We expect to see white guys in charge and when anyone else comes to the fore, their otherness attracts comment. But the everything they were promised lay in the hands of the men who already had the power (and were unlikely to give it up) and, as the civil rights and feminist movements gained traction, the white men who’d fallen behind saw no possibility for advancement, because it was being seemingly stolen from them by everybody else.Īnd it’s part of the culture.

I have assumed that it’s probably a standard ennui that befalls everybody from time to time, but the further I got into this book, the more I realised I have deeply underestimated the suffering of my mates because – they were promised everything. Even as I was reading, I could picture men I’ve known who, with the passage of time, have become more and more despondent. And that the inaccessibility of said power to the vast majority (regardless of race or gender) has rendered a whole swath of white men frustrated, ignored and increasingly dangerous.Īnd it’s astonishing. In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power, Ijeoma Oluo explores the historical and sociopolitical background to one of the greatest and most powerful lies to befall the United States: that power belongs, predominantly, to white men. Book Review – Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power by Ijeoma Oluo

Mediocre ijeoma