The extraordinary courage of Lassana Bathily, an immigrant from Mali, saved six lives during a terrorist attack at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. He was rewarded with French citizenship by the French president François Hollande.

But this is not a story about courage.

The superhuman agility and bravery of Mamoudou Gassama, an immigrant from Mali, saved a baby from death in the 18th arrondissement. He was rewarded with French citizenship by the French president Emmanuel Macron.

But this is not a story about bravery.

The superhuman is rewarded with formal status as a human. The merely human, meanwhile, remains unhuman, quasi-human, subhuman.

The already human, to be granted humanity in this arrangement, must be superhuman. No, not merely superhuman, but visibly, demonstrably superhuman. Gassama crossed the Mediterranean in a tiny boat, that was superhuman, but no one filmed that, he remained subhuman, and there was no reward.

Such is Empire’s magnanimity. Merci, patron. Je suis tellement reconnaissant, patron.

The hand that gives, it is said in Mali, is always above the hand that receives. Those who are hungry cannot reject food. Not only those who are hungry but those who have been deliberately starved. But soon comes the day when the Hebrews will revolt and once and for all refuse Pharaoh’s capricious largesse.