What does it say about us, as a species, that the loss of animal life seems to provoke more sympathy and gnashing of teeth than the loss of human life? Evolution results in the expression of altruistic behaviors in species as diverse as ravens and macaques on a regular basis, after all.

So what went wrong with us? Did evolution fail us — or is it the other way around?

These are the types of existential questions that were accidentally kicked loose when a four-year-old boy tumbled into a silver-backed gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Predictably, the gorilla was killed immediately by attentive zookeepers in order to keep the child safe.

This strange sequence of events has revealed quite a lot about our national priorities.

Gorilla Lives > Black Lives?

Animal life is, of course, a precious thing — that goes without saying. But there’s something to be said for priorities.

Consider the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” Append a hashtag to it, if it helps. Really try the phrase out — see how it rolls off the tongue. It’s catchy, timely and perhaps several decades overdue. It’s a battle that’s been fought in silence for many years, and we still have so far to go.

Trouble is, millions of Americans don’t seem to think the profiling and indiscriminate murder of unarmed black men and women is a serious problem, or that it isn’t even happening at all. I’ve seen firsthand that some folks see yard signs, bumper stickers or lapel pins with this phrase on it and almost fall all over themselves trying to explain why it isn’t so. It’s because black people kill themselves. It’s because white people have to protect themselves from naked savagery. Any explanation except the correct one: Black men and women are unjustly targeted in this country by an institution masquerading as “blind” justice.

But this gorilla? A beautiful, strong, endangered (key point here) and potentially intelligent animal, yes — and deserving of national sympathy and mourning. But this gorilla evoked sympathy simply by its being there, and captured the kind of national attention that the Black Lives Matter movement rightly deserves.

Who are we? What’s become of our conscience?

Outrage in All the Wrong Places

After publicly defending the killing of this particular gorilla, Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard was subjected to something best described as a public crucifixion. Thousands and thousands of Americans used angry letters, death threats and other means to express their displeasure over the killing of the gorilla. It’s a case of “damned if you do,” because it’s clear that if the zoo’s personnel hadn’t responded when and how they did, they’d probably be facing a different kind of outcry, in the form of a wrongful death lawsuit. Were they protecting the child, or protecting themselves from the high cost of malpractice? Maybe it doesn’t matter when the outcome is the same.

But if it’s so easy to rankle our national sense of morality, then why, oh why, is the Black Lives Matter movement still relegated to the fringes? Why isn’t it being covered with the same journalistic breathlessness as the Drumpf Campaign?

And why does the death of a gorilla seem to pull at our heartstrings much more successfully than did the death of Sandra Bland?

The UK’s “Independent” said it much better than I could: “The young black boy who fell into his enclosure will grow up to be 21 times more likely to be slain than his white counterparts. If he had been 17-years-old and shot on the same day, would anyone even know his name?”

The answer, of course, is “no” — just as the answer was “no” when American police officers killed 100 unarmed black people in 2015 — a rate of five times the death rate for unarmed whites.

Black Lives Matter needs to be a national priority today and every single day from now on until something is done. A freak accident at a second-rate zoo is not remotely in the same ballpark.

National Priorities

Is it possible we’re being too hard on these pro-gorilla crusaders? It’s easy to pity an animal, after all — they ask for so little in return.

But we do need to take a good, long look into our collective conscience and figure out what response is most appropriate to the situation. When a toddler manages to tumble into a gorilla enclosure, everybody and their aunt becomes an armchair parent, certain things would have been different under their watch, if only they’d been there. This kid’s parents even received death threats for their perceived parental lapse.

The nation feels this boy is owed a certain measure of dignity and safety. The consensus appears to be that, with just a few small, common-sense changes, both the boy and the gorilla might be alive today.

Where’s the solidarity when unarmed black people are killed in this country? Where’s our sense of shared dignity? Where’s the loud, angry uproar over the loss of fellow human lives? Where’s the indignation when entire police stations are discovered to be dens of systemic racism and other forms of barbarity?

It’s embarrassing, the things that inspire outrage these days. We see it in the race toward re-segregation in the nation’s bathrooms. We see it in the marginalization of Black Lives Matter. And we see it in the sadly predictable sequence of events surrounding this hapless gorilla and the four-year-old interloper.

The broken thing we call “Justice” in this country is simply the noise we make as we talk ourselves out of evolutionary impulses that come naturally to ravens and macaques. Want to honor the animal kingdom? Maybe learn to take their lead from time to time.