Ijeoma Oluo

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and cultural critic whose work addresses race, identity, and social justice. Oluo began publishing essays and articles drawing on her experiences as a queer Black woman to examine racial justice, feminism, intersectionality, online harassment, the Black Lives Matter movement, economics, and social justice. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other publications.

Oluo earned a political science degree from Western Washington University before starting a career in technology and digital marketing. Following the killing of Trayvon Martin, she began contributing essays and articles to Jezebel, The Stranger, and the Guardian, focusing on race and the visibility of Black women's voices in the United States. Her interview with Rachel Dolezal and subsequent coverage brought national attention to her work. Seattle Magazine recognized her as one of the city's most influential people, coinciding with the publication of her book, "The Badass Feminist Coloring Book."

Oluo's book, "So You Want to Talk About Race," became a New York Times No. 1 bestseller and offers frameworks for discussing racial privilege, microaggressions, and cultural appropriation. The book received the Washington State Book Award for nonfiction. Her subsequent works include "Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America," which explores the perpetuation of white male supremacy, and "Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World — and How You Can, Too," which highlights grassroots activism against systemic oppression.

Oluo has been named to the TIME 100 Next list and the Root 100, and has received the Feminist Humanist Award, the Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association, the Media Justice Award from the Gender Justice League, and the Aubrey Davis Visionary Leadership Award from the Equal Opportunity Institute. Through her books, public speaking, and media appearances, Oluo examines how systemic racism shapes public discourse, decision-making, and the distribution of power in the United States. Her work contributes to ongoing conversations about race, privilege, and social equity in American society.