Children shouldn't be made to feel like 'victims' or 'oppressors,' Ketanji Brown Jackson tells Ted Cruz

Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said during Tuesday's confirmation hearings that she does not believe children should be shamed because of their race, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) confronted Jackson about her position on the board of a progressive private school.

Cruz showed images and read excerpts from several books that are part of the curriculum at Georgetown Day School and that he said promote critical race theory, including Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The End of Policing by Alex Vitale, and Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi.

"Do you agree ... that babies are racist," Cruz asked.

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"Senator," Jackson said, "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."

"Georgetown Day School," Jackson continued, "just like the religious school that Justice [Amy Coney] Barrett was on the board of, is a private school." Barrett served on the board of the classical Christian school network Trinity Schools from 2015 until 2017.

"So you agree critical race theory is taught at Georgetown Day School?" Cruz asked.

Jackson said she didn't know because the board is not in charge of setting the school's curriculum. She also said the issues he was raising "don't come up in my work as a judge, which I am — respectfully — here to address."

On Monday, the Republican Party's official Twitter account posted a gif associating Jackson with critical race theory and linking to a list of "Important Questions" for Jackson about CRT. None of the questions on the list mentioned Jackson's association with Georgetown Day School.

The GOP's tweet was widely condemned as racist.

Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.