Central Park Five Exoneree Preaches Reframing the System at Lehman
Yusuf Salaam poses for Media Communications student before the panel discussion. (Photo Credit: Jaquira Truesdale)
By: Jaquira Truesdale
On Nov. 21, Lehman College’s Recital Hall overflowed with Lehman students and staff eager to hear Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five exonerees falsely accused of raping and injuring Trishia Meili in 1989.
Sponsored by the monthly Social Justice Speaker Series, the discussion also featured New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer, but it was Salaam’s presence that caused major euphoria, especially when he invited attendees who did not find seats to sit on stage with him.
Brianna Duvivier, 19, sophomore, computer science major, was brought to tears when the floor was opened to talk to Salaam and Dwyer, and was especially appreciative of the opportunity of sitting on stage with them.
“I hear too much about issues with unity in the black community,” Duvivier explained to the Meridian. “And I’m sick and tired of the black community not really coming together until someone dies or someone gets shot.”
“It’s very surreal to meet somebody that you revere and respect so much and see them in person, it’s a humbling experience,” said Chanta Palmer, 22, senior, African American studies and political science major. She believes that there is a greater issue in the criminal justice system and there needs to be reform in reference to Netflix series, “When They See Us.”
“Just thinking about how eloquent he is and how poise, people might say ‘that is a redefinition of what a black man is’, but I really don’t believe that because black men have always been like this way. The images portrayed in the media have paint them to be something that they are not,” Palmer said.
The role of the media was a central topic of the discussion. Salaam recalled how approximately 400 articles were written about the Central Park Five that raised assumptions and stereotypes of the then teenagers.
The falsely accused teenagers received written death threats. Salaam read aloud a letter note that explicitly described how hanging Korey Wise in front of a Central Park tree while the other boys suffer naked, would make the parks safer.
Along with Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Antron McCray, Salaam served from adolescence to adulthood, until the actual offender, Matias Reyes, plead guilty in 2002. While in prison, Salaam coped by keeping his faith alive by praying and meditating. “The challenge is that how do you make sure you don’t turn into a monster, which is what they want you to turn into. How do you make sure you can keep yourself refusing to be a part of this process that turns you into a slave?” he said.
Salaam called his case “a love story between God and his people,” and thinks the criminal system of injustice is put on trial to make a miracle into reality. He also identified America’s bigger issue is having two unequal societies, and said this case is not the first nor will be the last.
Yusef welcomes Lehman students to all join him on stage and be united. (Photo Credit: Jaquira Truesdale)
“It’s a story about how people can be brought low only to rise, because the truth can never stay buried,” he said. “Once you have been run over by the spike wheels of justice, anything that comes after is wanted, needed, and accepted. But at the same time, we should’ve never had to go through that.”
Dwyer spoke about his shock in the courtroom hearing the teens’ fabricated testimonies, especially from Raymond Santana. At one point, a detective read aloud Santana’s statement, “We did altogether jointly the 40 of us or the 34 of us proceed North into the park and then turned Southwest.” Dwyer said he believed that the statement did not come from a 14-year-old boy, but had been invented by investigators.
According to CNN, there has been more than 2,000 exonerations in the United States since 1989 when DNA testing began.However it was not the same circumstance for the Central Park Five case until later on.
When the scientists came in to discuss the injuries of the victim, Dwyer was also baffled as there was no evidence of DNA or clothing at the crime scene that connected to the five teenagers. Yet even after Matias Reyes’ confession, Linda Fairstein, the lead prosecutor, stated that Reyes was the sixth man involved in the case.
Salaam told the Meridian, “I want folks to understand Linda Fairstein in her vilification of us, in her career building off our backs, she knows what she did and is trying to clean up her dirty work. The problem is, how do you consciously try to continue moving forward once you’ve been caught?”
Dwyer affirmed the potential of the media to be a force for justice. He said, “Taking the truth…and making us see a much bigger world is, I think, a way to be a force for good.”
Lehman Students Angered by Reversal of LGTBQ Rights
The Trump Administration will strip away nondiscrimination requirements. (Photo Credit: Evan Vucci)
By: Jaquira Truesdale
On Nov. 22, the White House will strip away nondiscrimination requirements for LGBTQ citizens, and Lehman students are outraged.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the legal change will allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant recipients and foster agencies the right to discriminate against LGBTQ citizens. The change comes despite protests from thousands of protesters who surrounded the United States Supreme Court in Washington D.C. to defend the rights of one transgender individual and two gay men who were fired due to their sexual preferences.
Many Lehman students who identify as LGBTQ members have been victims of discrimination and feel outraged by the reversal of legal protection.
Davaughn M. Riley, 23-year-old senior at Lehman and president of the LGBTQ Alliance who defines himself as a homosexual man told the Meridian, “I think what 45th President Donald Trump is doing is disgusting. He is revising all the work that has been done in our community by us and allies. It’s as if we’re seen as second-class citizens because of how we identify.”
Growing up, Riley dealt with a fair share of discrimination from men who questioned his manhood, seeing him as less than, never considering him “one of the boys” and condemning his sexual orientation.
“Normal things like housing, healthcare, marriage or being able to walk down the street holding our partner’s hands are the rights we deserve,” he said. “The fact that this can be robbed from us is disheartening. The only thing being reinforced is toxicity and malicious behavior.”
In New York and other states, laws protect people against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. According to nyc.gov, anyone experiencing discrimination at work, in housing issues, in public or anywhere else can file a complaint by phone or online.
About 46 percent of the LGBTQ community live in states where discrimination is protected, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Six percent live with little to no defense in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Dakota, while 28 states do not offer LGBTQ people any legal protections against discrimination. On the federal level, LGBTQ Americans are not protected in every corporation and were not protected under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In New York, there are still people that get discriminated against based on their sexuality who might be afraid to come forward and file a complaint.
Riley told the Meridian he was judged at his own workplace due to his sexuality. “When it comes to lifting and moving things, my coworker thought that because I was gay, I was made of glass and would break if I moved something heavy,” he said.
Other Lehmanites who support the LGBTQ community also feel frustrated with the laws and believe their rights should be legalized.
“It makes me concerned for society, really, that people still cannot fully accept each other based on sexual preference,” said K’nicia King, a 25-year-old Mercy College graduate and bisexual woman who said she has never been discriminated against based on her sexual orientation. “It makes no sense that people are still treating their colleagues and coworkers as outsiders when their lives are basically their own business.”
“We should all be able to love who we want to love.”
“I feel like it’s unfair. Why am I a citizen of this state and yet my rights can’t be upheld because I choose to like the same gender? It’s dumb,” said Britny Toussaint, 21, a junior psychology major who identifies herself as pansexual. “I have never experienced sexual orientation discrimination, but it frustrates me to know the LGBTQ community is constantly judged for who they are.”
“It’s horrible that that even happens at the workplace. It’s 2019 and the fact that the world can’t even accept others is very sad,” said Patricia Rodriguez, 19, a Lehman sophomore majoring in biology. “I support the LGBTQ community with open arms. Love is love, right? We should all be able to love who we want to love,” she said.
The LGBTQ Pride Flag at the Lehman campus (Photo Credit: Perla Tolentino)