"We Were Never Meant to Obey: How to Draw Abolitionist Constellations Instead"

May 18, 2025 BES Virtual Sunday Platform

"We Were Never Meant to Obey: How to Draw Abolitionist Constellations Instead"
Brittany Friedman
an American sociologist and author
University of Southern California

At the heart of abolition is the belief that human beings are naturally free. We are not born to obey—we are born to create, to care, and to dream. It is society, through structures of control like prisons, borders, and economic violence, that trains us to conform and accept punishment and inequality as normal. Abolitionist work reminds us that we can unlearn that obedience and return to a deeper, freer version of ourselves—both individually and collectively.

We see abolitionist constellations forming all around us:
• In the climate justice movement, where Indigenous-led land back campaigns and conservation efforts are fighting for environmental repair rooted in sovereignty, not extraction.
• In prison abolition work like Critical Resistance and Survived & Punished, where activists are not only challenging incarceration but creating mutual aid networks, transformative justice processes, and community care infrastructures.
• In women’s rights movements, here in the U.S. and in the Global South, where feminist groups are pushing back against patriarchal violence while building networks for education, health, and collective safety.

Each of these movements may have different starting points, but they are forming constellations by aligning values of dignity, interdependence, healing, and liberation. What would it mean to not only connect these points—but follow them?

Please come and participate in this teach-in on community building and the importance of preserving history and liberating our voices—drawing from the work in my new book, Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons.

Biography:
Dr. Brittany Friedman is recognized as an innovative thinker on how people and institutions hide harmful truths. Her current work examines this in the realm of social control, and the underside of government such as prisons, courts, and treasuries. New ongoing work is examining this within interpersonal relations. She is the author of the new book CARCERAL APARTHEID: HOW LIES AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS RUN OUR PRISONS. Friedman has written for outlets such as TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Conversation, and is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, co-founder of the Captive Money Lab (www.captivemoneylab.org), and an Affiliated Scholar of the American Bar Foundation.