Dr. Brittany Friedman is recognised 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. Friedman is considered a pathbreaking scholar producing big ideas that blow the whistle on bad behaviour within society. To celebrate the release of her Carceral Apartheid, What We Reading sat down with Dr. Brittany to talk about everything from the inner-workings of the justice system to her love for The Great Gatsby!
Thanks for speaking with us, Dr. Brittany! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the world of writing.
I am an LA based author, sociologist, and cultural and political theorist who writes from beyond the surface. A seer since childhood, I have always challenged the official story (even when it got me in trouble), guided by my intuition and a refusal to accept injustice as inevitable. My writing is fueled by a deep curiosity to unravel society’s darkest puzzles—systems of control, violence, collective amnesia—and to imagine what could exist beyond them. Through storytelling, I invite readers to question what they’ve been taught and to see the world not only as it appears, but as it truly is, and reimagine what it could be.
Talk to us about Carceral Apartheid. Where did the inspiration for it come from, and how was the process of writing it?
We owe ourselves, and each other, the courage to seek the truth. Carceral Apartheid: How Lies & White Supremacists Run Our Prisons is my way of saying: don’t accept the surface story. The story we are told–the prisons keep us safe, that justice is fair, that people end up behind bars because they deserve it–never sat right with me. I saw how these beliefs were used to justify enormous violence inside and outside of prisons, especially against Black communities. I wrote this book to challenge those assumptions–to pull back the curtain and show the system and those that run it for who they really are and what they really intend: to control, confuse, and force the populace to obey using violence, lies, and operating in secret.
What is the number one goal you want your work to have with readers?
One of the central goals of Carceral Apartheid is to help people free their minds–from disinformation, from fear, and from the belief that the world must be the way it is. We are taught from childhood to accept systems of punishment, surveillance, and control as normal, even necessary. But my book invites you to see through those illusions and ask deeper questions: who benefits from our obedience? What truths have been hidden? And what possibilities open up when we stop believing the lie we are powerless to change the system? My book is not solely about prisons but rather uses the case of prisons to show how power works to control everyone in society. Carceral Apartheid is a call to remember our inner clarity, to trust our instincts when something doesn’t seem right, and to reclaim the imagination needed to build something radically freer.
What do you think makes you stand out as an author?
I write to inspire an internal awakening. I write to free, not to impress or placate. I connect social theory with the real lives, struggles, and dreams of everyday people, which makes my writing accessible. I write not only from academic authority but from inner vision, meaning I stand out because I blend rigorous scholarship with spiritual clarity and emotional truth. My prose is deeply felt and universally resonant.
What would you say has been your biggest success so far?
My biggest success comes in the moment I can see a sparkle in people’s eye and a fire lit underneath them because of something they read in my book or heard me say during a public talk. Those are the sparks of transformation and I’m grateful to witness them.
If you could go back in time to one book you read for the first time, what would it be and why?
I would go back in time to a book I was required to read by my English teacher in high school. If I could go back to that first moment I read The Great Gatsby, I can see now that even though I didn’t yet have the language of “structural violence’ or “white supremacy,” I felt the lie beneath the glitter presented in that book. I saw as a high schooler the illusion of the American Dream, the hollowness of many characters, and the way emotional longing was manipulated with power. From that point of view, it is a book about how disinformation often glitters as gold, and that’s what keeps people locked in. It’s the shiny things and shiny people we should be concerned about.
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What’s one tip you would give your younger self if you had the opportunity?
You are enough as you are. Your questioning of everything around you – don’t stop – and ignore those, even adults, who try to tell you otherwise.
And finally, what do you hope the future holds for you and your writing?
I hope the future holds for me a collection of books that serve as catalysts for our collective awakening. That would show me I’ve done my job well and am living in my purpose.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
