When They See Us Is Inspiring A New Generation To Protest

By Sarah Emily Baum


On June 17, protestors gathered outdoor the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the very same building where five black teens had been wrongfully convicted of a brutal assault over 30 years back. There, the protestors called for all cases tried by Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Lederer, the prosecutors who spearheaded arrests of the males who were infamously vilified as “The Central Park Five,” to be reopened and reevaluated.


The 1989 case has long served as a cautionary tale to Black and brown males, along with their parents and loved ones, about how the state can twist the truth to abuse innocent people. It was once again brought into the spotlight by the May 31 release of the Netflix mini-series When They Visualize Us, which dramatizes the night of a rape and beating in Central Park, and the subsequent arrests and trials of Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana, then 14 years old; Antron McCray and Yusef Salaam, then 15 years old; and Korey Educated, then 16 years old, who was tried as an adult. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the film exposes the harsh reality of their time in prison and asks viewers to analyse and contend with the racism and corruption in the criminal justice system.


The five gentlemen, who all served anywhere between five and 12 years in prison, were exonerated in 2002, immediately after another man came forward and confessed to the assault. A subsequent investigation by the Manhattan D.A.’S office noticed a wealth of corroborating evidence that had habitually backed what the gentlemen had been saying since the very beginning: They were innocent.


“It was a long time ago, nevertheless these things are still happening daily to Black and brown boys,” Angela Black, the older sister of Kevin Richardson, told MTV News outdoor the D.A.’S office. “We never had this kind of support plus a new, fresh generation to fight for change.”


The mini-series, she adds, “actually has opened up a chapter that we attempted to close in our life, nevertheless it's required that we keep telling our story. My brother says it's bittersweet due to the passion that we receive and the acceptance and just people believing the truth.”


When They Visualize Us reignited the conversation surrounding police violence and racism In the United States, educating a new generation who may have been largely unfamiliar with the case and driving them towards action. One of those young people is Michell-Lee Grahm, 17, a senior at Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School. She told MTV News while in Monday’s protest that the show made her realize the impact the corrupted trial on her own community and young people of color like herself.


“[The criminal justice system] works against us,” she mentioned. “It criminalizes Black and brown youth. It tears down Black and brown youth. It doesn't give them a chance to grow up.”


Co-organizer of the rally Linda Sarsour, an executive board member of the National Women’s March and also a local criminal justice activist with Justice League NYC, also acknowledged the impact the show had on her own activism efforts.


“When They Visualize Us reaffirmed for us the story that we already knew, yet we didn't know the kind of trauma to the level that was depicted in that series,” she mentioned. “Particularly against Korey Educated, who at the time was 16 years old and was sent to an adult prison where he was gang raped, where he was tortured, where he was left in solitary confinement [as depicted in the film].


Since its release, Lederer has forced to resign as an adjunct professor from Columbia Law School, and Fairstein was released from her literary organization where she had become a well known crime novelist. Although, neither Lederer, Fairstein, nor the New York City government has admitted wrongdoing in the cases, despite the $41 million settlement awarded to the five men in 2014.


New York City Public Contributor Jumaane Williams, an elected official acting as a liaison between the people and the government, talked at Monday’s rally to call on the Manhattan D.A., Cy Vance, to reevaluate the Fairstein and Lederer cases. “Forty-one million dollars isn't an apology,” Williams said.


Vance, although, has no intention to prepare any sort of public apology, he mentioned in an essay he wrote for the New York Day-to-day News.


Williams also expressed concern that the decision was influenced by the $28,000 in campaign contributions Fairstein has donated to Vance since 2008. In his essay, Vance wrote  that he “never allowed someone's wealth, power, race, or campaign contributions to influence” his decisions — although Williams and other criminal justice activists are not satisfied.


“Cy Vance is continuing to personify what occurs any time while they visualize us,” Williams mentioned. “When we watch this movie, we visualize us, we visualize our families, we visualize our mothers, we visualize our sisters.”


This rang true for Alliyah Logan, 17, a high school senior from the Bronx. She told MTV News that When They Visualize Us reminded her of her own loved ones who are incarcerated.


“Once you incarcerate someone, you're incarcerating their entire family member. So seeing the impact it has had on their family...Really made me aspire to come out and mention ‘this is enough.’” She mentioned. “I think we're going to dismantle the justice system and we're going to change the whole thing to save our black and brown youth.”


Andrea Alejandra Gonzalez, a 18-year-old sophomore at Baruch College, told MTV News that watching When They Visualize Us in part motivated her “to demand justice” for wrongfully incarcerated individuals.


“I'm happy [When They Visualize Us] came out because it just provides statistics in a very available way,” she mentioned. “But at the same time it makes me irritated that it took a Netflix series for people to care.”