Ijeoma Oluo Biography

Ijeoma Oluo (born 1980) is a writer and activist whose works have brought her nationwide recognition. She is the daughter of a white mother and a Nigerian father, so exploring the complexities of race and racism is both a personal and professional undertaking. She received her degree in political science from Western Washington University. Oluo’s career as an activist developed from the cultural fallout after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was fatally shot while walking home from a convenience store in 2012. At the time, Oluo’s own son was of a similar age. While protests and marches erupted nationwide over the unprovoked shooting of the Black teenager, Oluo was struck by the way some people in her community seemed unconcerned. She began writing and publishing essays in online publications, using her personal experiences and unique perspective as a queer Black woman to promote racial justice, feminism, and other social justice topics.   

In 2018, she published So You Want to Talk About Race, which became a #1 New York Times best seller. A second book, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, was published in 2020. In addition, her articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Jezebel,the Guardian, TIME, and the Huffington Post. She has received two awards from the American Humanist Association: the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award.