Yusef Salaam - Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice

Copyright 2021 by Yusef Salaam

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First Edition: May 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Salaam, Yusef, 1974author.

Title: Better, not bitter : living on purpose in the pursuit of racial justice / Yusef Salaam.

Description: First edition. | New York : Grand Central Publishing, 2021. | Summary: They didnt know who they had. So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No ones life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaams seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that were all born on purpose, with a purpose. Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being run over by the spiked wheels of injustice, Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities. Better, Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words. Yusef writes his narrative: growing up Black in central Harlem in the 80s, being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother, his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of lifes experiences. He inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. With his intimate personal insights, Yusef unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people. He inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and through the spiritual, to turn that anger and trauma into a constructive force that lives alongside accountability and mobilizes change. This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nations inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaams message is vital for our times, a motivating resource for enacting change. Better, Not Bitter has the power to soothe, inspire, and transform. It is a galvanizing call to action.Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020054033 | ISBN 9781538705001 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781538704981 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Salaam, Yusef, 1974 | PrisonersNew York (State)New YorkBiography. | False imprisonmentNew York (State)New York | Judicial errorNew York (State)New York. | Discrimination in criminal justice administrationNew York (State)New York.

Classification: LCC HV9468.S244 A3 2021 | DDC 365/.6092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054033

ISBNs: 978-1-5387-0500-1 (hardcover), 978-1-5387-0498-1 (ebook)

E3-20210331-JV-NF-ORI

For my mother, Sharonne Salaam; my sister, Ace; and my brother, Shaf

T HEY DIDNT KNOW WHO THEY HAD.

I say this often, and most people think it is something I figured out after being imprisoned for a crime I did not commit. It is not. From very early on, I innately knew that I had a destiny that existed beyond the one the criminal justice system attempted to assign to me. I just needed to live long enough for that purpose to come to fruition.

And to be honest, my survival wasnt the only thing at stake. My physical survival, yes, but also my mental and emotional endurance.

They didnt know who they had.

In 1989, I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice. I was vilified in such a way that I became a pariah, a scourge. Within the first few weeks of the accusations that would turn Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and myselfthen known as the Central Park Fiveinto poster children for Black deviance, a tsunami of media rolled out the proverbial red carpet, leading us to our destruction at the hands of the American justice system.

On the day I was convicted, my hope died. It would take years before it was resurrected again. I was sixteen years old when I stood in the hallway of the courthouse and someone ran up to me saying, They have a verdict! In that moment, I truly believed that wed be exonerated. Surely they would see that we didnt do this, I thought. Id been out on bail up until that point, so although Id had to endure the questions, the intense media scrutiny, I was still giving my mom a kiss before bed at night. I was still talking to my cousins, talking to my friends.

Guilty.

That verdict shattered me. I was a child. But I didnt get to go home with my mom and turn myself in later. They put the handcuffs on me right there and then. No hugs. No long goodbyes. No letting me change my clothes or shoes. They took us away immediately. I felt a profound sense of powerlessness in that moment, a moment I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy. My body shook with fear. Im still not sure how I found the strength to stand up. What, do you mean right now? I felt like I was being led to the slaughterhouse. Aside from child molestation, rape was the worst crime to go to jail for. They were supposed to send us back to the juvenile detention center, but they didnt. Instead, they intentionally sent us directly to Rikers Island, a notoriously violent prison from which many men never returned.