Dejon “DJ”
Portrait with Justice de los Santos
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
I’m an artist. So regardless of wherever I go, I know I’m going to be doing art. I’m a writer. I like to write. I love writing books and stories and telling people stories. That’s a passion for me.
I would definitely say my parents are a big reason that I am who I am today. And, just, them always keeping me in check and setting me on the right path.
My parents have instilled a lot of morals within me. They always built character within me, and many times they - every now and then, as much as they keep me on the right track - they let me make my own decisions and figure out some things for myself.
I think a lot of people view people of color especially - it’s just biased, because it’s like what you see on the news, and what you see on Facebook and the internet. Once you drill it in somebody’s head, it’s hard for them to know anything different. It’s like learning. When you learn something, you don’t just, like, read something one time. It’s constantly put into your thoughts. And when you do that in a negative way, then the negativity is learned. When people have that type of bias about people of color - no matter what race it is: Latino, Black, Asian, whatever - it’s just always going to be negative. And a lot of times that’s even how people of color perceive themselves. They see themselves in a negative way. Some black kids don’t even like to be around other black kids because of the simple fact that they think they’re going to start trouble - it’s some negative idea about them.
Milwaukee, 2018