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Better, Not Bitter
Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice
1 of 1 copy available
This inspirational memoir serves as a call to action from prison reform activist Yusef Salaam, of the Exonerated Five, that will inspire us all to turn our stories into tools for change in the pursuit of racial justice.
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 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.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 18, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781549163548
- File size: 213731 KB
- Duration: 07:25:16
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from April 1, 2021
One of the wrongly accused and imprisoned Central Park Five recounts his experiences with an unjust system of justice. Salaam was just 15 when he "was run over by the spiked wheels of justice." That collision came when he was accused, along with four other teenagers, of raping a young woman in New York's Central Park and leaving her for dead. Tried as a juvenile, he was sent into adult custody at Rikers Island, "a notoriously violent prison from which many men never returned," before being shifted in and out of other institutions. In 2002, following a jailhouse confession by the actual attacker, the convictions were overturned. Inside the system, taking a cue from Malcolm X, Salaam accepted the fact that "it's often incumbent upon the person to educate him- or herself while inside." He completed high school and earned an associate's degree, building on his enrollment in the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art when he was only 12. "They have created cages in order to create animals so they'll have an excuse to create more cages," writes the author. "But we all have the power to blossom behind those bars." Sadly, as he notes, whereas he had the support of a loving and attentive mother, many other imprisoned people have no social network. One of the Five, unable to find work and adjust to life outside, returned to prison. Punctuating his prose with memorable images ("Fear was playing Double Dutch with my mind"), Salaam denounces a system of injustice built on the backs of Black people, demonized as born criminals. Remarkably, though Donald Trump himself made his first foray into politics on the backs of the Five, the author mentions him by name just once in a book rich in self-knowledge and compassion. "As the alchemist of your life," he writes, "you have control over the choices you make on this journey....But no matter what, you can be free." Warm, generous, and inspirational: a book for everyone.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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May 1, 2021
Arrested at the age of 15 in 1989 along with four other boys of color for the rape of a white woman in Central Park, Salaam became known as one of the Central Park Five--often referred to now as the Exonerated Five after a confession from the actual perpetrator, with DNA corroboration. During his almost seven years in juvenile detention, Salaam earned his GED and served as an Islamic spiritual leader. He credits his faith and extended network of family, especially his mother and sister, for helping him through this time. This memoir recalls his time in prison and the continued effects after his release, decries a culture built on white supremacy and Black bodies, and serves as spiritual guidance for overcoming trauma. It's easy to see how Salaam became a motivational speaker, writing throughout the book of transforming traumatic experiences: "you must take the emotions that come up in your reflection and move that energy into something purposeful."" An uplifting and hopeful book about a terrible miscarriage of justice and the lives impacted.COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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