And here we are at the last chapter of Mediocre, but the pace and punch of the book hasn’t slowed any.  Oluo hits hard with imagery of American football players, overwhelmingly young Black men, as being seen as something between “a god and chattel.”  Heartbreaking, but when the facts are examined, this sport was built for violence, for domination, and every Sunday during football season millions of people tune in to watch these elite athletes throw not just their bodies, but  their hearts and souls into a game that gives them little to nothing in return.  

Chapter seven in Ijeoma Oluo’s timely book, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, gives us an opportunity to examine this strange and harmful paradox of exploiting Black men while also harboring a deep seeded fear of them.  

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Recorded April 16, 2023