Books about racism and social justice are getting a sales boost from an unlikely source: Sen. Ted Cruz.
In a confirmation hearing on Tuesday, the Texas Republican grilled Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson about several books in the curriculum of Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.; Jackson serves on the school’s board of directors.
Cruz claimed the books advocated critical race theory, an academic concept that many conservatives use as a catch-all term for any content that challenges racism.
One of those books was Alex S. Vitale’s The End of Policing, which advocates rethinking the role of law enforcement in America. On Twitter, Vitale noted that after Cruz displayed his book, it became the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon in the Government Social Policy category. As of Thursday morning, it was also No. 1 in the Law Enforcement category.
Cruz also spotlighted two books by Ibram X. Kendi: How To Be an Antiracist and the children’s book Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. Both of those books were Amazon bestsellers on Thursday, with How To Be an Antiracist ranked No. 1 in the Civil Rights & Liberties category, and Antiracist Baby ranked No. 3 among all books.
On Twitter, several users noted the irony of Cruz popularizing the books he derided. “Ted Cruz making The End of Policing a bestseller overnight all because he wanted to hold up some scary books he’s never read is hilarious,” wrote Twitter user Micah.
Ted Cruz making The End of Policing a bestseller overnight all because he wanted to hold up some scary books he’s never read is hilarious
— micah (@micahinATL) March 23, 2022
And journalist Elie Mystal tweeted, “My wife didn’t know [Kendi] wrote a children’s book and she's buying it now for our kids. So...thanks for the book recommendation @tedcruz.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.