『Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley』のカバーアート

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

著者： Vanessa Riley
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今ならプレミアムプランが3カ月 月額99円

2026年5月12日まで。4か月目以降は月額1,500円で自動更新します。

概要

 Join bestselling author Vanessa Riley as she delves into untold histories, reflects on current events through a historical lens, shares behind-the-scenes writing insights, and offers exclusive updates on her groundbreaking novels.

vanessariley.substack.comVanessa Riley 社会科学
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  • America Is Being Judged—and We are Not Ready.

    America Is Being Judged—and We are Not Ready.
    2026/05/05
    Take a moment and sit with this:A country can be both powerful and fragile at the same time.We can be proud—and still be in the wrong.And right now, we’re standing in the middle of a reckoning.The question isn’t why anymore… It’s what we do next.There’s a hard truth we don’t want to acknowledge. We are here because of apathy, arrogance, and anger.And three things can be true at once.First, the reckoning—the judgment on America—can be deserved. Our standing in the world, the fall from once being revered to a joke, is deserved. Our actions have impacted for the worse, the world economy.Second, there are a lot of people getting caught in the gears of that reckoning.And third, plain and simple, ain’t nobody got time for this kind of suffering.So the real questions of why we are here are over. It’s time to focus on how we set things right.I’m not here to say “I told you so.” That’s easy, and it doesn’t solve anything. But I do want to ground us in a quick lesson.People died fighting for civil rights. Not centuries ago—less than seventy years. There are people caught in pictures screaming at little children, threatening violence because a child wants an education. Less than seventy years, they can still be alive. Their children who grew up with hate are still here, still carrying the hate. But now they are screamers, politicians, footstools in the patriarchy. Heck, they might be leading it.The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. So let’s round up, seventy years is supposed to make up for 400 years of slavery?According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) at least 4,400 lynchings of Black Americans occurred between 1877 and 1950.The Southern Poverty Law Center and other National Archives, Civil Rights Movement records, estimate 60+ people were killed in direct civil rights–related violence between 1960 and 1965.We know the famous names:Medgar Evers (1963)Herbert Lee (1961)James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner (1964)Jimmie Lee Jackson (1965)Viola Liuzzo (1965)Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia WesleyThey were between 11 and 14 years old, killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.When I research and one of those photos comes up, you know the ones with hordes of adults screaming and wishing harm on babies like Ruby Bridges.I see eyes glazed over with hate, mouths open, screaming curse words, and words at children integrating schools. But I’m supposed to believe that these hateful people’s children and grandchildren miraculously have no more prejudice…you know, the prejudice that forced us to legislate decency and morality.That these people in my neighborhood, near my child and other brown and Black children, have evolved.The past isn’t gone. It’s merely buried. When no one is watching, hate has a way of rising back up.Far too many of us got comfortable. We lived in neighborhoods that looked integrated on the surface. We worshipped in spaces where anyone could walk in. We shopped, ate, worked, and convinced ourselves that access meant equity—that if you were qualified, you could get the job; if you worked hard, you’d be fine.That comfort made us forget the stakes.We can’t be forgetful when others are already standing in unemployment lines. Some are choosing between medicine and groceries. Others were already relying on food banks just to make it through the week.And now, more people are feeling that edge. Seventeen thousand people just lost their job as jet fuel prices spike. We had an economy that, for a moment, felt like it was rebounding—strong, even enviable. But instability, policy choices, and global tensions have brought us to a place where the cost of living is climbing fast. Safety nets are thinning. Healthcare is slipping out of reach for far too many.There’s a widening gap between those who are managing and those who are barely holding on.Yes—if you have a roof over your head, a working car, food in your fridge—you’re not doing so badly.But that’s not the whole picture. It can’t be. Some folks are:One paycheck away. One emergency away. One layoff away from disaster.If you’re listening to this essay—on a podcast app, on Substack, anywhere—you have a degree of privilege.Use that guilt. Bear our responsibility in this mess.We were, at one point, moving—slowly, imperfectly—toward a more perfect union.Then fear crept in.Fear that equality meant loss. Fear that if everyone has a seat at the table, some people wouldn’t feel special anymore. And that fear dressed itself up in many forms—sexism, misogyny, exclusion, resentment, and yes, good old-fashioned racism.You can’t put that genie back in the bottle. There’s no Superman coming to spin the world backward so we undo everything and make better choices.This is the burden—and the beauty—of a fragile democracy.We get to choose. Even when we choose poorly.So now we’re here, in this moment, asking ourselves:What else are we ...
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    14 分
  • Your Lying Eyes, Their Lying Lips

    Your Lying Eyes, Their Lying Lips
    2026/04/28
    What happens when you can’t trust your own eyes?In a world of deepfakes and media spin—from Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to Megan Thee Stallion to the White House Correspondents Dinner—the real question isn’t what’s true… it’s why we don’t care anymore.We are living in a moment when the old question—what is truth? —is being asked again.—has become the question of the moment. Aren’t you tired of relative half-truths?In an era defined by dishonest politicians, fragmented media ecosystems, and an internet that resembles a lawless western, the ability to trust what we see and hear is gone. The phrase “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”—popularized in Duck Soup—has shifted from comedy into cultural diagnosis. It was satire, people. Now it feels like instruction.At the center of this crisis is the mistrust of visual evidence itself. A recent controversy involving Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, illustrates the problem. A report from The Daily Beast, a source I relied upon in the 2010s, included a video clip on April 23, 2026, that critics argue appeared slowed down or altered to make the Duchess seem robotic—supporting a narrative that she, a woman of color, a Black woman, is difficult to work with. Observers suggested the footage has been misleadingly edited or even AI-manipulated.This incident is not isolated; it exists within a broader pattern of fabricated or distorted media. The point is not merely whether a clip was altered, but how easily perception can be engineered. Biased people want angry or disillusioned eyeballs.More manipulation is on the way, fueled by the rapid rise of deepfake technology. According to data from the Global Cyber Alliance and others, the number of deepfake files online is projected to have grown from 500,000 in 2023 to 8 million by the end of 2025—that’s an annual increase of 900%.The average American now encounters approximately 2.6 deepfakes per day, with younger adults seeing even more. And our human ability to detect these falsehoods is surprisingly low: studies show our ability to detect deepfakes is below 25%, which is worse than flipping a coin.The consequences extend beyond embarrassment or celebrity gossip. Deepfake-driven fraud caused an estimated $547 million in losses in just the first half of 2025, and AI-enabled fraud could reach $40 billion in the United States by 2027. Our midterm elections are in trouble. Seventy-eight deepfake election manipulations were discovered in 2024 alone. This is a growing threat to democratic processes.Yet, if this past weekend is any indication, we have a worse threat: apathy. Over the weekend of April 25–26, 2026, two major events unfolded: a security incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the highly publicized breakup between Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson. The former, involving a reported shooting and evacuation of the president, should have dominated national concern. Instead, the latter—a celebrity breakup fueled by allegations of infidelity—captured social media attention, with search interest spiking over 800%. Lord knows I have seen as many think-pieces on male-female relationships as I’ve seen screeds saying the correspondents’ dinner was fake.It is a shame that political events are now filtered through suspicion, conspiracy, and fatigue. When reports emerged of a potential assassination attempt, many didn’t ask what happened but whether the attack was staged. Questions about security lapses—how an armed individual could approach so closely—become entangled with blatant distrust in institutions and others using the event to get a ballroom built. Cynicism ran rampant.Cynicism and para-social relationships make celebrity narratives feel more immediate, and perhaps more “real.” But these narratives take hold by performance and perception.In Lyin’ Eyes by the Eagles, we were told to: “You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes.” In 2000, the denial anthem “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy fed the growing, complicit beast.“Never admit to a word when she sayAnd if she claim, ah, you tell her, “Baby, no way”…But she caught me on the counter (It wasn’t me)Saw me kissin’ on the sofa (It wasn’t me)I even had her in the shower (It wasn’t me)She even caught me on camera (It wasn’t me)...”The deeper issue is not simply that misinformation exists, but that our collective response is to believe the lies or not care about what’s right or wrong, and to spread the wrong.We no longer fully trust our eyes.But we also lack the will to interrogate what we see. Facts have become negotiable, subject to “both-sides” framing that equates evidence with opinion and treats the right as equally wrong. This erosion of journalistic standards undermines personal judgment and public discourse.Honesty, we must begin at the top.Political leaders who lie and distort reality set the tone for our society.When “truth” becomes a strategic tool ...
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    12 分
  • Abused, Black, and Beautiful

    Abused, Black, and Beautiful
    2026/04/21
    As a nerd, I love patterns. I’m trained to find patterns. But today there is one I don’t want to see. There’s a pattern—and it is costing Black women their lives. Not just in the streets, but in their homes… in their relationships… even in childbirth.This is a pattern we can no longer pretend we don’t see.There is a pattern emerging—no, not emerging, persisting—and it is costing Black women their lives.We cannot keep calling these stories “isolated incidents.” We cannot keep lowering our voices when the truth demands a roar. What we are witnessing is a crisis: intimate partner violence against Black women, compounded by a maternal health system that too often fails them at their most vulnerable. Love should not be lethal. Pregnancy should not be a death sentence. And yet, for far too many Black women, both are becoming dangerous terrain.In April 2026 alone, we’ve lost:• Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, a 49-year-old dentist and mother, killed on April 16 by her estranged husband in an apparent murder-suicide.• Nancy Metayer Bowen, Vice Mayor of Coral Springs, found dead on April 1; her husband was charged with premeditated murder.• Pastor Tammy McCollum, 58, killed on April 6 in her North Carolina home by her husband.• Ashly “Ashlee Jenae” Robinson, 31, a content creator who died under suspicious circumstances on April 9 while traveling with her fiancé after documented domestic conflict.• Qualeshia “Saditty” Barnes, 36, a pregnant Detroit rapper, shot and killed in Atlanta on April 8, reportedly by her boyfriend.• Davonta Curtis, 31, a Black trans woman beaten to death on April 8 by her boyfriend.• Barbara Deer, 51, an educator killed on April 15 in a murder-suicide.• Ashanti Allen, 23, eight months pregnant, murdered before she could bring life into the world.Say their names. Hold them in your mouth. Refuse to let their stories be reduced to footnotes beneath the names of the men who killed them.Because that is what often happens—we learn more about the killers than the women whose lives were stolen.This is not a coincidence. This is not rare. This is systemic, cultural, and deeply rooted.According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, more than 40% of Black women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, compared to 31.5% of women overall. The National Center for Victims of Crime reports that 53.8% of Black women experience psychological abuse, and 41.2% experience physical abuse. These are not small numbers. These are not anomalies. These are patterns.Let me repeat: 32% of all women experience domestic violence. 40% of all Black women experience this violence. This should not be.Violence against women begins early.Teen dating violence already lays the groundwork. Data from Basile et al. (2020) shows that about 8% of high school students experience physical dating violence, with girls disproportionately affected—9% of girls versus 7% of boys. Sexual violence is even more skewed: 13% of girls compared to 4% of boys. These are children learning, too soon, that love can hurt.Then comes adulthood. Then comes partnership. Then, for many, comes pregnancy.And pregnancy—what should be a sacred, supported, protected time—becomes one of the most dangerous periods in a Black woman’s life.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in 2023, Black women experienced 50.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 14.5 for White women. That is more than three times higher. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) confirms this disparity persists across income and education levels. This is not about individual choices. This is about systemic failure.Even more devastating: over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.Preventable.Let that word sit with you.Black women are dying not because we don’t know how to save them—but because we are not saving them.Structural racism, provider bias, unequal access to care, and the chronic stress of navigating a world that devalues Black womanhood all contribute. Black women are more likely to be ignored when they report symptoms, more likely to have their pain dismissed, and more likely to receive delayed or inadequate care.When you layer that on top of intimate partner violence, the risk multiplies.What is this pattern telling Black women?Work. Survive. Endure. But do not expect to be protected. Do not expect to be safe in love. Do not expect to be heard in pain.Is that the message?Because if it is, then we must reject it—loudly, collectively, and without apology.I am one of the lucky ones.I have a loving husband. I was supported. When complications arose during my pregnancy—when my daughter Ellen’s heart rate dropped in half with every push—my doctors and nurses listened. They acted. They ordered an emergency C-section. They saved her life. They saved mine.My daughter is alive and thriving today because I was heard.But I should not be the exception.My story ...
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    18 分
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