Writing
and Zines
Wayland’s writing is available here for free, with the hope that you will spread the word about his work and struggle.
If you would like to coordinate a time to call Wayland into your classroom by phone, please reach out to us.
If Wayland’s writing has changed the way you think, a donation to his GoFundMe is highly encouraged.
“The idea of the presumption of “innocence” creates an unquestioned public trust in the criminal justice system.
The public expectation is that the system will not convict or condemn innocent people—that only the guilty will be punished, tormented, and exiled, and that the ‘burden of proof’ required to convict makes for an error-free process that is absolutely dependable.”
-Wayland X Coleman, “Caging Innocence”
The Preservation of Slave Psychology
(Essay - 2011)
“The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution permits slavery to be used in our prisons. Because of that, the prison industrial complex has become a safety deposit box for the preservation of an old draconian mentality that promotes abuse and dominance over others.”
-Wayland X Coleman, “The Preservation of Slave Psychology”
The Use of solitary confinement to intimidate witnesses
(a dispatch about prison culture - 2022)
“During the recreation period, I used the phone to contact Elizabeth Rucker, a member of the #DeeperThanWater Coalition and SURJ Boston, in order to notify her of the assault on Jensen Peraza-Rivera, as well as to give her his name. Elizabeth and I further discussed ideas for exposing the assault to the public, the news media, and to political parties.
Immediately after I hung up the phone, I was summoned to the officer's station, and told that I had to lock into my cell.
Shortly after being locked in my cell, the Inner Perimeter Security staff (IPS) arrived, placed me in handcuffs, and brought me to solitary confinement.”
-Wayland X Coleman, “The Use of Solitary Confinement to Intimidate Witnesses”
What is nI**er?
(“An Essay that everybody should read, especially white people” - 2023)
“As abolitionists, once we discover the insidious ways the snake moves through the grass, we have a responsibility to reveal it, so that eventually, we can rid our society of it altogether. We cannot be concerned for offending the snake.
So let's dig a little deeper into what "ni**er" is and was, so that we can examine the ways in which it insidiously functions in our society today.”
-Wayland X Coleman, “What is Ni**er?”
