Better Not Bitter

 

Like so many of you, I hear the story of Yusef Salaam and I can't quite understand how he's not angry and bitter and constantly outraged about the injustice that brought his name into the international spotlight. But, when I ask myself that, I come back to a news story I did years ago with a couple that lost all five of their children in a horrible car accident. The kids were all under the age of 10. The parents, who are devoutly religious, told me they hear people say that all the time. Then, the mother said something I will never forget:

"God doesn't give grace to the onlooker."

Of course we can't understand why Salaam - one of the Exonerated Five from the Central Park Jogger case - has come to the peaceful and rational way of seeing the world and his experience. It's not our experience to know. But, reading his book and hearing him share his story gives some insight to all of us about the mindset with which we can see the world in order to not let it break us.

Salaam was one of the five teenagers sent to prison in one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in the zeitgeist. He served his time and was out before the real rapist was identified. Their story became known to so many more people in the Netflix documentary Now They See Us. This book allows us to see them - Salaam, at least - even more fully.

He describes his mother walking in on his interrogation and telling him - you don't have to participate in this. He describes going to the courthouse to hear the verdict thinking he'll be right back, not knowing he wouldn't see his home for many years. And he describes turning to education and religion in prison to put himself in this mindset of facing this hardship - and, life after - by going through it, not shaking his fist at the sky.

This book and Salaam's message also show the powerful ways in which the system is set up to incarcerate Black people, especially Black men. There's so much literature on this subject right now, but to hear it from the man who serves as an example of how much can go so wrong, you can't help but feel that message in a different way.