November 15, 2024
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Ernest Crim to speak to speak to Plainfield High School students on Thursday

Plainfield South High School Black Student Association is hosting the event

By Denise M. Baran-Unland
Joliet Central High School teacher Ernest Crim speaks to a crowd at a Black business expo on June 27, 2020. Crim highlighted the need for people to challenge systemic racism amid several high profile deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement.

Joliet Central High School teacher Ernest Crim speaks to a crowd at a Black business expo on June 27, 2020. Crim highlighted the need for people to challenge systemic racism amid several high profile deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement. (Alex Ortiz)

The Plainfield South High School Black Student Association will host Ernest Crim via Zoom at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Crim is an activist, social science instructor at Joliet Central High School and author of “Black History Saved My Life: How My Viral Hate Crime Led To An Awakening.”

He will speak to students as part of the school’s Black History Month celebration. All District 202 high school students are invited to attend this free event.

Crim will discuss his tumultuous life experiences that prepared him to respond logically, opposed to emotionally, when he and his wife were the targets of a hate crime that went viral.

Crim discusses some mature topics and strong language may be used, according to a news release from District 202.

A 2020 Herald-News story said Crim’s book shares Crim’s experiences with racism beginning in childhood, how he and his wife were victims of a hate crime in 2016 and ways people of all races can address racism and other trials in life.

In that same story, Crim said he wrote this book for three groups of people.

The first are individuals who live in the U.S. and are targets of racism. Crim said his book will help “give them a glimpse of how they can respond appropriately” and with “a good foundation of historical knowledge to help you progress through life in this country.”

Crim also wrote his book for people who’ve never experienced racism, so they can understand the people who live with it and learn ways to “help us out.”

“I talk to students all the time,” Crim said in the 2020 story. “We often fight because we don’t believe we don’t have anything to lose. If we’re not able to win in any given situation, what have we got to gain or lose? But the better option is to walk away.”

In that same Herald-News story, Crim said one more group of people may benefit from his book: those who are bullied. Racism, he said, is a form of bullying.

And Crim feels his book can help people with the idea of knowing who they are, of finding their identity and how to respond when someone “calls them out.”

“These are universal things anyone can be faced with,” Crim said.

For more information about Crim and to buy his book, visit ernestcrim.com.

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