{"id":6171,"date":"2025-07-01T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/01\/write-of-passage-lessons-from-indoctrination\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T13:10:00","slug":"write-of-passage-lessons-from-indoctrination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/01\/write-of-passage-lessons-from-indoctrination\/","title":{"rendered":"Write of Passage: Lessons from Indoctrination"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6171-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/167244162\/74712160672a9a1f2cc5c8e4ad165bd7.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/167244162\/74712160672a9a1f2cc5c8e4ad165bd7.mp3\">https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/167244162\/74712160672a9a1f2cc5c8e4ad165bd7.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Flying home from the Historical Novel Society conference, I learned a lesson in indoctrination. I\u2019m on a fast-moving deadline for a special project, but I had to go. HNS holds a special place for me. My very first HNS conference changed the trajectory of my life.<\/p><div id=\"vanes-3704885480\" class=\"vanes-content vanes-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-right: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: 2px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/fireswordandsea.htm\" aria-label=\"Fire Sword &amp; Sea\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?fit=1706%2C2560&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fire Sword &amp; Sea\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?w=1706&ssl=1 1706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&ssl=1 1365w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?w=1280&ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" width=\"569\" height=\"853\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Before attending in 2019, I published lovely Regency romances. Sweet, comforting, polite novels\u2014educating the world through fun, nonthreatening, history-filled reads.<\/p>\n<p>But HNS cracked something open. Meeting a tribe of fellow history nerds and selling the book I never thought I\u2019d sell\u2014<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\/shop-1\/ols\/products\/island-queen-by-vanessa-riley\"><em>Island Queen<\/em><\/a>, the biographical fiction about Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, one of the richest Black women in the Georgian world, a woman who bought her freedom and defies every rule and obstacle to live freely\u2014that gave me the courage to keep telling stories that tug at my heart and mind.<\/p>\n<p>Being free to create is a gift. One that\u2019s hard to achieve. Black and brown creators, and women creators, have been indoctrinated, fed rules in the simplest of terms that challenge our freedom. Rules such as:<\/p>\n<p>* That more ethnic the cover, the more it can impact book sales\u2014or determine where a book gets shelved.<\/p>\n<p>* That a pen name that sounds like a man\u2019s carries more heft.<\/p>\n<p>* That \u201chistorical accuracy\u201d will be weaponized to silence you if you make one mistake.<\/p>\n<p>* That if you fail, your failure will become the reason the next person who looks like you gets turned away.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll never know how much that last one haunted me. How it still probably drives me to go the extra mile.<\/p>\n<p>And I share all this to say: we\u2019ve all been indoctrinated by our circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Writers learn quickly by how we\u2019ve been treated\u2014and how we\u2019ve seen others treated\u2014in publishing. It\u2019s hard to break the pattern. And it\u2019s about logic. It\u2019s 1 + 1 = 2 when one sees patterns repeating.<\/p>\n<p>And you, the listener\u2014you\u2019ve been indoctrinated.<\/p>\n<p>Certain patterns, behaviors, even thoughts have been ingrained through images and repetition. This was made clear to me on my flight home.<\/p>\n<p>Flying back from Vegas, Atlanta\u2019s weather did not cooperate. Several delays and cancellations later, I was finally on my way but rerouted through Minneapolis. I\u2019d arrived in Atlanta with just a four-hour delay and a bump up to first class. All was good.<\/p>\n<p>But I wasn\u2019t prepared for the real lesson I\u2019d take from that flight.<\/p>\n<p>An older gentleman sat beside me. The moment we took off, he flicked on his monitor and tuned into the news. He looked like a typical executive\u2014loafers, golf watch, faint aftershave. He popped in his headphones, stared at the screen, and then drifted off to sleep.<\/p>\n<p>I was writing but I couldn\u2019t help watching. Something about flickering images in my periphery always pulls me in. For ten minutes, I stared at his monitor. No sound\u2014just headlines and smiling faces discussing stories that disturbed me.<\/p>\n<p>Ice raids with masked men capturing women on the street. The host smiled.Florida detention camps pop onto the screen. The smiling host makes it appear to be a pitch for a Disney vacation.<\/p>\n<p>And my neighbor slept. Peacefully. Whatever was being whispered in his ear lulled him into calm.<\/p>\n<p>I sat there gobsmacked.<\/p>\n<p>This is indoctrination.<\/p>\n<p>Indoctrination is subtle, yet powerful.It\u2019s not about shouting.It\u2019s about repeating.It\u2019s about phrasing.It\u2019s about making you feel safe while you\u2019re being lulled into believing counterintuitive things.<\/p>\n<p>The TV\u2019s formula was simple:<\/p>\n<p>* Repeat the same emotionally charged themes again and again.<\/p>\n<p>* Print aggressive words: <em>sue<\/em>, <em>threaten<\/em>, <em>destroy<\/em>, <em>take back<\/em>, <em>fight for your children<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>* Paint the other side as monsters trying to take away your rights\u2014your autonomy, your voice, your values.<\/p>\n<p>* Frame reasonable actions as extreme.<\/p>\n<p>* Show flags. Cue nostalgia. Stir something primal.<\/p>\n<p>* Smile while doing it.<\/p>\n<p>And the man next to me? He slept. Fully content. The world whispering in his ear made sense. That\u2019s when I understood the terrifying genius of it.<\/p>\n<p>People aren\u2019t being brainwashed. They\u2019re being <em>comforted<\/em>\u2014soothed by simple stories, a few buzzwords, and a familiar rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>In this whispering world, empathy is suspect.Fairness? A threat.Truth? Conditional.<\/p>\n<p>How else do you explain people cheering for a roofer\u2014someone who rebuilt their home after a hurricane\u2014being rounded up and sent to a detention camp being pictured as a theme park?<\/p>\n<p>What happened to questioning things?When did we decide that cruelty is an acceptable solution?Why is it okay to sleep through someone else\u2019s pain?<\/p>\n<p>Be awake.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let anyone tell you you\u2019re overreacting.You\u2019re not a sucker for caring. You\u2019re human.<\/p>\n<p>And to my fellow protestors and change-makers: we can\u2019t just fight with facts and five-point plans. Shame doesn\u2019t move people. Complexity doesn\u2019t sway them.<\/p>\n<p>If your message makes them feel stupid, they\u2019ll dig in and side with the whisperers.<\/p>\n<p>So what can we do?<\/p>\n<p>We make the stakes as clear as possible.<\/p>\n<p>We must give up the five-dollar words.Because those words only land with the most liberal among us. And as Nicole Hannah-Jones wrote in her recent New York Times essay, <em>How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights in Two Months<\/em>, citing scholar Ian Haney L\u00f3pez\u2014the rapid decline in support for DEI came from liberals. Particularly white liberals. Those skeptical of diversity. Those sympathetic to complaints about \u201cwokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It hurts. On so many levels. Who is actually an ally?We had the George Floyd awakening, the feel-good changes\u2026 and then people voted against their better angels\u2014for cheap eggs all while rolling back the good changes.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s going to take me a while to believe in allyship again.<\/p>\n<p>And the lack of big words hurts because I love big words. I love nuance. But I\u2019d rather be heard than admired for my vocabulary. I\u2019d rather reach the \u201cgettable\u201d than preach to the choir, a choir who might be full of whisperers.<\/p>\n<p>So:Use simple language.Simple signs.Drop the jargon.Focus on why it matters <em>to them<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>And alas, poor Yorick\u2014and Vanessa\u2014we must keep it simple.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe then we can re-indoctrinate the world to be good.For once.For all.<\/p>\n<p>Books to help with framing the problem are:<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\/shop-1\/ols\/products\/nice-racism-how-progressive-white-people-perpetuate-racial-harm-by-robin-diangelo\"><strong><em>Nice Racism <\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>by Robin DiAngelo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A follow-up to <em>White Fragility<\/em>, this dives deeper into how progressive people often unknowingly uphold systemic racism.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\/shop-1\/ols\/products\/white-rage-the-unspoken-truth-of-our-racial-divide-by-carol-anderson\"><strong><em>White Rage<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong> by Carol Anderson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A piercing explanation of how systemic racism reacts violently to Black advancement in America\u2014through policy, education, and media.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\/shop-1\/ols\/products\/sister-outsider-essays-and-speeches-crossing-press-feminist-series\"><strong><em>Sister Outsider<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong> by Audre Lorde<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Essential essays on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and the power of being awake to oppression.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\/shop-1\/ols\/products\/the-1619-project-a-new-origin-story-by-nikole-hannah-jones\"><strong><em>The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong> by Nikole Hannah-Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This anthology reframes American history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the national narrative and reveals how deeply racial ideology\u2014and indoctrination\u2014are woven into the fabric in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>This week, I&#8217;m highlighting <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/malikbooks.com\">Malik Books<\/a> through their website and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/shop\/malikbooks\">Bookshop.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Help me build momentum for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/fireswordandsea.htm\">Fire Sword and Sea<\/a>\u2014spread the word and preorder this disruptive narrative about female pirates in the 1600s. This sweeping saga releases January 13, 2026. The link on my website shows retailers large and small who have set up preorders for this title.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Show notes include a list of the books mentioned in this broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>You can find my notes on Substack or on my website, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanessariley.com\/\">VanessaRiley.com<\/a> under the podcast link in the About tab.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s keep rising and creating together\u2014like, subscribe, and share. Please stay connected to <\/strong><strong><em>Write of Passage<\/em><\/strong><strong>.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thank you for listening. Hopefully, you\u2019ll come again. This is Vanessa Riley<\/p>\n<p>This is a public episode. If you&#8217;d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.substack.com\/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#038;utm_campaign=CTA_2\">vanessariley.substack.com\/subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"vanes-2131360015\" class=\"vanes-after-content vanes-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 3px;margin-right: 3px;margin-bottom: 3px;margin-left: 3px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?fit=1080%2C1350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Listen to the Write of Passage Weekly Podcast\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?w=1080&ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=240%2C300&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1 819w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=768%2C960&ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" width=\"540\" height=\"675\"   \/><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flying home from the Historical Novel Society conference, I learned a lesson in indoctrination. I\u2019m on a fast-moving deadline for a special project, but I had to go. HNS holds a special place for me. My very first HNS conference changed the trajectory of my life. Before attending in 2019, I published lovely Regency romances. 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