Ijeoma Oluo

Ijeoma Oluo is an author, speaker, and cultural critic whose 2018 book So You Want to Talk About Race became one of the most widely read and assigned books on race in America, spending years on bestseller lists and becoming a staple of workplace diversity training, university curricula, and book clubs nationwide. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, to a Nigerian father and a white American mother, Oluo has navigated questions of race, identity, and belonging from childhood.

She began writing online, building a substantial following through her frank and accessible essays on race, politics, and culture. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, NBC News, and many other publications. She was named a finalist for the Genius Award in Literature by The Stranger, a Seattle alt-weekly, and has been widely recognized as one of the most important public voices on race in America.

So You Want to Talk About Race takes a deliberately practical approach, structured as a series of questions — “Am I being racist?”, “What is the school-to-prison pipeline?”, “What is cultural appropriation?” — and answers them with clarity, directness, and a willingness to address the discomfort that these conversations often produce. The book is deliberately accessible to white readers who want to understand structural racism without being told they are irredeemably bad people, while also validating the experiences of people of color who have long been exhausted by explaining racism.

Her follow-up book, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America (2020), examines the ways that the protection of mediocre white male power has shaped American institutions. Oluo continues to write, speak, and build community around racial justice in the Pacific Northwest and nationally.