Schooled by Oppression: Inequity and Erasure in American Education

What happens when education systems don’t nurture and provide, but neglect and punish? In Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, Mary Annette Pember probes into the decades-long history of Native children forced into boarding schools, recounting the experiences of her mother and other families and delving into the haunting generational impact of acculturation. In Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, Eve L. Ewing reveals that education was never meant to nourish every student but to strengthen racial hierarchy, through an investigation into revisionist curriculum and unequal access to resources.