Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

“Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.”

White male mediocrity is the baseline of Western culture and everything in our society is centred around preserving white male power regardless of relative skill or talent. This isn't about neo-Nazis or Klan members but the systemic prioritization of whiteness in classrooms, politics, popular culture, boardrooms and more. And beyond the marginalization of cultures of color, this harms white men all the same.

White men see themselves as the fiercely independent conqueror, absolutely certain that they are the hero of a continuing violent American mythology and are deserving of all the greatness that comes with that. And when that doesn't pan out it creates anger, desperation, disappointment and despair. Suddenly women, people of colour or someone “other” become the scapegoats for all the ways they have been cheated out of what they believe they are due. The born leaders, the muscular crusaders, the innately talented white men are at the same time the fragile, petulant crybabies when things don't go their way and they lash out with terrifying frequency.

“Works according to design.” That's the realization Ijeoma Oluo comes to early in the book and the subsequent 300 pages are how we inevitably got here and how we continue to uphold these damaging structures. From Buffalo Bill to Bernie bros. white men continue to fashion themselves the hero of the ongoing American narrative.

Sure this is SJW catnip and a rousing articulation of what many of us intrinsically understand, but I doubt it gets in the hands of the many it needs to convince. Enjoyed it immensely nonetheless.