Conversation Pushers #5: Original Sins by Eve L. Ewing
A deep-dive into a book everyone who has a child, works in education, or cares about education should read.
Hi friends,
I started this column as a way to use the time I spend reading and writing this newsletter as a force for change. Each month, I’m publishing in-depth coverage of a book that arms us for critical real-life conversations across parties. This month, that’s Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing.
What is Original Sins about?
In a meticulously researched and excellently written examination of history, Ewing exposes the myth that American schools were designed as a “great equalizer.” Instead, our educational system was deliberately built to serve different purposes for different racial groups. For white students, schools were designed to turn them into model American citizens. For Native students, as many of us know, schools (especially Indian boarding schools) were instruments of forced assimilation designed to “civilize” them by erasing their cultures and languages. And for Black students, schools were meant to give them just enough education (and indoctrination) to become laborers content with their lot in life.
The book traces the way schools have continuously evolved to continue to achieve these aims, from Thomas Jefferson’s time through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and into our present day — where standardized testing, academic “tracking,” and the school-to-prison pipeline continue to drive race-delineated outcomes.
What are the key conversation points?
Education’s historical purpose was different for different groups, and this purpose was baked in from the beginning. From Thomas Jefferson’s “among the Blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry,” to Richard Henry Pratt’s “kill the Indian to save the man,” there are indisputable correspondence records and print quotations from those who designed American schools illuminating the fact that they intentionally designed education to make white children model citizens, whereas education was designed to assimilate Native children and give Black children just enough knowledge to be useful in the workforce and understand their place.
Even seemingly innocent aspects of schooling were designed with explicit racial purposes. Did you know the Pledge of Allegiance was invented specifically for use in schools? Or that school lunches were invented to get nonwhite children accustomed to more “American” foods and convince their families at home to stop cooking foods from their own cultures? Or that recess was invented so that nonwhite kids would learn “American” schoolyard games and rhymes and leave the ones they were originally taught behind?
Today’s “neutral” educational practices perpetuate racial outcomes. Standardized testing, academic tracking (like “gifted” tracks, where bias demonstrably plays a role in who gets put where), school discipline — these “objective” systems perpetuate the same racial hierarchies that were originally envisioned. For example, did you know that when they were designing the SAT, if Black children consistently outscored white children on a question, it was thrown out as ineffective?
Today’s schools are still being used to indoctrinate children to a certain way of thinking, right before our eyes. Just look at the Trump administration’s vow to eliminate all material about racism or the history of racial injustice in schools; the ongoing fight against book bans; and how “Conservatives Are Building a New Generation of Anti-Abortion Voters” — just to name a few examples.
What can we do right now?
Put this book in other people’s hands. You should read it. Your parent friends should read it. Your teacher friends should read it. Your teacher family members should read it. Everyone should read it.
Think about your own education. Were you tracked into “gifted” or “regular” classes? How were discipline issues handled? As someone who ended up in mostly advanced placement classes starting in junior high, I can tell you that while I did go to a school in a small rural town where there wasn’t a lot of diversity in the student body, there was…maybe one Black kid in advanced classes with me all the way until graduation (note: his father is a top cardiologist in the country and his mother is a college professor).
Look at what’s happening in your local schools. Attend a school board meeting. Look at your district’s curriculum. Who gets suspended most often? Which schools have the newest buildings and newest textbooks? Can you vote to affect change there?
Further reading
Eve Ewing’s recent appearance on The Stacks podcast with
(the Stacks is always great, but this is ESPECIALLY great)
“How the Pledge of Allegiance Went From PR Gimmick to Patriotic Vow” from Smithsonian Magazine
This info microsite on the school to prison pipeline from Citizens for Juvenile Justice
“Why Standardized Tests Have Standardized Postracial Ideology” by Ibram X. Kendi
From my TBR: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen Duval
I matched and donated commissions from my Bookshop or Libro.fm sales of this book this month to the Center for Racial Justice in Education. Commissions came to about $10, so I’ve sent $20 off!
If there are any particular books you’d like me to cover here in the future, let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
– Deedi (she/her)
I love this series of conversation starters, and this topic is not talked about enough for sure! I’ll have to add this to my list, thank you for the in-depth review!
I remember being an exchange student in an American High School and when I first heard the Pledge of Allegiance I thought it was the most unhinged thing ever. And also thought it was crazy bizarre they expect me to do it... considering I was not American and didn't plan on becoming one. Even the Catholic and jingoist Poland didn't try to force God and patriotism on kids that way.