Ijeoma Oluo
Born: December 30, 1980 – Denton, Texas, United States
Ijeoma Oluo is an American writer and speaker whose work examines race, identity, gender, and social justice. She is best known for So You Want to Talk About Race and also wrote Mediocre and Be a Revolution, helping bring conversations about systemic inequality and intersectionality to broad mainstream audiences.
Biography & Author's Journey
Ijeoma Oluo emerged from a life that taught her early how power works. Born in Texas and raised in the Seattle suburbs, she has described growing up as a Black girl with a Nigerian father and a white American mother in overwhelmingly white schools and neighborhoods, where race was impossible to ignore. Much of her youth was shaped by economic precarity and by the vigilance that came with being hypervisible. Before writing became her public vocation, she worked in tech and digital marketing, raised children as a single mother for much of her adult life, and completed her political science degree at Western Washington University in 2007, entering college later than many of her peers. ((https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/where-ijeoma-finds-inspiration/))
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Community Voices
"Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told"
— Phoebe Robinson
"Everyone should be paying attention to Ijeoma Oluo"
— The Root
"In her illuminating new book, Ijeoma Oluo unpacks how 'mediocrity' is a privilege created and perpetuated by our obsession with white male superiority"
— Tressie McMillan Cottom
"Ijeoma Oluo's intellectual clarity and moral sure-footedness make her the kind of unstoppable force that obliterates the very concept of immovable objects"
— Lindy West
"Ijeoma Oluo has emerged as one of Seattle's strongest voices for social justice"
— Seattle Magazine
"Ijeoma Oluo is armed with words"
— Hari Kondabolu
"There is no one more adept at parsing the toxic effects of white male privilege and systemic oppression than the immensely talented Ijeoma Oluo"
— Michael Eric Dyson
From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco
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From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco
"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."
"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."
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"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."
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"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."
"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."
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