The Humanity of Every Child

Original Sins by Eve Ewing
Penguin Random House, February 11, 2025

Throughout Original Sins: The Miseducation of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, Dr. Eve L. Ewing argues that school has historically functioned as a "laboratory for honing racial hierarchy." A writer and professor at the University of Chicago, Ewing takes her readers through the foundations of the American education system’s design to subjugate Black and Native children. Ewing builds her argument around the three pillars of hierarchy, which schools have used to reinforce racial hierarchy. These include the Gospel of Intellectual Inferiority, which is the assumption that Black and Native children are inherently less intelligent; Discipline and Punishment or the manifestation of the concept that Black and Native bodies require more content, with disproportionate suspension rates and criminalization; and Economic Subjugation emphasizing docility over ambition to utilize school as a tool to prepare children of color for the bottom of the capitalist hierarchy. Specific examples of the nineteenth century boarding school system and white abolitionists’ explicit teaching of subservience during Reconstruction serve as potent support for Ewing’s argument. The culmination of Ewing’s work is an urgent call for modern educators and leaders, contrasting the oppressive structures of the past with stories of resistance. For independent schools, Ewing challenges educators to address the "uncomfortable truths" embedded in our institutional DNA. Change, as Ewing suggests, requires us to stop waiting for permission from those in power and instead to start building "community-led, learning-centered education" that celebrates the humanity of every child.

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