Neri,G DuBurk,Randy (2010) Yummy:the Last Days of a Southside Shorty. Paperback | Lee & Low Press | ISBN-13:978-1584302674 | $12.20 USD | 96 Pages
In June of 2013, 15-year-old Donald Ray Dokins was sentenced to 90 years to charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with a June shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy and injured his father in Watts, CA.
Dokins, described by police as a Fudgetown Mafia Crips gang member, was reportedly trying to shoot a rival gang member, Mauro Cortez and accidentally shot his one-year-old son, Angel Cortez Nava
As gruesome and dark as the story of Dokins' is this scenario, of an inner youth being involved in a murder, isn't new at all. Back in 1994, America was shocked by a similar incident which rocked a city almost on the other side of the country; Chicago, IL.
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Donald Ray Dokins (16 yrs. old) turn to his lawyer after being sentence to 90 years – life for accidentally shooting a 1 year old boy in a gang shooting.
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Before Donald Dokins' story, in 1994, there was Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, an 11-year-old Chicago gang member whose powerful story was covered in Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, which I couldn't put down.
Yummy was raised by his grandmother, with, at times, as many as 19 other siblings because his mother was a drug-addict and his father was incarcerated.
In 1994, while shooting at a rival Chicago gang, Yummy killed a 14-year-old girl named Shavon Dean (an old friend) by accident in his neighborhood. This killing made national news; every news channel had Yummy's picture displayed on the TV screen.
Trying to avoid being arrested, Yummy went on the run. With a promise to find him a safe place from the police, he met up with two fellow gang members’ brothers Craig (16) and Derrick Hardaway (14).
But instead of driving him to safety they drove him under a grassy underpass and shot him twice in the head.* In the end “Yummy” was betrayed by his own gang, the “Black Disciples”, the same group that he revered and was out to impress.
Many of the neighbors in his community blame his abusive parents for turning Yummy into a monster (Yummy was beat and burn with cigarettes often).
The media blames the state system that turned him back out onto the streets after being arrested time and time again. Judges blame the laws that allowed gangs to use minors to commit felonies because they can’t be convicted as adults. Was Yummy a victim of society’s ills?
Overall, I highly recommend Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty to teenagers, adults and educators. I always use this classic book in my book club discussions as a deterrent to the drug/street gang culture for at-risk boys in my community and as a harsh reminder of the fact that when we fail to learn from history, we often repeat it.
