Better, Not Bitter: The Power of Hope and Living on Purpose

by Yusef Salaam

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

One of the "Exonerated Five," Yusef Salaam tells a wrenching story of injustice and offers a humbling chronicle of survival, perseverance and coming through. That he has chosen to be a light in the darkness of a culture steepled in racism and oppression, to bestow the lessons of inspirations that sustained him, to focus energy and spirit toward healing action is a dear gift. This is an eloquent book about a great man's life and trials.

Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR

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 whole story for the first time: of resilience in the face of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice. Despite having confronted the racist heart of America, Yusef channeled his energy and pain into self-determination and positivity. During his seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, Yusef gained a spiritual perspective on life, realizing that we are all “born on purpose, with a purpose.”

Better, Not Bitter is the inspirational story of a young man growing up in central Harlem in the '80s, the failure of America's criminal justice system, of being vilified by a nation. But during his years of incarceration, Yusef discovered the power of art and faith, and of holding on to the person you know you are, which gave him the strength to survive, and helped him through reentry and exoneration.

Yusef's journey inspires us to accept our own path, to discover our own sense of purpose. His intimate insights help unpack the racist design of systems built for profit and oppression of Black and Brown people. This motivational memoir urges us to channel fury into action, and to turn anger and trauma into a constructive force to enact change in one’s own life and for a better future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538704998
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/17/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	202,478
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.95(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Yusef Salaam is the inspirational speaker and prison abolitionist, who, at age fourteen was one of the five teenage boys wrongly convicted and sentenced to prison in the Central Park jogger case. In 1997, he left prison as an adult to a world he didn't fully recognize or understand. In 2002, the sentences for the Central Park Five were overturned, and all Five were exonerated for the crime they didn't commit.

Yusef now travels the world as an inspirational speaker, speaking about the effects of incarceration and the devastating impact of disenfranchisement. He is an advocate and educator on issues of mass incarceration, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in the criminal justice system, especially for men of color.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Born on Purpose, with a Purpose 1

1 The Escape 17

2 Master Yusef Salaam 39

3 Before 57

4 95A1113 75

5 Elevate and Decide in the Air 99

6 Love and War 125

7 Salaam Baloney! 147

8 The Safest Man You Could Ever Meet 169

9 The Expendability of a People 197

10 A Mother's Love 223

11 Ignorance as a Trillion-Dollar Industry 247

12 Becoming an Alchemist 265

Acknowledgments 283

Suggested Reading List 287

Reading Group Guide 289

About the Author 293

Editorial Reviews

"Salaam's compelling memoir is one of astounding warmth…This book should be read by anyone who wants to hear the story of the Exonerated Five directly from one of its members.”—NPR

"An important memoir and call to action that sheds light on the personal injustices of mass incarceration."—Library Journal

“Warm, generous, and inspirational: a book for everyone.”

—Kirkus

“Salaam is able to convey hope and humor while illuminating the many ways violence thrives. Better, Not Bitter is a wake-up call that urges readers to "dream again" and to recognize the ways in which they've been imprisoned—whether in a physical prison, or by racism, capitalism, health issues or other societal ills and injustices.”

—Shelf Awareness

"Better Not Bitter is equal parts, a luminous journey of awakening, and an indictment of a system that swallows boys and girls whole, only to spit out their broken bones. It is an urgent and poetic treatise on the human spirit’s ability to make itself whole again over and over. I cried for the little boy who was imprisoned, and rejoiced for the man who emerged years later as a battle tested warrior for justice.”

—Shaka Senghor, New York Time bestselling author of Writing my Wrongs

“An uplifting and hopeful book.”

—Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 04/16/2021

Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five, writes a powerful debut memoir that recalls his childhood, his 1989 arrest and imprisonment as one of the Central Park Five, and his struggle to make a life after he was finally freed from prison and exonerated of a crime he did not commit. In straightforward prose, Salaam writes that he was still a child when he was arrested at age 14, as well as when he was released from prison at age 21. With frankness, he explains how innocent his view of life was, and describes coming home from school one day, as a New York City high school student, and being told by brother and sister that police were looking for him. So began his entry into the judicial system without a way to defend himself, especially as a juvenile. Throughout his memoir, Salaam offers insight on surviving incarceration and fighting against oppression, and testifies to the power of believing in oneself, of strong family bonds, and of spiritual healing. Ultimately, this is a story of Salaam's survival and channeling pain into power and energy. VERDICT An important memoir and call to action that sheds light on the personal injustices of mass incarceration.—Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston

Library Journal

★ 2021-03-09
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.

Kirkus Reviews