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

In her latest book, cultural organizer, scholar, poet, and comic book writer Ewing (race, diaspora, and Indigeneity, Univ. of Chicago; Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side) identifies what she calls the two original sins of the United States: enslavement and the extinction of Indigenous people. She describes what she refers to as the race machine and how it is still being used in the U.S. to restrict specific groups from the benefits of full citizenship in this nation. Her book examines the three pillars of racism that are cultivated in American public schools. The first is intellectual inferiority, the belief that Black and Indigenous people are less intelligent than other races. The second is discipline and punishment, which is the belief that Black and Indigenous people are unruly and need to be constantly controlled. Third is economic subjugation that prevents marginalized people from taking charge of their own labor.