challenging of the political (white) status quo.
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This book was excellent, excellent, excellent. Add it to your indie bookstore cart.

I was provided an Advance Reader Copy of Mediocre free of charge in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

Ijeoma Oluo is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-fiction authors. Right up there with her sister-in-law, Lindy West. Honestly can I just be a part of their family? When I saw that Ms. Oluo was releasing a new book in December, I was hyped. I read So You Want to Talk About Race earlier this year and found her prose just as refreshing and accessible as her Instagram posts. When I came across it listed as Read Now on NetGalley, I screamed.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, focuses on the enduring role and impact of the angry white male in American history. The amount of scholarly research that went into this book is clear. Each chapter takes us through a facet of the angry white male, citing historical and contemporary examples, while providing sharp and incisive commentary and analysis. Ms. Oluo also establishes a nonpartisan framework, while also making her values and lived experience clear. Basically, the author read the minds of the angry white males in my life, reveals their thought processes and motivations, connects these to the white supremacist capitalist systems of America, and systematically refutes each point, all while offering us hope and a way forward.
During my read of this book, I found out that the author's house had been burned down in the West coast wildfires. I would highly recommend that you pre-order this book, not only due to its quality content, but also to support Ijeoma Oluo on a personal level.

Another amazing book by Ijeoma Oluo. It was as enlightening as it was infuritating. Oluo’s combined clarity of thought and eloquence with which to voice it is a rare combination. She writes with her frustration and anger obvious, but never sinks to the combative level characteristic of her critics. I knew it would be well-reasoned and thoughtful but the level of research undertaken and presented was surprising. There is so much to be gleaned from this book, one reading is not enough. I marked so many pages I really shouldn’t have bothered. How lucky I feel to live in the Age of Oluo. My anger about all that is happening in the world is visceral and Oluo always brings me to a more cerebral understanding. It makes the stomach aches go away for a bit.

Thank you to NetGalley and Seal Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Once again, Ijeoma Oluo gives us a timely, remarkably well-written book that I've left with more passages highlighted than I can count. The phenomenon of white male mediocrity that leads to white male supremacy is an elephant in the room in the United States, and it is past time that someone address the stunning impact of it over the course of our country's history. It is as pervasive a societal ill as almost any other, and yet no one has been able to articulate its power quite so well as Oluo, at least not for mass consumption. I was furious before the end of the introduction, and then I couldn't stop reading until the last page. I haven't stopped thinking about this book and I won't for some time. I can't wait to pass copies of it along to so many women and men in my life, because we all have so much to learn.

*Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Ijeoma Oluo, who has previously published So you want to talk about race, has now written Mediocre: The dangerous legacy of white male America. This book traces back to the origin stories of cowboys and connects it to the ideas of modern American white male success. Namely, that average and mediocre white men are raised believing that the world belongs to them. And they are often right. And when they’re not receiving what they believe they deserve, they lash out.

Oluo covers a lot of modern American content in what I would consider a textbook on white male privilege. Moving backwards and forwards in time she covers topics such as: Woke suffragette feminist men, Bernie Bros, Joe Biden and segregation, university education, black labour, women in the work force and the NFL.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these ideas have been covered previously in other texts. They’ve been covered well in many other texts, but Oluo’s writing style brings what could be dry and boring content to life. Oluo is conversational, enthused, irritated, annoyed and funny. She pokes fun at the ridiculous situations and also gets mad. You need the humour and the ironic eye roll that she occasionally provides without it reading this book you might feel fucking hopeless and you need the laughter to keep the fire in your belly. She wants you to fight with her. And she is fucking fighting as she writes in her book that someone swatted her house, I was so shocked that she is so unbelievably strong that even after that experience she keeps writing.

As an Australian, I wasn’t sure how much content there would be for me. Sometimes you read books centred on the American perspective here and feel like you can kinda extrapolate out, but it’s difficult. This book works perfectly from an Australian perspective. Australia had cowboys and First Nations people murdered and massacred by the white man and the same sorts of power dynamics developed over the next 100 years. The chapter on the NFL could easily apply to First Nations players such as Adam Goodes and what happened to him in the AFL. The discussion of higher education is currently being paralleled by the Australian Liberal Party defunding tertiary education and making the cost of certain courses more expensive and more American as a result. There is a lot to unpack here, but those were clear examples of how Australia is around 20 or so years behind the state of the US. If you read nothing else, Australian friends, please read the chapter on higher education. The movements of Abbott, Morrison & co will make so much sense to you and also equip you to argue with family over Christmas dinner.

Reading this the weekend that RGB passed away helped me a lot. Oluo is so measured and well researched, but she never hits points of academia and language that can annoy the shit out of me. I love reading about historical contexts on modern problems, but I hate it when I feel that the book is inaccessible. I want my Mum to read this, my friends, my family and handing them a textbook is a sure fire way to have them put it on their bedside table pile of good intentions reading. Oluo’s choice of tone and language means that it will be read and by many.

The chapter on Bernie Bros through the ages really helped me understand a dynamic that confused and upset me so much in 2016. How can people migrate from Bernie to Trump? But then, due to Oluo’s amazing research, I could see how these mindsets develop. The male suffragettes sound exactly like people I’ve previously argued with on reddit. Additionally, her reddit and yahoo discussions were also highly illuminating.

This book made me mad, made me laugh, made me feel despair, but also made me want to fight.

This book is not released until the 1st of December 2020 and I cannot begin to fathom what sort of world it will be released into. If it’s as bad as I fear, at least Oluo has provided us with a book to consult so we know we’re not taking crazy pills: these men really are mediocre at best and that’s being quite generous.

I've enjoyed Ijeoma Oluo's work and this is no different. Oluo brings research and her lived experiences to illustrate the ways in which those in the powerful majority can access success easily and without performing to the extent that others do to gain the same amount of success. In a time when white supremacy is being talked about on a wide scale and the intersectionality of identities can mean the difference between surviving and not surviving the current pandemic, this book brings an argument forward for people to read, digest, and start/continue the conversation.

Oluo has done it again in this engaging study on our nation's failings of propping up the mediocre white male at the expense of efficiency, innovation, and often, downright human decency. Highly readable and well researched, I offer thanks to Oluo for deeply engaging in this topic, as they have noted it is an exhausting and traumatic world to immerse oneself into.

I have just completed my read of Mediocre, only moments ago. And I have the same thought now as I did while reading:

Everyone needs to read this book.

This is the second book I’ve read by Oluo. She is a master of sharing large amounts of information, and thoughts which we are long overdue to consider, in ways that are generous and gracious. As much knowledge as she gives, it never feels overwhelming. It is certainly a “tougher” book to read than “So You Want to Talk About Race,” but I strongly feel both are important to our current conversations.

I received an e-copy of this book via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is exactly what we need right now. Oluo’s voice is bold and vital. She explores so many aspects of our country and its relationship with white men, a group that consistently feels entitled and also unwilling to take the risk to move beyond mediocre. This book isn’t an attack on individual white men but on a system that overvalues their input, even when the focus shouldn’t be on them. The section on Bernie Sanders and his bros insightfully interrogates why Sanders attracts such supporters (and it doesn’t make him look good). Oluo writes about how white men as a whole have always held up white supremacy along with the patriarchy. You might think you already know this, but Oluo’s examples will make you think critically about everything our country holds dear, from westerns to football. Read this book!

Okay, this book was FANTASTIC . Nothing that I write here can really do it justice. In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, Ijeoma Oluo discusses topics as far-ranged as women in the workplace, the origins of American football, past and present politics of the U.S., racism in higher education, and even the centering of white men in the feminist movement in American history. The way that Oluo ties things together throughout the book is honestly amazing. Not one line feels wasted, not one word extraneous. I was surprised by the amount of historical figures that were discussed who I had never even heard of and was also delighted that Oluo touched upon current political figures like Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Throughout this book she discusses how America’s tendency towards white male supremacy has harmed and continues to harm every group in society from women to people of color to the disabled to the LGBTQ+ community and even white men themselves. So much of what she wrote in here was new information for me and the book, as a whole, made for a fascinating read. Racist origins of the SATs, anyone? That is definitely something that I had never even thought of previously.

I have already begun and will continue to recommend this book to friends. Ijeoma Oluo certainly deserves all the recognition she can get for this work. While a very broad range of people could read this and be receptive to the ideas within, it does remain to be seen whether or not this book will actually be able to effectively reach [cis-gendered, straight, able-bodied] white men. I surely hope it does!