I also know that many white men accomplish great things. What I’m saying is that white male mediocrity is a baseline, the dominant narrative, and that everything in our society is centred around preserving white male power regardless of white male skill or talent. I do not believe that any race or gender is predisposed to mediocrity. I am not arguing that every white man is mediocre. White male mediocrity seems to impact every aspect of our lives, and yet it only seems to be people who aren’t white men who recognise the imbalance. The sentence struck a chord with so many of us because while we seemed to have to be better than everyone else to just get by, white men seemed to be encouraged in-and rewarded for-their mediocrity. The phrase has now become a regular part of the lexicon of many women and people of colour-especially those active on social media. When writer Sarah Hagi said those words in 2015, they launched a thousand memes, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. ‘Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.’ Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male Power
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