Copyright independent
A college football player from Illinois said he walked away from a $60,000 scholarship after a campaign of racist abuse from his teammates. Brook Williams, 18, withdrew from Aurora University after claiming his peers made racist comments toward him including making a joke about George Floyd. Floyd was a Black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. "They called me the N-word," Williams told Fox 32 Chicago, "Then one of them said, ‘Don’t you guys sleep in trees?’" Williams' mother, Aisha, got involved, contacting the university’s president, vice president and Williams’ coach every day. “They didn’t answer me,” Aisha said. Aurora University launched an investigation that found two of Williams’ teammates had created a hostile environment based on race, according to documents reviewed by Fox 32. The players were initially suspended and put on probation. But after an appeal, the school gave them a slap on the wrist. Williams’ teammates had to complete racial sensitivity training and were allowed to play again in January. Williams ended up leaving Aurora University in September after he says the coach stopped talking to him and ignored his plays when the team was reviewing game footage. "It hurt," he said. "I worked hard for this.” Williams said he now has to work until he can hopefully go to a new school to play football in January. Aurora University said it was “deeply committed to fostering a safe, respectful, and inclusive community where every student feels valued and supported,” in a statement to Fox 32. The school added that it takes harassment allegations “extremely seriously.” Race and ethnicity were the most common motivations for hate crimes in the U.S. last year. Racial and ethnic bias motivated about 53 percent of the more than 11,000 hate crimes in 2024, according to the FBI. The Independent has reached out to Aurora University for comment.
