Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice
by Yusef Salaam
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"They didn't know who they had. So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No one's life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam's 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 we're 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 show more 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 life's 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 nation's inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaam's 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"-- show lessTags
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Memoir as Motivation
Personal memoir of Yusef Salaam (1795-1826), a member of the Exonerated Five - young Black men who spent years in prison after they were wrongfully convicted of the brutal physical and sexual assault of jogger Trisha Meili in Central Park in New York City on April 19, 1989. (Contrary to the claims made by a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election debate, all of the Five were convicted in jury trials with none pleading guilty, and as of November 2024, Meili is still very much alive.) The book works best as a testimony to his Muslim faith in the face of unjust incarceration, which he compares to those of the prophets. However, perhaps surprisingly for the activist author who would shortly after show more publication become a politician and win a seat on the New York City Council, he writes comparatively little about the historical and political foundations of the mass incarceration of Black men in the 20th and 21st centuries, deferring often to other authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Cornel West. To the extent the book can be said to have a failing, perhaps the most glaring one is how it reads more like the transcript of a TED talk than a book. This is especially true when Salaam includes his own rap lyrics - a genre whose very name suggests it is spoken, not written. Given what a gifted orator Salaam has proven to be in his election bid and at the city council, we can hope someday for an updated version of this book an audio or video recording. show less
Personal memoir of Yusef Salaam (1795-1826), a member of the Exonerated Five - young Black men who spent years in prison after they were wrongfully convicted of the brutal physical and sexual assault of jogger Trisha Meili in Central Park in New York City on April 19, 1989. (Contrary to the claims made by a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election debate, all of the Five were convicted in jury trials with none pleading guilty, and as of November 2024, Meili is still very much alive.) The book works best as a testimony to his Muslim faith in the face of unjust incarceration, which he compares to those of the prophets. However, perhaps surprisingly for the activist author who would shortly after show more publication become a politician and win a seat on the New York City Council, he writes comparatively little about the historical and political foundations of the mass incarceration of Black men in the 20th and 21st centuries, deferring often to other authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Cornel West. To the extent the book can be said to have a failing, perhaps the most glaring one is how it reads more like the transcript of a TED talk than a book. This is especially true when Salaam includes his own rap lyrics - a genre whose very name suggests it is spoken, not written. Given what a gifted orator Salaam has proven to be in his election bid and at the city council, we can hope someday for an updated version of this book an audio or video recording. show less
May 18, 2021 - Heard Yusef Salaam on Bookmarks Zoom with Phoebe Zerwick on the day his book came out.
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- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 365.6092 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Punishment Inmates History, geographic treatment, biography Biography
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- HV9468 .S244 .A3 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminal justice administration Penology. Prisons. Corrections By region or country
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