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

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. What parts of the text made you uncomfortable regarding your view of the United States, its foundation, and/or its education systems? How did Ewing’s discussion of seminal figures like Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, and others compare with your views of their contributions to the United States?

2. Do your experiences in school most reflect the experiences of Black children, Indigenous children, or Ewing’s own experiences in an affluent school as discussed in the text? Discuss how the text informed your views and perception of your own education.

3. What part or fact in the text surprised you the most to learn? Discuss why it surprised you and how it changed your view of education, race, and/or history.

4. After reading Original Sins, what do you believe you can do to change the way Black and Indigenous students are educated or perceived in the United States?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Reflect on Ewing’s assertion that “[i]t is important to know and understand this history. Only by facing our ugliest narratives of the past can we hope not to ‘move past them,’ but to surmount them” (253). Discuss another current societal issue to which this idea could also be applied. How does understanding the complex history of that issue inform how you would approach addressing it?

2. Compare Original Sins to work by other Black scholars of education, such as Michelle Alexander, Jamelle Bouie, or Ta-Nehisi Coates. How do their views on Black education in the United States align? How do they differ?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Discuss hair as a symbol in the test? What does it represent for Black and Indigenous people? How has the US education system historically worked to destroy this symbol? How does Ewing reclaim it?

2. How does Ewing use humor and sarcasm throughout the text? Point to two specific instances and analyze how they convey her message, impact the text’s mood, and/or influence the reader’s opinion of the issue being discussed.

3. Choose three metaphors or similes in the text that Ewing uses to describe the Black and Indigenous education experiences. Analyze how this comparison conveys a theme of the text.

4. Does Ewing end on a hopeful or resigned note? Discuss how Ewing uses diction and/or figurative language to convey this tone.

5. Ewing argues that written history has ignored Indigenous and Black cultural knowledge and epistemologies. How does her book attempt to correct this mistake? 

6. What role do stories play in Original Sins? Does interweaving personal anecdotes—rather than simply providing a history book—better connect with the reader? Why or why not?