The former Naperville resident Brian Crooks, posted a powerful essay on Facebook about growing up black in the Midwest went viral. Much to the surprise, he graduated at Neuqua Valley High School.
Crooks, who moved to the south side of Naperville when he was in the fifth grade, stated that he really didn't set out a written work on black life.
The 31 year old Crooks said that after the shooting incident that killed Sean Bell in Queens, N.Y., he's been posting his views on social issues on Facebook. During the shooting incident, law enforcers fired 50 rounds at a vehicle near a strip club that killed the groom and injured the friends who took him out on the night before the wedding, according to Chicago Tribune.
In the 4,747 word essay of Crooks, the former Naperville resident detailed his experiences from his childhood life through present day, outright discrimination, stories of microaggressions, as well as his encounters with the police, based on the report of Chicago Press Release.
Crooks' post started that the first time he was aware of his Blackness, he was probably 6 or 7 years old. Crooks used to go to daycare and they went on a field trip to a water park one time.
One of the other boys from the daycare confronted him and told him that he was surprised Crooks was going on the trip for the reason that his father told him all colored individuals were afraid of the water since they sink to the bottom.
During Black History Month, Crooks recalled the countless times other students asked to touch his hair, and the inconvenient Crooks felt being the designated reader.
Crooks was truthful and straightforward about his adolescence in Naperville, and being a student at Neuqua Valley High School.
Crooks then wrote about his college experience at the University of Iowa and his post-graduate experience. Since Crooks posted the status on Facebook, the post has been shared nearly 25,000 times.
Here's a video of Neuqua Valley High School where Crooks attended:
