Original Sins

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

De: Eve L. Ewing

Narrado por: Robin Miles, Eve L. Ewing

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.

*Includes a downloadable PDF containing a bibliography, notes, and images described in the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Eve L. Ewing (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This stark critique of America’s schools anchors our current educational system in eighteenth-century ideas about race and intelligence. Tracing a line from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia through Jim Crow to present-day policies on housing, zoning, and standardized testing, Ewing argues that this system was always intended to operate differently for different people.”—The New Yorker

“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.”—Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have Always Done

“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

Required reading.

This book should be required reading. It’s not meant to entertain but inform and mortify and light a fire to envision a new way and a better future. Narrator was excellent, though a little slow for my ear, but all in all, wonderful book.

Jaw dropper

This was such an eye opening book. I was dropping my jaw during every chapter.

A must read for educators and everyone!

Dr. Ewing does a fantastic job of exploring the parallel histories of African Americans and Indigenous Americans through themes around colonization, culture, and education. It has definitely made me reflect on my own educational upbringing and becoming an educator in Higher Education. And always, Robin Miles is a fantastic and immersive narrator!