College Times

Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Scribner

For Dashaun Morris, childhood consisted of being surrounded by drive-by shootings, funerals and gang fights in his Phoenix neighborhood. After running with the Bloods for most of his life, he found himself alone in a prison cell while his friends were being buried and his first daughter was being born. Morris, who recently released the book "War of the Blood in My Veins," is now the co-founder of TODAY, a group which seeks to end the cycle of gang violence. He recently spoke to College Times. He's set to speak Thursday at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

College Times: How did you get into the Bloods at the age of 11?

Dashaun "Jiwe" Morris: In Phoenix, where I first got into the Bloods, it was expected of kids to get down with a gang. It was like a dog-breeding situation where you train kids as early as possible to be the most ferocious animal possible. A young gang member is an asset to the turf because, by the time he's 20 years old, he's been trained to be the coldest, most heartless beast in the set. When you're dealing with the minds of gang members, what you want is the angriest, most aggressive, and hopeless beast you can find. And when you take a young child, like at age 11, and solicit him with love, money, attention and camaraderie you manipulate him into thinking that he owes his life to you for the things you're doing for him…

Was there one incident in particular that transformed you from gang leader to peace advocate?

It wasn't one particular event, but a combination of things that jolted me into a new thinking about my future. A few years ago I was in prison facing a 25 year sentence. At the same time my first daughter was about to be born. Meanwhile one of my close homees was murdered. Being locked up allowed me time to see things more clearly and take a break from all the gang bangin' I was caught up in. I was tired, worn out from going to one funeral after another for my dead homees, sick of getting faded on 40s and hanging around with killers. I'd just had enough of all the destruction. But in the streets, among the homees, it takes one to teach one. That's why I do what I do. My message is accepted coming from me because I am one of them.

What was it like reliving your past when you wrote your book?

It was emotionally draining. It taught me a lot about myself and those areas that I now know steered me in the wrong direction. As I remembered so much pain I was sometimes overwhelmed with anger, sadness, it was really hard to go back to all of that misery in my mind. I had to come to terms with where I've been, where I am, and where I want to go. Sometimes what I saw was shocking. It wasn't the easiest thing to do to, but it was a healthy thing for me. Many times I didn't want to continue putting my life out there on blast, but I realized the overall importance of telling the truth, that the objective is to help others, and I knew that in order to get my point across I had to reveal the horrible truth about my life. I believe that my pain has the power to heal - myself and others.

Do you foresee an end to gang violence anywhere in the future?

Well, if you're talking about the near future - 5 to 10 years from now - no, I do not see an end to gang violence. There's a lot of unlearning, teaching and sacrificing that needs to be done to really bring about change. As long as poverty, drugs, welfare and all the socio-economic problems of the 'hood exist, there will be gangs. What do you expect of people who can't get a job, have inferior education, and no resources to do when they have to feed their families and themselves? It's not realistic to say, "Just go get a job or something." The opportunities are just not there for them and so they do what they have to do to survive. But I do see a possible decrease in gang violence happening in maybe 15-20 years from now. We are giving birth to a better generation of youth who can be taught not to be destructive to their communities or themselves. To really get to the root of your question though, more must be asked of the powers that be about what they intend to do to address the challenges of the poor. Until the conditions in the 'hood are made better and the problems are fixed, gangs will never go away.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools