There is clear distinction between Gaunt’s humanitarian-based business structure, and the economic system of slavery upon which our mortgage system is based. Bundling enslaved people — captives — into securities had benefits for the slave owner.

And what would Cleola think of this iteration of kindness we are experiencing now? This market driven world of contemporary culture that has attempted to commoditize kindness into a kindness tourist destination trap.

A briar patch is a “thicket formed by any number of unrelated thorny parts.” The briar patch figures prominently in the escape route of “Brer Rabbit,” the trickster figure in African American folktales in the mid-1800s.