Original Sins

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

By: Eve L. Ewing

Narrated by: 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

Critic reviews

“Why is the American school system neglecting so many of its students? In this damning investigation, the award-winning author and activist posits that it may be because schools were designed to do just that. . . . Though the argument of this book is bleak, it illuminates a path for a more just future that is nothing short of dazzling.”—Oprah Daily, “The 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2025”

“[Eve L. Ewing] contends that the American education system has been deeply shaped by systemic prejudice . . . She challenges readers to confront this uncomfortable truth so they can reimagine what schools could be.”—Chicago Magazine

“As an educator, an organizer, an academic, an artist, and a writer, Ewing often returns to a few key preoccupations—education, girlhood, race, science fiction—and I can’t wait to crack open her latest, which again meditates on the intersection of education and race.”—Bustle