We met again, a circle of lawn chairs in the setting sun, and then in the cool of early evening to discuss Reciprocal Altruism as a behavior germane to evolutionary development among living creatures.  The author of the essay which formed the basis of our discussion, cited the symbiotic relationship between cleaner fish removing parasites from larger fish, without hazard of being eaten.  Also cited were bird calls, serving as a predator warning to all species of birds in the area.  The warning calls were made at the risk of identifying the location of the altruistic caller to the predator.  Human altruistic behavior was treated as well in the essay, and especially the cases when a “freeloader” benefits from an action, without intention of “paying it forward.”  The defense against such failure to reciprocate is an aggressive moralistic response, outrage, some form of repudiation of the selfish individual. It’s a matter of injustice, to make right a wrong.

One of the questions raised in the course of discussion, had to do with the issue of “reparations,” an argument that compensation is owed to Black citizens, descendants of slaves of three or four generations ago.  The issue was raised on account of the difficulty of many White citizens to agree that a wrong persists to this day.  The Jim Crow laws which are in memory of our lifetime, segregated water fountains, and the more egregious forms of discrimination.   And there’s the subtle, informal discrimination in our time — in education, healthcare, employment disadvantaging Black citizens.  Is this a wrong to be made right by reparations?

I am satisfied that as long as Blacks continue to shot in the back by police officers, who are agents of the state — reparations are certainly owed by the government to anyone who has any evidence they are a descendant of a slave.  A recent such shooting took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Not only are we 21st century Whites unable to imagine how horrific slavery was to humans subject to it, we are clueless as to the difficulty of living in present day America if you are a Black person. 

Since a picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words, these old photographs drive home the point.

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And this from today’s NYT The Morning update —

In other Kenosha developments:

Jacob Blake — the man shot by police — is partially paralyzed from a bullet that severed his spinal cord, his family said Tuesday. His mother, Julia Jackson, said she opposed the destruction of the recent protests: “It doesn’t reflect my son or my family.”

Protesters threw water bottles, rocks and fireworks at the police last night, and the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. In a confrontation near a gas station — the details of which are not yet clear — three people were shot, two of them fatally, police said.

Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in the state that may be the single most likely to determine the election. Both Joe Biden and Trump will struggle to win the Electoral College without Wisconsin.

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And about the last picture in the series:

Not so long ago in the US you could find respectable businessmen in town squares across the South eagerly engaged in purchasing humans. Above is a picture of American slaves who escaped their imprisonment after fleeing the Confederacy and reaching Union lines in Cumberland Landing, Virginia in 1861 – the same year the momentous Civil War began