Davon Gray
Published: May 12, 2008

I can remember gangs even in small-town Mississippi where I grew up as a teenager.

One experience I had growing up compelled me to write this article as a warning to any parents reading this.

One day, when I was about 14 years old, I was walking down the street to the local curb store when I heard someone holler at me, “Crip!” To this day I don’t know what that stands for. Maybe I should, but
I did realize one thing ... I was wearing a blue overcoat. I didn’t know exactly what the word Crip meant but I knew it had something to do with the blue overcoat I was wearing. 

Knowing this I turned and walked in the opposite direction as quickly as I could. Was I scared? You better believe it. For one thing, there were several of them and they were much older than I was.
Whatever I had to get from that curb store would simply have to wait! Plus, this was during the time when kids where being killed for what they wore because it was assumed they were gang members by
the clothes they were wearing.

Well it seems we have entered those times again. 

Earlier this week I received a disturbing email. It was about gangs in and around our area.  The fact that they exist is nothing new. But new styles mean these gangs have incorporated various fashion
styles to represent who they are. Take a look at the following:

FILA — F (folks) I (in) L (love) A (always).

FLIGHT — F (forever) L (living) I (in) G (gangster) H (hoover) T (town).

K-SWISS — K (kill) S (slobs) W (when) I (i) S (see) S (slobs).

ADIDAS — A (all) D (day) I (i) D (disrespect) A (all) S (slobs).

CALVIN KLEIN — C (crip or crab) K (killers).

MECCA — M (murdering) E (every) C (crip) C (child) A (alive.

POLO by Ralph Lauren — P (property) O (of) L (locs) O (only).

REEBOK — R (respect) E (each) E (every) B (blood) O (O) K (k).

DUKE — stands for “Disciples Using Knowledge Everyday.”

NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE — NC stands for “Neighborhood Crips.”

COLORADO ROCKIES — CR stands for “Crips Rule.”

ORLANDO MAGIC — “Magic stands for “Maniacs And Gangsters In Chicago.”

DALLAS COWBOYS — COWBOYS stand for “Crips Out West Bangin On You Slobs.”

There were other descriptions of other name brand clothes and sports team items but they were too explicit to have them in my column.

It’s important we all know these things. Not so much for ourselves but for our children. Kids like to be in style; especially jerseys and clothes from their favorite football teams.

Most of them are wearing such gear unaware of how it may be interpreted, just like I did when I was 14. Hopefully for us, here in Prince William County, this type of madness is not running rampant. But we need to be on top of all of this before it does run rampant. 

You don’t stop a cold after you catch one. Prevention is the word of the day. 

It is important that we talk to our young people in school and find out if this type craziness in Prince William County. 

On a side note, but one of equal importance, we seem to be raising a generation of kids looking for identity. If you didn’t believe that before, the descriptions above of how some gangs are interpreting clothing items should convince you. In the short term we have to worry about our individual child’s safety, but in the long run we must take back this generation of kids and get them away from having to
be scared based upon what they wear.

This younger generation is crying out for belonging and identity in a world that for the most part, is ignoring them. This new attempt of identity through gangs cannot be ignored. Most of us as parents might want to ignore it, but we simply cannot anymore.

Descriptions like the ones above, fights in and out of schools like we have seen recently in Prince William County and overcrowded juvenile detention centers are proof and a warning that stronger preventive action must be taken in our homes, at our schools and by our county government.

Davon Gray works in Washington, D.C., and resides in Woodbridge. Contact him at .