Flying home from the Historical Novel Society conference, I learned a lesson in indoctrination. I’m 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. Sweet, comforting, polite novels—educating the world through fun, nonthreatening, history-filled reads.
But HNS cracked something open. Meeting a tribe of fellow history nerds and selling the book I never thought I’d sell—Island Queen, 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—that gave me the courage to keep telling stories that tug at my heart and mind.
Being free to create is a gift. One that’s 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:
That more ethnic the cover, the more it can impact book sales—or determine where a book gets shelved.
That a pen name that sounds like a man’s carries more heft.
That “historical accuracy” will be weaponized to silence you if you make one mistake.
That if you fail, your failure will become the reason the next person who looks like you gets turned away.
You’ll never know how much that last one haunted me. How it still probably drives me to go the extra mile.
And I share all this to say: we’ve all been indoctrinated by our circumstances.
Writers learn quickly by how we’ve been treated—and how we’ve seen others treated—in publishing. It’s hard to break the pattern. And it’s about logic. It’s 1 + 1 = 2 when one sees patterns repeating.
And you, the listener—you’ve been indoctrinated.
Certain patterns, behaviors, even thoughts have been ingrained through images and repetition. This was made clear to me on my flight home.
Flying back from Vegas, Atlanta’s weather did not cooperate. Several delays and cancellations later, I was finally on my way but rerouted through Minneapolis. I’d arrived in Atlanta with just a four-hour delay and a bump up to first class. All was good.
But I wasn’t prepared for the real lesson I’d take from that flight.
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—loafers, golf watch, faint aftershave. He popped in his headphones, stared at the screen, and then drifted off to sleep.
I was writing but I couldn’t help watching. Something about flickering images in my periphery always pulls me in. For ten minutes, I stared at his monitor. No sound—just headlines and smiling faces discussing stories that disturbed me.
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.
And my neighbor slept. Peacefully. Whatever was being whispered in his ear lulled him into calm.
I sat there gobsmacked.
This is indoctrination.
Indoctrination is subtle, yet powerful.
It’s not about shouting.
It’s about repeating.
It’s about phrasing.
It’s about making you feel safe while you’re being lulled into believing counterintuitive things.
The TV’s formula was simple:
Repeat the same emotionally charged themes again and again.
Print aggressive words: sue, threaten, destroy, take back, fight for your children.
Paint the other side as monsters trying to take away your rights—your autonomy, your voice, your values.
Frame reasonable actions as extreme.
Show flags. Cue nostalgia. Stir something primal.
Smile while doing it.
And the man next to me? He slept. Fully content. The world whispering in his ear made sense. That’s when I understood the terrifying genius of it.
People aren’t being brainwashed. They’re being comforted—soothed by simple stories, a few buzzwords, and a familiar rhythm.
In this whispering world, empathy is suspect.
Fairness? A threat.
Truth? Conditional.
How else do you explain people cheering for a roofer—someone who rebuilt their home after a hurricane—being rounded up and sent to a detention camp being pictured as a theme park?
What happened to questioning things?
When did we decide that cruelty is an acceptable solution?
Why is it okay to sleep through someone else’s pain?
Be awake.
Don’t let anyone tell you you’re overreacting.
You’re not a sucker for caring. You’re human.
And to my fellow protestors and change-makers: we can’t just fight with facts and five-point plans. Shame doesn’t move people. Complexity doesn’t sway them.
If your message makes them feel stupid, they’ll dig in and side with the whisperers.
So what can we do?
We make the stakes as clear as possible.
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, How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights in Two Months, citing scholar Ian Haney López—the rapid decline in support for DEI came from liberals. Particularly white liberals. Those skeptical of diversity. Those sympathetic to complaints about “wokeness.”
It hurts. On so many levels. Who is actually an ally?
We had the George Floyd awakening, the feel-good changes… and then people voted against their better angels—for cheap eggs all while rolling back the good changes.
It’s going to take me a while to believe in allyship again.
And the lack of big words hurts because I love big words. I love nuance. But I’d rather be heard than admired for my vocabulary. I’d rather reach the “gettable” than preach to the choir, a choir who might be full of whisperers.
So:
Use simple language.
Simple signs.
Drop the jargon.
Focus on why it matters to them.
And alas, poor Yorick—and Vanessa—we must keep it simple.
Maybe then we can re-indoctrinate the world to be good.
For once.
For all.
Books to help with framing the problem are:
Nice Racism by Robin DiAngelo
A follow-up to White Fragility, this dives deeper into how progressive people often unknowingly uphold systemic racism.
White Rage by Carol Anderson
A piercing explanation of how systemic racism reacts violently to Black advancement in America—through policy, education, and media.
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Essential essays on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and the power of being awake to oppression.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
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—and indoctrination—are woven into the fabric in the U.S.
This week, I'm highlighting Malik Books through their website and Bookshop.org
Help me build momentum for Fire Sword and Sea—spread 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.
Show notes include a list of the books mentioned in this broadcast.
You can find my notes on Substack or on my website, VanessaRiley.com under the podcast link in the About tab.
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Thank you for listening. Hopefully, you’ll come again. This is Vanessa Riley
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