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Original Sins

Original Sins

The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

About the Book

Why don’t our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they’re actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America’s classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to maintain the nation’s inequalities. It’s a task at which they excel.

“This book will transform the way you see this country.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
 
If all children could just get an education, the logic goes, they would have the same opportunities later in life. But this historical tour de force makes it clear that the opposite is true: The U.S. school system has played an instrumental role in creating and upholding racial hierarchies, preparing children to expect unequal treatment throughout their lives.
 
In Original Sins, Ewing demonstrates that our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Education was not an afterthought for the Founding Fathers; it was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson as an institution that would fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. The most insidious aspects of this system fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.
 
By demonstrating that it’s in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom. This book will change the way people understand the place we send our children for eight hours a day.
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Praise for Original Sins

“Eve L. Ewing is not only a remarkable writer, she is also a singular educator. In Original Sins, she makes clear how our country’s schools have intentionally configured the contemporary landscape of inequality. Exhaustively researched and exquisitely written, Original Sins is breathtaking.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed

“Original Sins will transform the way you see this country. With a clear, unflinching voice, Ewing challenges us to ask new questions about our own educational experience and our children’s, starting with the pledge of allegiance first thing in the morning.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

“A summons to collective struggle and imagining where dreams, memories, and care are woven together as the building blocks of a new vision of ‘schools for us.’”—Sandy Grande, author of Red Pedagogy

“Eve L. Ewing, one of the twenty-first century’s greatest intellectuals, proves that racism, colonialism, and carcerality started in the school. By reckoning with the violent, dehumanizing history of Black and Indigenous schooling, Ewing finds in the resistance of students and renegade teachers a path toward a life-affirming education.”—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

“Original Sins is a commitment to being true about the past in order to truly have a future. Fiercely hopeful, this is a book you will read, and then want everyone in your life to read—a book to be read in community.”—Eve Tuck, co-editor of Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education

“Original Sins is a meticulously written invitation to gather alongside Ewing as she excavates the historical record to reveal how schools are instrumental in upholding racial hierarchy and diminishing the futures of Black and Indigenous communities. Reimagining schools through a communal practice of braiding, Ewing invites readers to consider the power of education toward liberation—schools as collective sites where we can dream and grow our knowledge to building new worlds based on ethical relationships of care. Original Sins is a brilliant must read for educators and all those concerned with Black and Indigenous futures.”—Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have Always Done

“Eve L. Ewing lays the bare the core project of dispossession and race-making in American education and statecraft. This book’s careful attention to the distinct but shared trajectories of Black and Indigenous education forms the center of this project and is an extraordinary contribution to political history, studies in education and shared futures. The book is a must-read.”—Audra Simpson, author of Mohawk Interruptus
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About the Author

Eve L. Ewing
Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: Electric Arches, 1919, Ghosts in the Schoolyard, and Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks and has written several projects for Marvel Comics. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. More by Eve L. Ewing
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