Ted Cruz’s Bizarre ‘Antiracist Baby’ Tirade Backfires

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is being mocked online after asking United States Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about a children’s book during her confirmation hearing before the Senate, inadvertently sending sales of said book skyrocketing on Amazon.

Jackson seems to have endured the world’s weirdest job interview, as Cruz focused on a handful of children’s books being taught by the Georgetown Day School, a prep school where Jackson serves as a trustee, singling out a 2020 picture book titled Antiracist Baby, written by Ibram X. Kendi.

Amusingly, Cruz seems to have completely misunderstood the point of the children’s book – Antiracist Baby explicitly teaches that racism is something that has to be taught, and is not inherent to the human condition.

Willfully or otherwise, Cruz interpreted the book to be making the claim that babies are racist, or that babies need to “confess” when they are being racist (obviously, neither of these ridiculous concepts are in the book).

The tirade culminated in Cruz asking Jackson a bizarre question: “Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist?”

Jackson paused for a few seconds before responding to Cruz, perhaps silently reflecting on how years of increasingly absurd culture wars have microwaved the brains of the masses, to the point where a Supreme Court nominee is being questioned about the misinterpreted message of a children’s picture book. Eventually, Jackson responded:

“I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist, or as though they are not valued, or as though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors — I don’t believe in any of that.”

As Cruz continued to rant about children’s literature, Jackson smoothly highlighted how irrelevant his questions were, by responding:

“I have not reviewed any of those books, any of those ideas. They don’t come up in my work as a judge, which I’m respectfully here to address.”

Cruz’s questions instantly sparked backlash and mockery on Twitter, ironically providing free marketing for Antiracist Baby.

Later during the hearing, Cruz was seemingly caught searching his own name on Twitter, so it’s very possible that he spent the rest of the hearing reading mean tweets about himself.

But Antiracist Baby wasn’t the only book Cruz marketed with his performative questioning – Cruz also seems to have boosted sales of another book he ranted about during Jackson’s hearing, The End of Policing. The book’s author, Alex Vitale, even thanked Cruz on Twitter, writing:

“Thanks to Ted Cruz, The End of Policing is now the #1 Best Seller in Gov. Social Policy.” On top of his original tweet, Vitale added: “Every purchase now comes with a vial of Ted Cruz tears.”

The most memorable message to Cruz, however, came from Hellboy actor Ron Perlman, who was so infuriated by the hearing that he posted a video message addressed to Cruz on social media. Perlman stated:

“Hi Ted, Ron here. Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders, people who pride themselves on hatred and uneducation and inability to read and inability to understand the difference between true patriotism and the bullshit you’re selling. I know how tempting it is to play to those people, because at least you have a base, but Jesus Christ Ted, for somebody with a really, really small d—, you get to be a bigger prick every f—in day. Go f— yourself.”