mediocre the dangerous legacy of white male america review

They lead our corrupt and violent criminal justice system with little risk of facing justice themselves. “White men lead our ineffective government with almost guaranteed reelection. In the end, she shows how white men have long maintained a stranglehold on leadership and sorely undermined the pursuit of happiness for all. Through research, interviews, and the powerful, personal writing for which she is celebrated, Oluo investigates the backstory of America's growth, from immigrant migration to our national ethos around ingenuity, from the shaping of economic policy to the protection of sociopolitical movements that fortify male power. In this ambitious survey of the last century of American history, Oluo answers that question by pinpointing white men's deliberate efforts to subvert women, people of color, and the disenfranchised. It’s a “very dark place,” Oluo says, and there are things every American can do about it - starting with two things: an acknowledgment that we need white men and an admission to our complicity in this terrible, untenable legacy.From the author of the New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, a history of white male America and a scathing indictment of what it has cost us socially, economically, and politicallyĪfter the election of Donald Trump, and the escalation of white male rage and increased hostility toward immigrants that came with him, New York Times-bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo found herself in conversation with Americans around the country, pondering one central question: How did we get here? White male privilege exists today in economics, pro sports, in language, in an ignorance of history and the contributions of Black men and women, and in entertainment. It’s in the workplace, where Black women continue to make far less money than their white male counterparts. It’s been on college campuses, and in places of higher education where Black people were historically denied entrance.

We see white male privilege all over politics, from the top down and especially in political arenas where white supremacy exists.

It exists in the West, as white men fight against white men over land that white men stole. It’s been going on for hundreds of years, Oluo says, and Black women aren’t the only ones on the receiving end of it. There are, Oluo says, “a thousand memes” that feature the words, “Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man,” meaning that “white male mediocrity is a baseline” from which all power rotates, “regardless of skill … or talent.” It’s as if some sort of higher rank should be granted just because those individuals happen to be white men.

Our House First Time Home Buyer’s Series.BOOK REVIEW: 'Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America' by Ijeoma Oluo - The Washington Informer Close

Mediocre the dangerous legacy of white male america review