Lifestyle » People Profiles » Dashaun Morris - Blood, Sweat and Tears

Blood, Sweat and Tears

By Shanene Pinder - April 15, 2008

Real talk from a gang member about his life in the streets

Dashaun Jiwe Morris is, by his own account, "not your average dude." His remarkable life, as detailed in his new memoir, War of the Bloods in My Veins: A Street Soldier’s March Toward Redemption (Scribner, April 8), has been a roller coaster ride, complete with disturbing twists and turns of violence, crime, prison, pain, and death. But behind all the drama and trauma stands a survivor with the personal insight to take us deep inside the hearts and minds of young men who live and die on the urban turf.

Sent to live with unsupportive relatives in Phoenix, Morris quickly turns to the local Bloods for the family bonds he lacks. To gain the acceptance, respect, and protection of the group, he is forced to commit his first drive by at the age of 11—his commitment to gang life and the reckless work required ensues. Morris guides us through his unstable childhood as his family constantly picks up and moves around the country in search of fresh starts and chance to leave the dangers of their old communities behind. Eventually settling in Newark, NJ a teenage Morris immerses himself in Blood culture full throttle, an environment offering little more than drug dealing, robbing, and the continual loss of his comrades.

Possessing the unique ability to excel in two opposing worlds as both a gang member in the ‘hood and a gifted player on his high school football team, Morris is recruited to Delaware State University on a full athletic scholarship. On campus, his gang bangin’ mentality is unshakable and his activities inevitably play a pivotal role, threatening his opportunity to make it into the NFL draft.

War of the Bloods in My Veins is an intense, moving, and unflinching dose of reality about the life changing circumstances, chances and choices that so many young men face every day in the streets. An authentic story told with raw emotion, this book delivers the real deal about the complexities of the gang experience and, like the author himself, there’s nothing average about it.