Sharonne Salaam

I’m running for the WBAI Local Station Board with the Justice & Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org), because now more than ever the autonomy and the very mission of WBAI are at stake. You may know of me because my son Yusef was one of the five innocent boys who were wrongly arrested and convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park. During the struggle to defend the entire group of African American and Latino boys who were wrongly accused in this case – and ultimately to clear them of all wrongdoing – WBAI was a powerful and indispensable ally, helping to get the truth out when other media were bent on joining in with the voices of accusation and refusing to hear the truth.

As a result of my son’s wrongful arrest, I embarked on a career of community activism serving children and families, both in and out of prison, with special attention to the foster-care system in New York City. My work has led to thousands of children being reunited with their biological parents as well as policy changes in the child-welfare system. People United for Children, the organization I founded and of which I am now the Executive Director, is located in Harlem, but I have worked with people from all over the city and state, and have helped others in similar circumstances throughout the country. As a self-trained social worker, I have developed skills in negotiating, mediating, and assisting others in understanding their rights. I believe these skills will serve the board well. I also understand very well the difference between a governing board and actual management, and will not overstep the bounds of the LSB’s purview.

As a victim and the mother of a victim of a campaign of vilification and a profoundly unfair criminal-justice system, I understand the dynamics of the campaign against Program Director Bernard White by a wealthy member of the current majority on the Local Station Board. I believe that his firing, and the removal of General Manager Tony Riddle, were both bad for the station and hurtful to its ability to fulfill its mission, as well as deeply unfair, in that neither of them received due process.

I am also very concerned about the imposition of a gag rule, placing limitations on what producers who oppose the recent changes at WBAI can say. We need to safeguard the freedom of producers to follow their best intuition when reporting the news and covering events in our communities, and to speak their minds without fear of being removed from the airwaves based on arbitrary criteria.

I ask you to please vote me and all of the Justice & Unity slate:

Lynne Stewart
Nia Bediako
Russell Dale
Sister Betty Dopson
Wellington Echegaray
Nana Camille Yarbrough
Myriam Decime
John Brinkley
Berta Silva
Sharonne Salaam
Carlos Canales
Terrence Podolsky

We are all dedicated to the principle that WBAI’s autonomy must be maintained by the people it serves, so that it can fulfill its mission.