Texas GOP's anti-critical race theory war backfires as banned Black author sees a surge in sales

Texas has become one of many states fighting to ban the teaching of critical race theory, or CRT, which is typically only taught in law schools. But now that is backfiring, reported the Houston Chronicle.

In some states, CRT has become a catch-all for anything involving race in school lessons.

One Black Texas principal, for instance, was put on leave for posting a photo of himself with his white wife on his personal Facebook page and now he's being forced to resign for supposedly teaching CRT.

In some school districts, conservative activists have worked to ban books by the children's author Jerry Craft, and a school in Houston canceled his appearance after an angry backlash from conservatives.

The efforts have backfired, however, as the activists have only drawn more attention to Craft's books. What has happened as a result is that instead, people are reading the book to try and understand why it was banned in the first place.

"I don't think that the people that banned it actually read the book," Craft said. "What has happened is so many places have sold so many copies because now people want to see what all the hubbub is. They get it and they write to me and they're almost disappointed because there's no big thing that they were looking for."

Houston parent Marty Troyer said that his children were so confused why their favorite author couldn't be found on the shelves of their school libraries, so he responded by encouraging his kids to read the list of banned books.

"I hope my kids have a better understanding of the subtle and systemic ways that race works in America," Troyer explained. "Racism isn't something just about bad people doing bad racist things, it's something that impacts every area of life and people knowingly and unknowingly do things that are racist. We're all swept up in it, and need to make intentional choices to interrupt racism. That's why it's important to learn critical thinking and read authors of color."

Read the full report at the Houston Chronicle.