Book Rec: Original Sins, by Eve L. Ewing
Original Sins:
The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
by Eve L. Ewing
Reading Eve L. Ewing’s latest, Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, brought me back to my middle and high school experiences in the 1990s—what was there (and not) in the curriculum, what was allowed (and not) in terms of autonomy and behavior. One section on school cultures based on “carceral logics” (i.e., mindsets and strategies related to punishment and imprisonment) brought me right back to an 8th grade science classroom where I debated whether to use my one allowed bathroom pass per day. I tried to never use them, only running to the restroom during passing periods, saving my pass in case of emergency.
Many students in my public schools faced significant challenges, directly caused or exacerbated by disinvestment, racism, classism, ableism, and other systemic injustices. The schools often responded to “student problems” with additional control and punishment mechanisms for students, with the greatest enforcement directed toward students of color, low-income students, and disabled students. As she has consistently done through her extraordinary writing, in Original Sins, Ewing breaks down both the how and the what of history in the U.S. She focuses here on how educational systems across U.S. history (including the history happening right now) have constricted, marginalized, disappeared, and/or criminalized Black and Native children and their caretakers and communities.
This book is a powerful instrument for understanding and interrogating the many intersecting circumstances that advantage, and disadvantage, certain learners in formal education systems. I expect the benefits of such understanding and interrogation are self-evident to many who are reading this, especially those do not expect a business case for social justice. That expectation notwithstanding, I found a lot in this text instructive to our thinking, practices, and considerations for how people and teams learn and collaborate in organizations and partnerships. Each of us has not only had different educational experiences than our next colleague, we have also learned within systems with different goals (implicit and explicit), different levels of truth, and dramatically different rules, expectations, and cultures. What could be more essential to successful collaborations than identifying the assumptions and expectations we each bring with us?
Read This Book If You Want or Need:
To learn more about U.S. educational systems and cultures, how they differ for Black and Native students, and how those differences drive racist systems and cultures across American society.
To process and/or challenge your own educational experience as singular or universal—whatever your identities and experiences, the educational systems you encountered were highly differentiated and shared elements with many others in similar systems.
To reflect on how our educational experiences, for better and worse, undergird and inform our own—and others’—approaches to learning, instruction, hierarchy, policy, and correction.
A short time prior to reading Original Sins, I read The ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters by the American Booksellers Association, and I was reminded of it countless times while reading Ewing’s text. While I haven’t touched as much on the vast differences in the content learners are exposed to, as covered in Ewing’s text, this handbook also provides critical context for understanding and combatting restrictions that limit learners from seeing themselves and others more clearly.
