mediocre the dangerous legacy of white male america review

Her writing is sharp, focused, and accessible despite the academic nature of some of the research involved. Completely dismantling these systems of oppression is necessary because incremental changes have not been enough. This is particularly true for people who live at the intersection of race and gender. And since they are both built into the fabric of daily life, they are inescapable. This is how patriarchy and white supremacy were designed to work. No matter how qualified or unqualified those individual white men may be.Ĭharting the history of America-by way of Buffalo Bill, the civil rights movement, Joe Biden’s flip flopping record on school desegregation busing, racism within the NFL, and the backlash against the increasing number of women in politics on both the right and the left (Bernie bros, rightfully, do not get a pass here!)-Ijeoma Oluo examines the destructive impact white male supremacy has on Black people, people of colour and women. The social construct of white aggression and dominance locks them into “cycles of fear and violence - where the only success they are allowed comes at the expense of others, and the only feelings they are allowed to express are triumph or rage.Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo is a deep dive into the damage caused by the drive to uphold the power of white men. Systems based on promoting white male mediocrity are bad for white men, too, Oluo writes. Primarily white team owners and managers “preferred having less effective rosters over having to deal with the backlash of allowing Black protest,” Oluo writes. The same goes for professional athletes, including Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback other NFL teams refused to pick up after he knelt during the national anthem to raise awareness about police brutality and racial inequality. Historically racist systems in higher education persist, and women and people of color continue to try to catch up with the head start that white men were given through land-grant university funding and the GI bill that paid to send many of them to college following World War II. And when students of color seek equal treatment and opportunities, as they did when the University of Missouri football team united together in protest in 2015, they often are villainized or penalized. They’ve “been called everything from racists to terrorist sympathizers for daring to believe that their communities were worth representing and worth fighting for.” Racism’s legacy continues In higher ed, sports

“In 2017, four confident, talented, unapologetic young women of color were elected to U.S. Congress, and everyone freaked the out,” Oluo writes.

Mediocre the dangerous legacy of white male america review