Yusef Salaam Says Watching His Life On-Screen in 'When They See Us' Was "Powerful"
Nearly four months have passed since When They See Us, Ava Duvernay's poignant miniseries about the so-called "Central Park Five," dropped on Netflix. Since then, a lot in Yusef Salaam's life has changed. The message he's trying to spread and the fight that he's trying to fight are still the same (he's been a writer, motivational speaker, and criminal justice reform advocate for 20 years now), but the platform on which he's able to share his views has grown exponentially.
"The good thing about Netflix releasing When They See Us is that it's put us on a global platform where some of the things that we've been speaking about and doing have been able to be magnified," Yusef tells GoodHousekeeping.com. "I compare it to the very beginning of our case. In the beginning, there were so many articles written about us. It was as if it was a tsunami coming to bear down on us. But when we were found to be innocent 13 years after we were accused, there was no public outcry in the same way that there was a public outcry when they thought that we were guilty. In many ways, this [series] has restored that kind of public outcry ... and it's overwhelmingly positive, and I love that part."
Since the show's premiere, Yusef's social media following has exploded (from roughly 7,000 to more than 310,000 on Instagram) and in a special interview for OWN and Netflix, Oprah rebranded him and the rest of the Central Park Five as "the Exonerated Five" (which Yusef calls one of the "most positive outcomes" of the series). On Sunday, he's even attending the Emmys with Ava and the rest of the Exonerated Five — an experience that has left Yusef in awe: "Here we are. Oh, man. Here we are."
Yusef was 15 years old when he became a suspect in the 1989 rape and assault of "Central Park Jogger" Trisha Meili. Trisha, a 28-year-old white investment banker, had gone for a run in Central Park on the evening of April 19, 1989, and was later discovered brutally beaten, raped, and left for dead in a ravine. After hours and hours of brutal interrogations that ended with false confessions, Yusef and four other black and Latino teens (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise) were ultimately charged with — and later convicted of — the crime.
In 2002, after the four younger men were already out of prison and Korey (who served the entirety of his time in an adult correctional facility) was nearing the end of his sentence, the true perpetrator of the Central Park Jogger assault, Matias Reyes, confessed to committing the rape. The five boys — now men — who were falsely convicted were finally able to clear their names, and the following year, Antron, Kevin, and Raymond filed a lawsuit against the city of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. The suit was eventually settled for $41 million, with Korey receiving $12.2 million and the other four men receiving $7.1 million each.
In the years that followed, Yusef participated in various documentaries and TV programs about his case — but nothing quite like When They See Us, which is a four-part dramatic re-telling of his own life experiences.
In the miniseries, Yusef is played by actors Ethan Herisse (who plays him as a teen) and Chris Chalk (who plays him as an adult). He and the rest of the Exonerated Five were present on the When They See Us set during filming, and Yusef says there was something "powerful" about watching their lives play out on-screen, all under the direction of famed director Ava Duvernay.
Perhaps one of the most powerful things about the way When They See Us tells the Exonerated Five's story, however, is the way that it humanizes the boys at the heart of it all — it allows viewers to see Yusef, Antron, Kevin, Raymond, and Korey as the children they really were when they were wrongly convicted of this brutal crime.
"I've been speaking to people for over 20 years, and most of the time, I can see that there's a bit of a disconnect," Yusef says. "When I come out on stage and I have a suit and a tie on and I'm speaking, as they would say, 'the Queen's English,' I've seen this. Like, 'This guy was in prison? Maybe he was the attorney.' Or something like that. And so the portrayal of us as young people has bridged the gap, where people no longer are confused about what it was like to be a black child in America — what it's like to be vilified, what it's like to be a person with this color skin."
Now, of course, the series is being recognized for the incredible piece of storytelling that it is: When They See Us is up for 16 awards, including Outstanding Limited Series, at the 2019 Emmys on Sunday evening. (Even before the Emmys telecast, the show has already won one, for Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series.) But while the award recognition is exciting and much-deserved, it's not really the point of making a series like this one.
"I think one of the big things [I hope people take away from When They See Us] is actually something Raymond had said on social media the other day," Yusef says. "He said, 'I hope we're not a trend.' I think that there is a notion that we want to be celebrated, that we want to be able to have this presence, but what we want folks to understand is that this is a movement. This is not just a feel-good kind of thing, like, 'Oh hey, I know those guys. I took a picture with them,' and on to the next. We are really needing to change the criminal justice system."
Today, amid all media attention, Yusef also talks to his kids about what he's been through and how it affects them. He's the father to 10 children ranging between the ages of 3 and 23, and he says they've all watched the series and understand his experiences "to varying degrees," depending on their ages. But if he could, what would he tell a younger version of himself today?
"I would try to tell my younger self the importance of trusting the process," he says. "I usually tell people that when your mother and your father got together, you were one of over 400 million options, and you made it. And once we realize that we were born on purpose and with a purpose, everything that happens in our life — especially when we look back, when we look at the journey we've just come down — it all makes sense. I could not have been in this space as a positive change agent had I not gone through this horrific experience."
You can see Yusef Salaam and the rest of the Exonerated Five at the 2019 Emmy Awards on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
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