Jesse Paper

    This paper is an exploration of global reparatory justice for the slave trade through scrutinizing the enduring impact on societies in the United States where institutional structures remain predominantly governed by the descendants of historical oppressors. Even after emancipation, a notable absence of independent movements within predominantly white cultures persists, as institutions continue to be steered by white supremacists. In contrast, the Caribbean and African nations have witnessed freedom movements striving for independent nation-states, yet the shadow of colonialism lingers in their midst. The narrative further unfolds through the lens of the California Reparations Task Force impactful work alongside grassroots organizers, catalyzing the state's examination of reparations and consequential action. The intricate process involving the selection of individuals for the Task Force, their two-year deliberations, and the subsequent release of a comprehensive 500-page interim report and a monumental 1000-page final report published in June 2023 come to the forefront. The justification for reparations is explored through an analysis of the 1863 13th Amendment, which ostensibly abolished slavery but left ambiguous loopholes, allowing for unjust perpetuation through the criminal justice system. The paper delves into the nuanced concept of lingering badges and incidents of slavery, identifying 12 major areas disproportionately impacting the descendants of slaves. 
    Legal scholars, including Minkah Ward of UPenn Law, further contribute valuable perspectives, emphasizing the necessity for Congress to empower itself to eradicate these persisting injustices. The multifaceted and pervasive effects of slavery on every aspect of society are examined, with the Task Force offering a sampling of systemic harm. The historical context of slavery, as laid out by scholars like Prof. Stacy Smith, establishes a foundation for understanding the California-specific lens of the paper, highlighting the State's role in slavery and the rare implications of its fugitive slave law. As the narrative weaves through instances of systemic harm, the urgency for reparatory action is underscored, acknowledging the foundational role of black bodies in America's wealth. Reparations are framed not as a means to instill guilt but as a necessity for the state to rectify its historical injustices, as evidenced by the ongoing struggle at the federal level, encapsulated by initiatives such as HR40 and the compelling insights of activists, such as Corey Bush. The potential magnitude of the reparations' price tag and the shared history between California and the federal government further highlight the interconnected nature of state and federal responsibilities, setting the stage for a comprehensive examination of the subject.
    Why do we need reparations? The lingering effects of slavery; not slavery itself, but the ongoing harms that the community still faces, require reparations. The reparations can be estimated by tracing the community’s lost capital over the past century. The Task Force’s job was not to figure out who is going to pay, but the logistical concerns of how it will get paid. The Task Force was charged with recommending compensation, addressing racist backlash, and focusing on ideological differences between reparations for decades of people who experienced settler colonialism.
    The Task Force’s proposal attempts to acknowledge the lingering badges and incidents of slavery that include racial terror, unequal education, geographical and political redlining, segregation, violence, pathologizing the black family, inferior health services, stolen labor, housing and legal discrimination, limited career opportunities, and exploitation of artists and artistic representations. Racial terror is a lingering badge of slavery, and violence and terror present similar challenges for black people. The Klu Klux Klan was extremely prevalent in California with many of the first governmental figures being members, such as the first five out of eight of the first LA mayors. Black Americans are the number one victim of hate crimes in the US, including California. 
    The State of California did not ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments until the 1950s. This prevented black people from acquiring rights. Califionia made many obstacles for black people to vote in 1879. Political disenfranchisement and housing segregation are ligerning badges of slavery. Government actors with private individual activity used redlining to separate black and white neighborhoods. There were many violent incidents of people bombing black peoples’ homes in the 1950s and 60s after restrictive conveyance got passed. On top of the redlining, the California government relegated specific neighborhoods, not necessarily through overt segregation, but dispossessing communities from proper resources. The taking of resources goes hand and hand with the geographic environment and infrastructure. Black people live in poorer quality housing and are exposed to hazardous waste, water and air pollution with no tree canopies, causing warmer climates, which has led to disease and younger mortality rates. 
    Separate and unequal education, labor, unjust contributions to the arts, and the wealth gap  are major lingering badges and incidents of slavery that contribute to the ongoing control of black life. California funds non-white communities to receive twenty-three less billion dollars of education funding. California’s schools are the sixth most segregated for black students. Because the funding is tied to property taxes, the predominantly white and asian schools simply get more funding than black and latino schools. It is difficult to improve property taxes when a lot of black and latino are renters. There is no investment because of historic dispossession, as enslavers thought it was in their best interest to not educate black people, so black communities face obstacles contributing to their schools. Further, stolen labor hindered opportunities in California, which did not hire black people until the 1940s. Nationally, it is projected to take the Federal Government 228 years for the wealth gap to close, and that projection will likely be expanded due to Covid.  There are also a countless number of black artists who were innovators, but were taken advantage of and not able to benefit fully from their artistic productions. Governmental policies effectively decimate black arts communities, and California has numerous racist and confederate monuments, as well as museums that keep black art out.
    The pathologizing of the black family and life expectancy for black people are two more lingering badges and incidents of slavery. Pathologizing has created associations with stereotypes, like the term Welfare Queens, which has the connotations that black women abuse welfare policies, which is simply not true. Over Covid, the recipients of the first welfare were ninety percent white women. Additionally, Black nuclear families were punished if there was a man in the home by limiting the option of welfare. The nation's government policies have destroyed black families. Moreover, life expectancy for black people is shorter by six years, a greater percentage of babies die at birth, and mothers die during childbirth at a much higher rate.  The origins of medicine and drug testing also have implicit biases that are deeply rooted in racism. 
    Disposition of resources is an essential fact to the systemic ways that black people are intentionally discriminated against. Gentrification is a direct result of the extraction of Africans from the transatlantic slave trade. This extraction is ongoing as the result of the profitability from the injuries of slavery. Looking at this concept from a holistic and the honest need to promote when looking at black peoples extraction from this country. The challenge is serious. Reparations are the quantitative form of apology, whereas restitution and repair is a sense of satisfaction. To repair, the state must listen to the need and address it by purely understanding the importance and urgency of the needs. Non black communities do not need to be convinced that these topics are historically ingrained and presently felt, as falling into counterfactual thinking of what someone else thinks about these topics consumes them with fear. That temptation is fueled by mental and material resources. “To fight the good fight you must use your resources wisely” (SOURCE) claims Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, “it's simply about just continuing to do the work.” Lewis then speaks about his experience as a black individual and poses the question “what do we do?” for the entirety of black existence and life. Where is a community member obligated or not to commit to the collective effort? Those are questions that can only be answered by individuals trying to make their existence, and they can not be done in a legal or political context. 
    The California Reparations Task Force that started in 2020, an initiative that Lewis has applied much of his resources towards, was founded with the mission to investigate wrongs done to generations of black families. (SOURCE) He looks through the various areas of society in which African Americans have been put at a disadvantage. (SOURCE) The Task Force found that slavery has touched every aspect of America, enslavement, racial terror, housing discrimination, education, labor, and the legal system. The Task Force also has been able to pinpoint exact moments in history where descendants and former slaves were truly discriminated against. In the 1920s in California, the Ku Klux Klan had more meetings than many southern states legislators, intentionally barring ownership and redlining of property against black Americans, creating specific laws that promoted segregation in the education system up until the 1970s. The task force is laying out the proper steps to mend some of these wrongs by raising the minimum wage, making college free, granting low interest mortgages for qualified applicants, and creating an office for the purpose of supporting black people with a “variety of issues.” for black folks. (SOURCE) The Task Force and Lewis are making it clear that racist values historically and currently shape the state's formation. 
Clearly, African American communities have had specific and direct harm from state sanctioned violence.  An exact record has been established outlining the state’s responsibility of intentional harm and redlining. Lewis explains the layers of complexity and intricacy, “which prevented minorities from accessing mortgages and other loans for residing in “hazardous” neighborhoods—considered so for their minority makeup.” (SOURCE) “You get on a highway every day to go to work. You get on public transport, if those two things were developed because the Black community had to be demolished, then you benefit from that.” (Lewis) 
    The reparations are to fix the trickle down effects that slavery inflicted. “Individuals who pay taxes have to understand that they live in a system of governance, where their taxes fund the state, and their state, historically and continues to have policies and practices that discriminate against African-Americans.” (Lewis) This is a cultural issue, but Lewis makes it clear that this is a record of the harms that the State should be responsible for. (SOURCE) To be clear, this is about a debt owed versus a handout, as true handouts were the governmental policies in the late 19th and early 20th that were for white people in the form of the Homestead Act, which allocated hundreds of millions of acres of land to white families. Forty-six million white people reaped the benefits of the hand out of the federal and California Homestead Act, which African Americans were excluded from. Some of those who benefit caused the handout by the American government and its unjust legal system propagated by the “reactionary, undemocratic, monarchical Supreme Court.” (SOURCE) Police stop, shoot, and kill more African Americans than any other race. Most recently from 2019 to 2020, black people experienced an eighty-eight percent increase in hate crimes. Today black youth face mental health issues, being the number one victims of suicide in California, and they are the greatest number of people incarcerated. 
    The creation of a new State Agency in SB490 outlines direct repertory justice to the descendants of slavery. A permanent lobbying group is now doing the work that the Task Force was unable to complete. The proposal focuses on increasing funding in schools, and providing tax benefits for those who have been affected by redlining. SB490 uses world human rights laws standards for compensation, restitution, rehabilitations, satisfaction, and guarantees non-repetitions. The proposal, which is not based on slavery, but rather specific instances in five areas that acknowledge where the state is guilty of injustices. An eight-hundred billion dollars figure represents the pure monetary losses of black people from California's actions since its conception. The bill looks to return money via cash payments due to those specific situations. Economists have come up with devaluations of black businesses that include seventy-seven thousand missing black businesses in the state of California, which is greater than in any other part of the country. This is unique anti-blackness in the State that manifests in many ways. (SOURCE)
    Looking at this reality from the perspective of geography, specifically, the way land is occupied, and the experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and its relationship to All-Black town movements is important to consider. The Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, occurred in 1921 in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was a prosperous African American community. The incident involved the destruction of the neighborhood and the loss of many lives. The exact causes of the massacre are complex and multifaceted, involving a combination of racial tensions, economic competition, and false accusations. However, in many ways the entire situation of what happened represented the precious and most intimate moments in the country. 
    It started in downtown Tulsa, a segregated space, in a white owned mall, in a white operated elevator. A young Black man named Dick Rowland, who worked as a shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building, which was operated by Sarah Page, a young white woman. The details of what transpired in the elevator remain unclear, but it is known that a clerk in a nearby store heard a scream, and Rowland was subsequently accused of assaulting Page. The accusation fueled racial tensions in Tulsa, which were already heightened due to various social, economic, and political factors. The situation escalated on May 31, 1921, when a white mob gathered outside the courthouse demanding Rowland be handed over to them for lynching. In response, a group of Black residents, including World War I veterans, also gathered to protect Rowland. The confrontation between the white mob and the Black residents erupted into violence, leading to the destruction of the Greenwood District. The white mob attacked and looted businesses and homes, and numerous Black residents were killed. The events of the Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in significant loss of life, displacement, and the destruction of what was known as Black Wall Street. Rowland was seen as a threat not only as a body, but as a motive.
    The experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa at the heart is very similar to a representation of America. The land was an allotted Native American territory, the location technically set out of the jurisdiction of the USA. In 1865 when slaves were freed, there was a brief window of reconstruction that lasted only a few years, as the premise of forty acres and a mule had failed. Former slaves who needed freedom were sent to a native peoples’ territory in Oklahoma, where they could build lives for themselves, because the land does not belong to the United States government. Outside of the United States territories, some small communities built towns off of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK, similar to Black Wall Street. Tulsa is a representation of the significant problem of the promise of freedom. Tulsa is like any other normal place in the world, but they also have stories that we are not always looking for, claims Lewis. 
    What is the cause of such atrocity? White complicit silence and actual participation by local authorities happens, because black freedom is a threat to white supremacy. Imagined freedom is becoming increasingly lower over the course of each generation. There are everyday encounters of the race massacre as seen in Tulsa, also known as race riot, which is the language that was used in the press. If language does not accurately represent actions, it is a paradox of partial truths and counter facts. In 1889, the American government used indigenous peoples land that they had sanctioned to that group for newly freed former slaves. Black homesteaders used that to create an alternative notion of freedom, beyond the south. 
The All-Black towns were, for the most part, small agricultural centers that gave nearby African American farmers a market for their cotton and other crops. The Depression devastated these towns, and the residents moved west or migrated to metropolises where jobs might be found. (SOURCE.), which was the exodus movement, and Benjamin “Pap” Singleton called himself the “father of the Black Exodus.” Singleton and other grassroots black leaders developed the idea that former slaves should migrate to Kansas and other western homesteading sites, rather than remain in the South to suffer racial and economic oppression (SOURCE.). Black people were trying to use geographic relocation to create an identity of self-autonomy away from the southern states of America. It led to opportunities to establish one’s own terms, modes of existence, and self recognition. “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." W.E.B DuBois (SOURCE) Yet, in Indian territory that moment was a few decades long. In North Tulsa, Lewis sensed something more than just the legacy of the plantation. Because of the historical facts, the lingering effects of the race massacre can be seen as a social shaping of individual and societal norms. 
    “Social norms are the perceived informal, mostly unwritten, rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions. Within a given group or community, thus guiding humans. Behavior, 1, 2, 3. They consist of what we do, what we believe others do, and what we believe others approve of.” (SOURCE) It goes back to the foundational ethics that produced Black Wall Street and Greenwood. “In all things purely social, (blacks and whites) can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Booker T. Washington (SOURCE) The sentiment of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps was embedded in Greenwoods societal norms, which helped the community and individuals develop it (themselves) on their own terms. In Greenwood, and in Black Towns all over, there was a moment of reflection that allowed individuals and the community to come to terms with who they are, what they want to be, and have a real opportunity to accomplish that. The race massacre successfully and calculatedly disposed of material goods and imaginative thought that was leading to innovation by black people. Lewis says that his biggest fear for black people in this nation is, “failing (to imagine) who we want to be as black people in this nation, in this state, globally. We have to devote some resources to thinking about that.” (SOURCE
“Violent Utopia extends on my ongoing investment in the question of what repair and reparation might be. It examines the condition of Black life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as oriented around the settlement of Indian Territory, the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, and the massacre’s centenary. The book is concerned with how the freedom achieved in historical Greenwood, colloquially known as Black Wall Street, became curtailed by dispossession violence. Violent Utopia assesses how the equally weighted violent processes that included the 1921 race massacre, urban renewal, and everyday impoverishment resulted in the ultimate dispossession of Greenwood, which today is classed as North Tulsa. In the wake of this dispossession, blackness in North Tulsa is organized and driven by community formation understood as ethics and acts of restoration. Violent Utopia illustrates how the North Tulsa community reconciles the inheritance of violence and freedom that form the very condition of their geography. As such, Violent Utopia argues that the geography of North Tulsa, as a site of sovereign belonging, is the basis on which Black Tulsans will repair the promise of Greenwood.” (SOURCE
The work today must be done by the people, the youth. Chasing racism and its practices, the liberal idea of right, glimpse view approaches need to be reconsidered to repair blackness. There was an attempt to capture the feeling of the moment, but a lot of us may also feel that the urgency of that moment has largely dissipated, since we no longer have the 2020 appetite in 2023. In 2020, we produced lawn signs and instagram posts. The Task Force collected the data on housing, wealth, and race, which was a requirement to the community at the hands of the State. The impossibility of that task of proposing reparations turns attention to looking at the places and times that black life IS actually flourishing. If we rely upon liberals, then we cannot affirm a social experience, which is why the work must be done by the people. Lewis emphasizes a focus on poverty, within that framework there are going to be other people who are going to benefit. The terminology of reparations must also be changed in a quantitative sense. Black people were promised reparations, and they wanted three things; land, the means to make something on the land, and to be left alone and free. We must ask for everything and get what one can while still in the confines of colonialism. Lewis suggests that we must shift away from the cataloging and that there is an innate black indigenization because of slavery, by the group of people that has to do with the very structure and construction of this country. 
    The ethics of capitalism is also an important lens to look through for black existence and life. Can land ownership be a thing that is predicated within capitalist society, when the estimate of the land as property is owed to African Americans? Nine hundred thousand dollars is owed to each Black person in California just for mass incarceration alone. No wonder the country is so wealthy when it continues to perpetuate the circumstances that made it wealthy in the first place. 
    Realities of violence is another concept Lewis also spoke about in black existence. He made it clear that he was not speaking of harm, nor injury, but violence. Different generations would use the word or think that there is no violence and that there were different levels of it. Yet the sense of symbolic violence gives us a representation of what we think of as physical violence. We could dismiss violence, which we do everyday, but we could also recognize violence as a means of maintaining order. Not a disciplinary order, violence helps to reproduce and provide security in the world as we understand it. Violence maintains comfort, and social relations. 
    What does it mean about society's view of being safe? Jim Crow segregation was a world ordering process that made and secured white people's “safety.” Systemic and structural racism is much more intimate in Tulsa, as it has everything to do with what we feel and the relations we have with a place. It is too simple to just say hatred, this is violence against black people. Greenwood, North Tulsa, was impoverished like much of the country. This community has felt the impact of city disadvancement because of redlining. The relationship between Tulsa now and a century prior can be seen through looking at mechanics of violence and the recovery of social order. How can race massacre make sense? As a result, now that you have dozens of homes burned down, you can grow the city, and eminent domain by state or governmental forces can take property for public use. Most highways were built over destroyed properties in minority neighborhoods. Violence doesn't have to be as sensational as portrayed in the media. In fact, most violence is the quiet form, seemingly small, in some back room that nobody can see. When there is an acute act of violence, we have to think about what makes it possible, Lewis affirms.  There must be moral formation in America where black people are hated.
    The recent discussion that is happening around Tulsa and Greenwood can be seen through black exceptionalism. The concept of black exceptionalism worries Lewis about the bipolar thought process of thinking that black people are “exceptionally deprived” or “exceptionally brilliant” and says that “both of those forms of exception are equally problematic.” When looking at Greenwood, the commercial district promoted and enforced social economic quantification of peoples status in its society. He emphasizes that it is a class issue that is not mentioned when working with a black exceptionalism discourse. He then pinpoints the current moment with the work that has been happening after the brutalization and murder of George Floyd by a police officer, and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. “The official #BlackLivesMatter Global Network builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.” (SOURCE) Lewis states that there is an “effective defect in them,” that support of everyday blackness is overlooked. Rather the race based initiatives are pigeonholing themselves in the “exceptional, momentary, one off investment in blackness, and what's at the root of that is the working notion of exception.” He highlights reality “what folks want to be is human and want to live and want to go about their lives and pursue their aspirations… Black folks have demonstrated that if left alone,” he exhales a laugh, “we can have anything we want to have because we have had it.” Yet, the only thing preventing it is “violence of interference.”  
    What is the cost of the experience for black people in the state of California based upon the extensive work that the Task Force has accomplished? In order for this country to progress, the Task Force’s findings must be fundamentally ratified. The Reparations Bill directly affects present black people who can draw back any historical connection to their family being in the United States up until the early 1900s. It is not hard to do. Enslavement was an industry, and every single industry has records. Enslaved African Americans were classified as property. Registers and accounting books provide truthful and real ways of tracing those who were considered property.
    The geographical landscape and philanthropic efforts often seemed to prioritize capitalist purposes over addressing essential community needs such as infrastructure, schools, and basic amenities. The call for revolution, emphasized as a pursuit for land, confronts the real and inherent risks associated with using outsized terms like "defund" when police funding continues to grow across the country. In conjunction with the racial reckoning and the COVID-19 pandemic marked a stage of saturation three years after George Floyd's murder, prompting a societal reflection on unfair loss of life and the role of social media in shaping narratives. Stewart Ward's concept of a liminal space, characterized by both possibility and risk, is particularly pertinent to the current moment, defined by a racial reckoning and a heightened awareness of systemic injustices. The paper delves into the intricacies of racial violence, emphasizing the need for a reparative framework that goes beyond addressing immediate injuries to considering the ongoing impact on black lives. In exploring the present liminal space, the discussion extends to policy implications, highlighting how policies, such as urban renewal and racial covenants, have perpetuated systemic injustices and denied equity. The liminal space becomes a metaphor for the uncertainty and fear surrounding societal transformation, challenging individuals to confront the unknown and question the desired trajectory of the country. As the narrative unfolds, it underscores the importance of ongoing reflection and the collective effort to define what this country ought to be in terms of human rights, justice, and societal cooperation. The question of progress and whether it has allowed for a new cooperative vision for the nation remains open, emphasizing the imperative for continued dialogue and intentional efforts to shape a more equitable and just future.
    There is work to do and we must get to it. Lewis described the community that surrounds the Task Force “a blessing of a lifetime.” It is inspiring and remarkable, he describes. In The Emancipation Proclamation Lewis quotes Abraham Lincoln on two specific points. “The (American) government should recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons.” and “The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” He repeats the second part of the last quote, "The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” (SOURCE) Descendants of former slaves' ancestors have been repressed to make effort in such freedoms. Dr. Lewis emphasizes “This document (The California Reparations Task Forces findings) is a testimony to the ways, repeatedly, that the state of California has engaged in repressing African Americans in their attempts to actually make their freedom. This is what this is.” Lewis adds that we must be aware of the fact that the act of repressing is and always has been an active form of taking advantage of productivity for the sheer benefit of the State. Each and every single act of disposition towards black people in the State has been an explicitly intentional opportunity to benefit from their plight. 
South Berkeley was the commercial heart in the city that was made up by a community of dependent and former slaves. In 1973, the commercial corridor was demolished to build the Bart train station. He explains what that means,  “The everyday commuting of workers to the city and around the Bay Area,” Lewis follows up, “whether working at Twitter, or Facebook, or Google is directly inherited from the disposition of that community.” (SOURCE) The circumstances that caused the destruction of that black community have been incredibly productive toward black loss and state gain. Reparations must be here, and they must be now. It must be here and now because one's reality is predicated on one's current objective material and metaphysical reality in relation to this present moment. Since there is no way of predicting the future, we must mean that the past is inevitable. Meaning, everything we can do will have already been done by the time we do it. Working towards growth that could lead to positivity is the only way that personal beliefs and reality will align. As a society, we have so far deviated from the truth based on the circumstances of reality that it has led to extreme division and mass confusion. Because we are here and we are now, reparations appear to be the only way to right the wrongs of institutional violence. Reparations are here and now because those who have benefited contribute to benefiting from this State sanctioned violence. 
    The continued enactment of the harms of dispossession for African Americans, who were stolen to America for the single purpose of material profit must end now. “African Americans have done the work of liberating themselves, and every single turn the state has engaged in policies and programs to interrupt that progress.” Professor Lewis follows up. Reparation needs to be put in place to redress the repeated destruction of progress. Reparations do not equal repair, it is monetary compensation for the assault of African Americans and their ancestors. Repair work must also be done. The work must consist of self determination, taking what was promised in reconstruction, and going about the work of who you are and who you want to be. “I want us to think about our generations to come,” claims Lewis. He doesn't want his child or any child to feel the need for repair. 
    Through conversation with Dr. Lewis, I had the pleasure of learning in great detail about Rhys, Lewis’ son. Dr. Lewis and I shared a connection through his son's name and the story of my own, mine being a misreading of his son’s name, obviously a different Rhys. Jovan Scott Lewis told me his reality and identity in his life is “Rhys’ Dad,'' that is what he is known for in his life, and what I believe he strives to be known for in others. He wants all children to not feel the need for repair. Lewis states, “I will forever be here to work on this.” 
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/dr-jovan-scott-lewis-talks-to-br-about-historic-tulsa-reparations/#x https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/members https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/the-growing-debate-over-land-reparations-133586501855 https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/reparations-report-in-california/2907907/ https://time.com/6279076/california-reparations-program-historic-standard/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJmsssgbqfU https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-5 https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/page/geography http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.afam.006#:~:text=The%20all%2Dblack%20towns%20were,where%20jobs%20might%20be%20found https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/benjamin-singleton/#:~:text=Benjamin%20%E2%80%9CPap%E2%80%9D%20Singleton%20called%20himself,suffer%20racial%20and%20economic%20oppression https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?id=C0003931-DA0E-53A1-B8C86AEEC79F526F#:~:text=Historian%20W.E.B.%20DuBois%20described%20Reconstruction,moved%20back%20again%20toward%20slavery.%22 https://www.unicef.org/media/111061/file/Social-norms-definitions-2021.pdf https://backstoryradio.org/blog/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps/ https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/dr-jovan-scott-lewis-talks-to-br-about-historic-tulsa-reparations/#x https://www.jovanscottlewis.com/ https://blacklivesmatter.com/ https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22 https://www.jovanscottlewis.com/

CMPL200 Presentation Script

I wrote this for a presentation I gave on Andre Bazin's "The Ontology of the Photographic Image". I am unable to include the slides, however they only present quotes that have been largely integrated into the following script.

slide 1: Andre Bazin was a prominent French film critic and theorist of the 20th century. He was born in Angers, France in 1918. He moved to Paris with his family in the early 30s and began writing essays, largely on cinema, in the early 40s. He continued to write until 1958 when he died from leukemia. In 1951, in Paris, helped to start the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma which is often credited with creating the fields of film criticism and film theory. Throughout the mid to late 1950s Bazin and Cahiers du Cinema collaborators André Astruc and François Truffaut jointly developed the auteur theory which posits that a director is the primary force behind a movie and proposes that the relationships of control and expression between director and film, and author and literary work, are equal. The auteur theory has faced much criticism throughout history, yet it remains foundational to the study of film, the creation of a post-world war II French cinema and the French New Wave, and essentially all of subsequent film history. Bazin has retrospectively become associated with humanism, as this philosophy seems to be a theme underpinning much of his writing. His humanist tendencies are apparent in his belief in, as I mentioned, the auteur theory, in cinematic realism, as well as in his popular text “The Ontology of the Photographic Image.

slide 2: Bazin wrote The Ontology of the Photographic Image in 1945. The work was first translated into English by Hugh Gray in Berkeley, California and published in 1967. Through the title of this text, Bazin tells his readers that he will be aiming to answer the question: “What is a Photograph?” He begins his essay discussing the intentions and impacts of visual art. He explains that the plastic arts hold “a mummy complex. The religion of ancient Egypt, aimed against death, saw survival as depending on the continued existence of the corporeal body. Thus, by providing a defense against the passage of time it satisfied a basic psychological need in man, for death is but the victory of time. To preserve, artificially, his bodily appearance is to snatch it from the flow of time, to stow it away neatly, so to speak, in the hold of life. It was natural, therefore, to keep up appearances in the face of the reality of death by preserving flesh and bone.” These sites were often pillaged and thus ancient Egyptians began to place terracotta statuettes alongside the sarcophagus as substitute bodies incase the sarcophagus faced destruction. Bazin cites this practice to illustrate “the primordial function of statuary, namely, the preservation of life by a representation of life.” He writes that visual art “was torn between two ambitions: one, primarily aesthetic, namely the expression of spiritual reality wherein the symbol transcended its model; the other, purely psychological, namely to duplicate the world outside.” However, Bazin, in thinking with the mummy complex on why the plastic arts exist, decides that the history of the visual arts is a matter of its psychology, and thus realism is essential to understanding how these arts function. 

slide 3: Bazin notes that all art has long confused true realism and pseudorealism. He explains that pseudorealism aims at “fooling the eye (or for that matter the mind)” with “illusory appearances” and that true realism aims to “give significant expression to the world both concretely and in its essence.” He believes that “photography has freed the plastic arts from their obsession with likeness… satisfy[ing], once and for all and in its very essence, our obsession with realism.” Essentially he is saying that a photograph, being a pseudorealism as close as possible to what an artist and people actually witness, gives way to true realism. He explains that a painting, “No matter how skillful the painter, his work was always in fee to an inescapable subjectivity. The fact that a human hand intervened cast a shadow of doubt over the image.” Bazin says that pseudorealism “is not to be found in the [painting or photograph] but in the way of achieving it.”

slide 4: Bazin describes the photograph as an “illusion by mechanical reproduction in the making of which man plays no part.” He says that photography permitted, for the first time, an image of the world to be formed through a nonliving agent and without the creative intervention of man.

slide 5: When reading this text I found myself skeptical of Bazin’s arguments. Maybe photography is in fact better at depicting realism than painting is, but Bazin seems to be so confident, even too confident, in this assertion, that he seems to disregard the role of the human photographer in photography. Bazin writes: “The personality of the photographer enters into the proceedings only in his selection of the object to be photographed and by way of the purpose he has in mind. Although the final result may reflect something of his personality, this does not play the same role as is played by that of the painter.” It was this quote that cemented my skepticism of Bazin. Here, Bazin disregards the fact that nearly everything in a photograph is subject to a photographer’s choices. I wanted to acknowledge my position as an interpreter of this text in 2023. From my position, I do not immediately think about photography as confined to a singular medium. I understand a photograph not only by what lies within its image but also through a photographer’s choices of camera, how they edit the photograph, etc. The contemporary photographer makes more choices in creating pseudorealism. I can chalk up my disagreement with Bazin here to a temporal disconnect, but I remain concerned with his absence of a mention of the fact that a photographer is produced by and situated in certain cultural conditions.

slide 6: I grounded my skepticism in Venuti’s text Invisibility of the Translator. Bazin’s quote “The photographic image is the object itself, the object freed from the conditions of time and space that govern it,” reminded me of Venuti’s quote in which he describes and questions the ethical grounds of domestication as they are rooted in “the transcendental concept of humanity as an essence that remains unchanged over time and space.” Venuti describes domestication as a method in which it is believed that “accuracy in translation depends on generating an equivalent effect in the receiving culture.” Domestication takes an original text and re-presents it as the original text to a target audience, despite the text passing through time, space, and cultural borders in its becoming of its translated form. Bazin believes photography does the same. He believes that something is governed by time and space, but he does not assert that things are also constructed by time and space. This misunderstanding, or rather disregard, of how things interact with their environment in also present in domesticating translation. Venuti notes that domestication is “symptomatic of a complacency in British and American relations with cultural others… [that is] imperialistic abroad and xenophobic at home.” From here I turned to Orientalism.
slide 7: Said’s Orientalism explains that Orientalism only exists through Western othering of the East in an effort to uphold and rationalize Western power. Bazin's assertion that the photographic image represents the object freed from temporal and spatial constraints mirrors Orientalism's framing of the Orient as the "other." In both, there is a selective representation that reflects the interests and perspectives of the empowered and autonomous subject - that being the West or the photographer. Bazin's idea that the photographer's personality is embedded in the selection of the object draws a parallel to the Western scholar's geopolitical identity influencing the knowledge production about the East. Bazin’s view of a photograph as realism reflects Western hegemony’s view of orientalism as the orient. The camera-object-photographer dynamic in photography is mirrored in the relationships between the West, the Orient, and Orientalism. 

Iron Construction



Iron Construction and Critical Infrastructures in Israel


On Dec 7th, 2021, the Gaza border wall, labeled the “Iron Wall,” finished construction. Taking three and a half years, 140,000 tonnes of iron and steel, and $1.1bn dollars, it effectively transformed the Gaza Strip into the largest open-air prison in the world. Gaza citizens live under a state of constant observation - the border wall has a sensor system underground to detect any burrowing, radar systems, command and control rooms, and a remote-controlled weapons system, allowing the military to respond to any attempts to break through. Israel’s economy is driven by this kind of construction; high technology, including military, communications, and weapons technology, makes up 80% of its industrial sector, which is, in turn, the largest sector of the economy. This border wall is a perfect collaboration of all those sectors - and for this reason, was hailed as a “technological project of the first order” by Israel’s defense minister. Many people worldwide were critical of the project: even far-right newspaper The Times of Israel pointed out that it did nothing to stop the actual perceived threat of terrorism or political violence, merely delaying the inevitable. The reason Israel engages in these projects, even if they’re relatively ineffective, is because they’re essential to the success of both Israel’s economy and its existence as a nation. 

Magal Security Solutions, the company responsible for the construction of the “Iron Wall,” described the project as “critical infrastructure,” on their website, a terminology that has been used by settler states to justify profitable yet extremely violent projects in America and Canada. Settler states will define certain projects as “critical,” claiming that they are essential to national security. What’s important to recognize here is that the wall is not essential to national security, it is only labeled as such to justify its existence. If settler states fail to engage in a constant process of elimination, it’s an admission that they’re not the legitimate owners of the land. The Iron Wall is a both physical representation of and a facilitator of this process of elimination - it aims to contain, surveil, and, as we’ve seen in the horrific events that have occurred since October 7th, eventually aid in the elimination of the native population. Projects like the Iron Wall are essential to the existence of the Israeli state because they reinforce + continue that logic of elimination; without them, the state would have no ideological ground to stand on. It is in that sense that the Iron Dome becomes labeled as “critical”: it is essential to the ideological existence of Israel.

The Iron Dome, another Israeli infrastructure/defense project, shows another aspect of the Israeli political economy. It was constructed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a private company funded in large part by the state, and cost an estimated $1.5bn. When asked why the defense system was constructed in 2016, Didi Ya’ari, Rafael’s CEO, said, “[the purpose of the Iron Dome is to keep] people going to work, keep harbors working, keep cars and trains running. We have conditions that could be considered absolute war, and this allows things to keep running.” The irony here is that even though they’re explicitly stating that the purpose of the Iron Dome is to keep the economy running during wartime, it still veils the truth that what, at least partly, makes the Israeli economy run is the constant state of war it exists in. This is emphasized by how many refer to the Iron Dome as “infrastructure”; the mere idea that a missile defense system is infrastructure acknowledges an expectation of constant warfare.

 Because of Israel’s lack of natural resources, they import all of the materials necessary to build these technologies and projects. So, to make a profit, they are forced to create products that have a high added value. To continually profit off added value, constant innovation, and experimentation are needed, so they need a testing ground to use all of their military technologies. Additionally, a big part of an added-value economy is permanence. People can only profit off of added-value products if they’re allowed to sit, be experimented on, and develop into something more valuable over time; it’s a long-term investment. In this, the political economy of Israel mirrors the logic of settler colonialism. It is in investors’ (specifically, the US’s, which is the biggest investor in Israel in the world) interest to have Israel remain since there won’t be a return on investment otherwise. The logic of settler colonialism tells us that Israel aims to be permanent and will constantly try to eliminate the native Palestinians, and the political economy of Israel relies on notions of permanence and uses the elimination of Palestinians to profit. In this, we can see how, intrinsically, profit, the elimination of Palestinians, and the existence of the Israeli state are linked. The specific nature of the political economy of Israel also contributes to this: they specifically work very heavily in surveillance and security technology. Because of this, it is in Israel’s interest to be engaged in a conflict with an occupied population, as it allows them to experiment with not only their military technologies when war breaks out but also to always be experimenting with their communications and surveillance technologies. What makes the Israeli case so awful is how they’ve managed to exploit the resistance to the system of settler colonialism - violence in Palestine always proceeds profit. Northrup Gunman, Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin stock are all up since October 7th. 


Keith LaMar Article - Outback

 A Reflection on the Benefit Concert for Keith LaMar at Pomona College, a Death Row Prisoner


“What happened to Keith? Keith LaMar is a death row prisoner who was wrongfully convicted in the state of Ohio. On January 13th, 2027, the state intends to execute him, even though he has maintained his innocence for nearly three decades, all while being held in indefinite solitary confinement,” reads LaMar’s website.

On October 7, 2023, the Pomona Student Union and Prison Abolition Collective presented “Freedom First,” a Jazz Benefit Concert for Keith LaMar. It featured words from LaMar, calling in from death row, with accompaniment from a live band at Pomona College. (Figure 1)

Keith LaMar’s freedom is necessary here and now. The only way that personal beliefs and reality will align as necessary for LaMar’s freedom is by working towards growth in the current moment that can lead to immediate positive change. Our current place and time provides us with the material and blatant reality to adhere to what the present moment needs. 

Here at Pitzer College, the student body must acknowledge its contribution toward the destructive system of higher academia and its role in supporting the prison industrial complex, and its hypocrisy between the words and actions of students. Every moment where an individual supports an institution like Pitzer is a direct moment of action encouraging the system of damnation that is causing LaMar’s life circumstances. One should be using the resources at the disposal from the institution to advantage realty. Whether or not students are passive, intentional, or unaware of the true implications of their actions, our institution will continue to support the privatized prison industrial system. LaMar will continue to suffer the consequences of our destructive actions, or often, our inaction. LaMar’s concert was a call for self awareness and introspection to see that our attempts at help are futile, and often continue the spiraling cycle of destruction. The help we offer actively upholds higher academia and therefore the privatized prison industrial system. Can anyone avoid supporting a system of oppression when operating within a country funded by and founded on stolen labor and genocide? The question can only be answered by individuals making their existence and they can not be done in a legal or political context that continues to support the United States of America. 

LaMar suggests that through active engagement outside of the system this is possible, but so long as it continues to exist, nothing will change. His website explains, “in the aftermath of the 1993 Lucasville Prison Uprising, the State of Ohio was under public pressure to clean up a multi-million dollar mess, one that included the death of a prison guard and multiple prisoners. After State investigators trampled the crime scene and contaminated any and all potential evidence, they paid jailhouse informants to create a false narrative that implicated Keith, even though he wasn’t affiliated with any of the groups involved in the riot. To bolster their claim, the State withheld evidence that would have proven his innocence (including the confession of an actual perpetrator who admitted to murdering one of Keith’s alleged victims). His trial was staged in a remote Ohio community known to be highly racist. Any Black prospective jurors were promptly dismissed by the Prosecution, leaving Keith’s fate in the hands of an all-White jury, who swiftly sentenced him to death.”

What can be done?   

In an interview with Elsabeth Franklin, a close friend of Keith LaMar and a participant in his campaign, she explained how she hopes others would go about learning about LaMar’s life and needs. First, she advises people to read LaMar’s book, Condemned, before they take action. Once one has a whole and truthful perspective each person should discuss the book and pinpoint their own identity and positionality within it, recognizing  how that impacts the content that they took away from it. 

Franklin said, “conversations of positionality and intersectionality are important to have to examine the systems of oppressions that are that we have constructed. We are directly in an institution. How do we feed into it and how do we contribute to it?” These destructive systems in the present are rooted in historical lies, all bolstered by the institutional bubble around us that allows us to believe that our core values of “Social Justice” are being acted upon through complacency, just by being here. Franklin then would transition the conversation towards considering LaMar's identity in a country that structurally fails Black men and then profits from their incarceration, inevitably condemning LaMar to the same fate. 

Franklin emphasized, “we all are contributing to the system that allows him to be in the situation he is in.” She pinpointed reality by asking, “What does it mean to be a consequence of that?” 

The concert hall at Pomona College was completely packed as the live band began to play; the drummer clashed his symbols, the saxophone started to cry, and the bass was booming. The piano began exploring a melodic song, and LaMar’s voice came over the speaker from his cell in Ohio, “tell the children the truth,” from the song “Tell ‘Em the Truth.” The song emphasized the significance of the moment and a necessary call to action. The unique compassion shared for the art, cause, and most importantly, for LaMar, was felt throughout the venue.

“Finding yourself” was a crucial motif in the performance and discussion. Reiterating Franklin's earlier point, further exploration and engagement towards LaMar's cause was encouraged to be sought out through self exploration and analysis. It is not enough to understand, know, and feel the present moment of realities like LaMar’s. It is crucial to notice, and be proactive in acting upon your position in the present to propel the world you hope to see in the future. The present is the most meaningful and productive reality to be in, it is the only one that can and must be used for positive change. Examining the factors of one's individual situation is imperative to  using it for action towards achieving justice and eliminating injustice. 

The “vibe” is something that LaMar's campaign manager Amy Gordiejew brought into later conversation during the Q&A after the performance. Franklin mentions Gordiejew’s involvement and passion for LaMar and his fight, saying “she does everything for Keith that he can’t because of his position” Upon being asked about engagement with LaMar’s cause, Gordiejew recommended reading his book, Condemned, because it reveals deeply who he is as a person. The two regarded the purpose of reading his book to reveal clarity and understanding that one can empathize with the fact that this story is not rare, recognize  that these are people’s lives, and understand that LaMar’s experience is unfortunately not uncommon. They also recommended to follow him on Instagram @JusticeForKeithLaMar, and to reach out to him. In this way one could subsequently meet with more people of similar compassion and interest.

LaMar then gave the following sentiments and wisdom to queries from the audience about how to engage with justice. He first recommended involving the people that you are trying to help. When someone wondered what in particular a student's place is, LaMar responded, “what do you feel like as a student?” He made it clear that actions speak louder than words — you must inform yourself, and you must actualize yourself. Figure out how you want to do it, and not how you have been taught to He then stated that he did not want his situation to be seen in a way that was to get him off death row alone, but rather to reevaluate our society. He encouraged the audience to keep learning and keep trying to involve themselves, and to do so by thinking outside the box until there really is no box. As LaMar's time on the phone was unwinding and the event came to a close, LaMar left this point to the young people in the audience: “How acceptable to bullshit are you? Contribute to saving this world. Add more, it's a big cake.” 

The gruesome and relevant fact of the matter is that LaMar's words and ideas are lasting and impactful, yet they remind us he is only able to give them to the world for a set period of time due to his impending death on January 13th, 2027. Elsabeth Franklin made this clear when discussing what we could do now with the information of the impending death date, saying, “what we want is for him to be free, and I couldn't ask one person to allow that we are a consequence of the position that we are in.” 

Two other individuals made the performance particularly spectacular. LaMar's best friend, Ken Wright, provides an intimate role and side of both LaMar’s life and the impact that he has on others. Pianist and teacher Albert Marquès is able to help put power in LaMar's words through music. Both outlets, whether a meaningful lifelong emotional connection or art, are significant in expressing feelings of social, emotional, and beautiful expression that can only be conveyed through this manner. At the intersections of these two relationships is action through self-expression, thus making self-expression essential to the movement. 

Through his own expression, LaMar relays his own life’s journey and knowledge in a proactive, self self-engaged manner, and is able to show that LaMar's story is not unique, it has happened to him and is happening to many people now. LaMar's own experience is so impactful because he continuously teaches his message, do what you think is right to you and the world.  By consuming, learning, and acting intentionally against structural oppression, finding one's own expression through exposing the falsities and fuckery within these systems is necessary now. By doing nothing, one is actively “contributing to the system that allows him to be in the situation he is in.” To spotlight the truth, we must remind ourselves of Franklin’s question: “what does it mean to be a consequence of that?” 


FOLLOW THESE LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/justiceforkeithlamar/ 

https://linktr.ee/justiceforkeithlamar 

https://www.instagram.com/freedomfirstmusic/?hl=en&img_index=7

https://lnk.bio/freedomfirstmusic  


Figure 1

(https://www.keithlamar.org/)


Whiskey and Bowie

 




Sequence 01

 


Monkey Sexuality?

Tilda Sutter

The Real Monkey Business

Prof. Joyce Powzyk

April 17th, 2023

Bonobos, Chimpanzees, and Human Sexuality

The origins of human behavior continue to confound primatologists. As humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, their aggressive, patriarchal society serves as the dominant model for our habits. However, their egalitarian primate counterpart, bonobos, also employ mannerisms that mirror that of humans. These differing manners of relation have sparked debates about the true primate origin of human behavior. By comparing the evolutionary motivations of both bonobos and chimpanzees, the nuances of human desire are illuminated. 

The inequality of food resources between chimpanzees and bonobos compromises their differences. Bonobos inhabit areas with an abundance of fruit, minimizing competition over resources. Therefore, male bonobos can afford to share their produce with female and juvenile members of their populous natal group. These apportionments facilitate an egalitarian relation between sexes. Similarly, the availability of fruit negates the need for male cohorts of hunting, evening their male ranking system. This abundance of resources allows for relatively large natal groups, with minimal hierarchization. 

Chimpanzees populate forests with scarce resources, enhancing the innate competition over assets. Male chimpanzees are territorial over their yields, rarely sharing with females or other members of their comparatively small natal groups. Males also organize themselves according to a strict hierarchical structure, ensuring the allocation of resources to the alpha male. Male cohorts hunt red colobus monkeys to bond and strengthen their ranking system (Mitani and Watts, 2001). This arrangement is mutable; it creates frequent violent, male on male attacks for dominance. Unlike bonobos, females feed in small groups or alone, and they tend to not form lasting bonds. 

These varying ecological pressures extend to the sexualities of chimpanzees and bonobos. While both species are promiscuous, characterized by every male mating with all females, the function sex serves differs by primate. Bonobos are constantly receptive to sex for purposes beyond reproduction. Sexual activity eases tension and facilitates bonding between individuals - even mothers and daughters are often observed engaging in genital rubbing. Mating is not relegated to heterosexuality; females bond through sexual activity, not bloodlines. These alliances create the cooperation required for altruistic child raising. The regularity of sex fuels their egalitarian relations, and allows encounters between individuals to be predominately peaceful. 

In addition, bonobos’ physicality suggests an innate desire for pleasurable, not reproductive sex. Female bonobos have visible and continuous sexual swelling, ensuring their constant availability to mate. Both male and female bonobos may have developed ventrally located genitals due to their bipedal walking, guaranteeing the accessibility of casual sexual activity. Their lack of sexual dimorphism also indicates a balanced relationship between sexes.  This egalitarian, sexually experimental society is incongruous with chimpanzees’ mating system. While chimps are promiscuous, females only exhibit visual sexual swelling every thirty-five days, ensuring that sexual activity is less frequent and directly related to reproduction. Chimpanzees are sexually dimorphic, and males assault all female members of their natal group in order to reach sexual maturity. Females do not mate with one another and do not form bonds beyond their bloodline. This aggressive and patriarchal form of sexuality mirrors the intense competition over food experienced by chimpanzees. 

Humans typically form heterosexual pairs, and are classified as monogamous. Monogamy ensures that fathers participate in child-rearing, increasing the chances of survival and reproduction for their offspring. As human infants are highly altricial, they require more care than newborn bonobos and chimpanzees. Human females exhibit concealed ovulation, requiring a male to couple with a female throughout her ovulation cycle to secure parenthood. However, the nuances of human desire complicate an understanding of primate sexuality. Humans tend to be behaviorally polyandrous, through affairs and mistresses. When male humans amass an abundance of resources, they are able to support multiple partners, increasing their chances of reproduction. 

Human sexuality may not be solely for reproduction, as many people form same-sex partnerships or refuse sexual activity altogether. This perceived indifference towards reproduction has sparked theories about the evolutionary purpose of homosexuality in humans. 

One model suggests that bisexual primates are more likely to reproduce, however, this fails to explain strict homosexuality. Some scientists suggest that homosexuality may increase the commonality of alloparenting. As humans are highly altricial, they need more care than infant bonobos and chimpanzees, and may require attention from non parental relatives (Bawagan, 2018). This altruistic child raising mirrors the function of female-to-female sexual activity between bonobos, suggesting that homosexuality facilitates the cooperation necessary for child-rearing. These interpretations are not mutually exclusive, and it is likely that there are other evolutionary advantages to homosexuality. However, the concept of sexual orientation and gender identity is an exclusive aspect of human behavior that cannot be compared to any other primate species.

Human sexuality encompasses elements of both bonobo and chimpanzee reproductive strategies. Like bonobos, humans use sex for purposes other than reproduction, to ease tension and form bonds. While the fluidity and frequency of human sexuality may mirror bonobos, human sexual dimorphism indicates a relation to chimpanzees. Male chimpanzees developed to dominate their female counterparts, to guarantee access to scarce food resources. The frequency of human polyandry could suggest a similar human system of reproduction - one focused on the male’s amassing of resources. Human females’ relative slendering may also indicate subordination, and serves as a possible explanation for the prominence of the patriarchy in sexuality. 

Sexuality aids in the formation of close bonds, like bonobos, but also institutes strict patriarchal systems, like chimpanzees. Homosexuality in humans, however, provides a stark divergence from these evolutionary forces. Recent investigations into the evolutionary advantages of same-sex partnerships will illuminate the nuances of sexuality not experienced by non-human primates.  








Works Cited


"Scientists explore evolution of animal homosexuality." Imperial College London, 4 Oct. 2018, https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190987/scientists-explore-evolution-animal-homosexuality/.


Mitani, John C. and David P. Watts. "Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat?" Animal Behaviour, vol. 61, 2001, pp. 915-924. doi: 10.1006/anbe.2000.1681.


The List

shitposting

  https://youtu.be/xxTjWPCIBu4