Call for Submissions: Words, Beats and Life Journal

Call for Submissions: Words, Beats and Life Journal



It Ain’t My Fault: Blame it on Hip-Hop
Many believe rap music to be culpable for the failing within black communities. Jay-Z and Lil’ Jon have become more popular targets than racism and poverty for political pundits and self-appointed race men. The WBL Journal staff is looking for submissions that address this re-emerging phenomenon. The overarching theme for this issue is “It Aint My Fault: Blame it on Hip-Hop,” but below you will find themes to guide your research.
From C. Delores Tucker to Bill Cosby: Conservative Attacks in Black Face

In the past 10 years, we have seen a record number of Black men and women running for elected office as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The writer can delve into explanations for black and Latino leaders’ support of more conservative candidates, such
as Russell Simmons backing Michael Bloomberg in New York and Michael Steele in Maryland. Authors could also explore why some hip-hop artists, such as 50 Cent and Eazy E, and “activists” like Jeff Johnson are slowly beginning to support more conservative candidates. One can also address Mr. Cosby’s disparaging remarks about hip-hop dialects and the lower class communities of color. One can also examine the Citizen Change and
Vote or Die campaigns, their agendas and effectiveness. (Russell Simmons’ work with the Urban League traditionally conservative Hip-Hop Reader project).

Panthers: Hip-Hop’s Black and Brown Radical Roots
Many people refer to hip-hop as “multicultural movement.” Interestingly enough, very few hip-hop artists have made it a priority to move beyond discussing this phenomenon as a movement of multicultural consumers. The author should look at how hip-hop generation activists and organizers are moving beyond the black/white racial dichotomy of the 20th century. With the immigration debate, terror bills and the general xenophobia pumped out of your local TV and radio station, how are hip-hop generation youth moving beyond, working through or navigating around personal racial politics? What effect is this environment having upon the state of the individual communities in America across color lines? Ideally, authors should place hip-hop within a historical context of Black radical activists who worked across racial boundaries.

Parental Advisory: A History of Censoring Black Speech
The author can investigate and build a timeline of censorship of Black music and political speech. One can also explore the ramifications of such censorship. We are trying to convey a link between the two, and show that Black music and political commentary are often one in the same. Writers can also look at how government agencies such as the FBI and local police have followed rap artists such as NWA and 2 Live Crew, much like they did individuals and organizations like Amiri Baraka and the Black Panther Party. Tipper Gore, Bill Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh have all tried to use their influence to silence rappers.

Ridin’ Dirty on 85: Rap’s Great Migration to the South
On their most basic level, articles covering this topic should look at how New York-based rap artists have responded to the great remigration of Black people and culture to the South. This section is intended to provide a contemporary look at the state of rap music and its migration to the south. This phenomenon should not be looked at in a vacuum but rather be tied to census data outlining the impact of African American Migration from the Northeast to the South and Midwest. This migration of culture need not just be tied to the music itself, but to the democratization of access to the necessary means of production, promotion and distribution of music and culture.

Same Old Song: The Blues, Gospel and Hip-hop
Firstly, one can document the critique from the religious establishment of Black popular music and contemporary gospel. In this section, we are especially interested in the effect of denigrating Black popular culture in African American Churches. It would also be important to look at examples of how churches have appropriated Black popular culture in the creation of “gospel happy hours,” “hip-hop choirs,” and even “hip-hop churches.” In addition, the author could explore the explosion of Christian hip-hop and the fusion of traditional gospel styles and hip-hop. One can also write about how fringe religious sects such as the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation exploit hip-hop as a vehicle for proselytizing their dogma. It would be appropriate to examine the use of hip-hop to promote Islam, and how that stands in opposition or solidarity with Muslims and Christians. This article can consist of interviews, essays or scholarly reviews outlining the history of condemnation of contemporary Black music by Black churches or mosques.

From Bridging the Gap to Passing the Torch: Where Do We Go From Here?
This article should examine bonds made between civil rights generation and current youth activists in attempts to make mutual progress.

Submission Forms
Scholarly Submissions
Multimedia
Creative Writing
Research Papers
Visual Art
Essays
Interviews
Photography
Poems
Short stories

Process of Submitting
All submissions are accepted on a continuous basis and need not be limited to the themes outlined below. All submissions designated as scholarly require an abstract of 150 words or less and up to five key words. All scholarly submissions should also follow the APA style guide. Please send all submissions to: submissions@wblinc.org, or in the case of compact discs:
WB&L Journal / 1524 Newton. St. NW / Washington, D.C. 20010. Deadline for submission for this issue is October 19, 2007.

Personal and Academic Progress

Quote of the Week:

To be black is to live with anger as the defining emotion of a racial experience. To be successful is to learn how to keep the emotion from consuming or debilitating black ambition.

Audrey Edwards and Craig K. Polite

Book of the Week:

Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop
by Michael Eric Dyson

Event of the Week:

University of Kansas McNair Scholars Programs will host a research symposium this Friday. Scholars from various academic disciplines will present research on topics ranging from Biology to Poetry Therapy.

(Click here for details)

The Black Student's Manifesto (work in progress)

This entire post...from another blog...could be equally applied to anyone who does not identify themselves (or cannot identify themselves) as white in America. That doesn't mean that it is irrelevant for white people, simply that it takes an "enlightened"--yeah, I know that sounds really offensive. i'll change it when i think of a better word choice. until then, sorry--white person to accept what I'm saying as potential truth and ACT accordingly. I don't mean to exclude anyone, I just got caught up in a thought and pursued it. I mean what I'm saying, but I did want to be completely clear that I could have equally called this the "Minority Student's Manifesto", I simply don't feel as though I have any right to speak for a group that I only remotely identify with. And there's plenty of black conservatives who would disagree with me anyway. So I'm not universal with mine's. But too the meat!--------->

A friend of mine, when he found out that I was an AAAS major, asked, "So did Chris become the typical African-American Studies major?" My response was, "there's an AAS archetype/stereotype?" Apparently so. Or at least I suppose so. I'm not upset by that, because that requires an admission of a black intellegentsia--somewhere--that whether he agrees with the premises of that intelligentsia, he has to acknowledge its existence, thereby acknowledging me as a member of the "talented tenth." (Did I forget to mention that my friend is a moderately conservative, white Republican?) Anyway, so I thought to myself, if I were the one who told him of my major, what would he have said to me? I think he would have asked something along the lines of "why?" So here it is:

I can't imagine surviving as a black person in America without at some time or another examining my identity. White people don't share that anxiety. There is no question of whiteness--despite the existence of whiteness studies, which is an attempt to problematize whiteness in the same way that blacks have problematized their negrescence--it is an accepted fact. There is no standard of whiteness. Despite thousands of years of art, cultural development, and recorded history, whiteness is maleable and virtually transcendent of the racial signifier that is "white." Blackness doesn't have that. Not in America at least. When I go to class, I learn about the triumphs of western civilization. My classes glorify the tyrannical nature of western expansion. The enlightenment is seen as an era of intellectual growth; as opposed to the period that produced western racism and dogmatic white supremacy. The Greeks created philosophy; rather than Greek philosophy being a product of Greek conquest in Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. We laud western civilization in American schools rather than critique it, more often than not. The western world is designed to reaffirm the whiteness of every white person that is fully immersed within it. Which, to me is...okay(?). I'm not complaining about the fact that white civilization actively promotes and affirms white identity. What should I expect? But when white people hear my major and ask me, "what are you going to do with that?" My first thought is, "how can you believe that an active, scholastic, search for identity is an impractical endeavor?" The successes of white students over black students in America just might be, in part, a result of an undefined identity. A certain dissatisfaction with whom one is and can become. True, white people can REdefine their identity; but the fact is, it has been defined once--if not numerous times--already. Black people do go to college to learn, but every adult will admit that college is just as much about education as identity assimilation. It is designed to put you in a successful frame of mind. To mold you into a confident, intelligent human being. And I find it sad and oppressive to think that so many people don't understand the importance of tracing my...identity.

Here is a compelling metaphor. A black man in America is a human on Mars. Sure, presuming that Martians are humanoid, a human could get along on Mars. You could learn Their history, Their culture, assimilate to the way They do things; but that won't get You through the day. At the end of it all, you still have to come to terms with the fact that you are not a Martian, but a (wo)man. And that that reality must be realized, recognized, and accepted by the Martian world for you to be comfortable living there. If Martians wore boots on their ears (and I don't mean earrings) and expected you to assimilate, you might not like it. But given 400 years, you wouldn't think twice about it. There would be a loss, that once discovered, would have to be unearthed in its entirety. You must be developmentally satiated to survive life in a foreign environment.

I know...I'm an "American." I was born here, I live here, and I'll probably die here. But the fact is nobody has said what that means. And if they did, I wouldn't agree. I don't like dogmatic definitions of identity factors. While I may be American by birth, we still haven't had a president who looks like he could be related to me. When I make moves to pursue my future, I do it through people who see my skin color first--and my work and ideas second. When the world thinks about Americans, they know that there are black people--hell they know there are indigenous people, but they imagine white flesh. Part of the reason they integrated the military during Vietnam is because the Viet-Cong wouldn't shoot black soldiers. (Divide and conquer?) Imagine sending segregated black troops into an occupation in Africa. Who would the black soldiers sympathize with? Am I an American? By the text book definition yes. Am I an American in reality...not yet. With problems like white flight, privilege, supremacy, I'm at an integrative loss. I can't integrate into a society that doesn't want me as me. I can't assimilate into a society that tells me that assimilation equals glorifying the past of their forebears--but mine were immaterial, inferior, and primitive. For all of your intellect, Chris, I'm more afraid of you than admirous of you. I would rather shun you than compete with you. The world I live in DEMANDS me to find me. If I can't learn it the same way that white people learn their identity--everywhere--I'll learn how black people learn their identities--anywhere.

Can You Taste the Bitterness?

There was a guy on another blog I post to who was writing about Michael Moore's movie "Sicko"--the link is connected to the title above. He was discussing how f***ed up Americans must be to allow the kind of corruption that exists in American politics and business. He went on to say that both the media and politics have sold themselves to the corporate world. So...I couldn't resist the urge to reply. And here it is:

I once wrote a blog entry about the town I'm living in. It was a rant. I referred to it as: "A petit-bourgeoisie society with a 1960's hangover."

My point is, after Reagan, America resigned revolutionary actions to the past. Post-Reagan politics have been about portraying America as THE model of democracy and success, even if we can't get our domestic stuff straight. It's not that our politicians our liars...it's that they're in politics. They don't work for what they believe in, they work to get re-elected.

Politics isn't a convocation anymore, it's a business--not a calling.

In the first generation after America's "founding" the "founding fathers" had jobs! Politics was their pasttime. They practiced politics part time, and did other stuff full time. America didn't have full time politicians who were paid gross amounts of money to debate crap that's not really very debatable. How do you argue against universal healthcare...really. Other than the fact that it's a socialist program in a quasi-democratic state (which isn't mutually exclusive despite the ignorance of many Americans), why would anyone be against it. The only answer is because capitalism comes before democracy. America has been, since its inception, less about what is right than about the right dollar.

Take the 3/5 clause in the constitution for example. The only reason it exists is because they didn't want southern cash to take a hit. Many of the "founding fathers" owned slaves, which they released upon their deaths. One of them, Madison, was adamantly against slavery. If it had been up to him, everyone would have been free after the "American Revolution".

My point is, C.R.E.A.M. applies to politics just like it does our lives. America is a fucked-up-repugnant nation because we have misappropriated our energies. We are the wealthiest nation because we put energy that should be given to our neighbors into ourselves. We've sold the soul of the nation for money, and there's no sign of change. We decided that revolution belongs to other countries, with "dictators," like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, countless African nations, Cuba, and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez...but we're controlled by a post-Reagan legacy of dictatorial manipulation. We're taught to believe that we HAVE TO vote democrat or republican. We're raised in families with ties to one or the other. We pay them! our politicians, to be partisan rather than American. And it's all b******t.

I'm ranting on your blog. Ignore me anyway. I'm a "Black Nationalist" revolutionary type. The media doesn't like what I have to say anyway. And you do whatever the media says right?

The N-Word

So, the NAACP recently buried the N-word.

I would like to give an unenthusiastic cheer for the talented tenth. You have truly saved me from the harsh realities of being a black, male, hip hop head in America. Now that the N-word is symbolically stricken, I guess the cultural myopia I continuously face will come to an end.

For all intensive purposes, the "n-word" will now substitute n***** and n****.

I recently read an opinion piece by critic (and hip hop antagonist) Stanley Crouch (article). The article is entitled Good riddance

Burying the N-word, driving stake through the heart of hip-hop's demons

Although very catchy, the whole "driving the stake" thing would be more applicable had the current hip hop generation been actively engaged in this issue. We can easily look at figures such as Chuck D and say that there are prominent artists who are contributing, however, even Chuck knows that there are generational differences in hip hop. I applaud Crouch in his desire to consistently castigate whenever possible, but in all honesty, disrespect didn't start with hip hop. We can bury all of the negative words we want, but as long as people can begin a sentence with "yo mamma..." somebody's feelings will get hurt.

The burial of the "n-word" will help a lot of people sleep well, but it will also hinder an understanding of the business of popular culture. In the aftermath of Imus vs. Rutgers, record industry execs met to discuss the use of offensive language in rap albums. During a Rapsessions Town Hall Meeting (which aired on C-SPAN), T. Sharpley-Whiting called the meeting a "moment of White supremacy culture, patriarchy, and capitalism coming together to discuss black women’s bodies". At the end of the day, that's what it came too. Finding ways to justify moral crusades against art is like pouring water out of a boot with instructions on the heel. There must come a critical look at the business behind the art. As much as we argue about hip hop and art, the business aspect has been there since Kool Herc's sister was throwin' parties back in the day.

Crouch also notes a comment made by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick:

"we are not just burying the N-word, we're taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all of the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the pimps and the ho's that go with it."

One would be hard-pressed to think that one generation will get rid of centuries of pimping. Sure, it sounds good, but where would America be without the pimp mentality (google Beth Coleman's essay "Pimp Notes on Autonomy").
Finally, rappers do need to step their intellectual game up; but so do hip hop fans and critics. In the Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. DuBois writes "[w]ords and music have lost each other and new and cant phrases of a dimly understood theology have displaced the older sentiment". With the burial of the n-word, we have found yet another topic to store in Black America's closet of sacred cows (just below colorism, and 3/5 of an inch above O.J. ). This event should not be used to escape the contradictions of black life. It sould be used to address the "real" concerns of the community. We should see how education, arts, and commerce all make the "n-word" real.

A Letter to a Government Official

I sent this letter to Charlotte, NC mayor Pat McCrory after he had this to say about black youth:

"too many of our youth, primarily African American, are imitating and/or participating in a gangster type of dress, attitude, behavior and action."

Here's my letter:

Mayor McCrory,

I'm not in the regular practice of writing e-mails to government officials. I usually don't consider it necessary. I don't even live in North Carolina, but I've been keeping up more with politics because I feel that it is important to do so. Needless to say, I came across your comment in regards to black youth and took note of your attitude towards apologizing. I think that what you had to say about my generation of black youth was despicable. Your treatment of Hiphop culture is offensive, and I would like to establish a brief dialog with you in hopes that perhaps I can convince you of your wrongdoing.

I'll be the first to admit that under normal conditions I would be far more...aggressive in my expressions of discontent, but whereas I am trying to establish dialog--and it is better to attract bees with honey--I'll restrain my typically militant tendencies, and merely speak to you as I would anyone that I honestly believed was worthy of my attentions.

As an example of what I would like to note about your statement, I want to explain what your indictment sounded like to me: your characterization of Hiphop style and culture as cultural gangsterism hearkens back to the long-standing characterizations of black men as "brutes" and "bucks." The approach you have taken to Hiphop culture is extremely reminisceient of the writings and speeches of American Nazi party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. Similar statements about black people, men specifically, have been made by racists throughout America's political history. The statement you have made aligns you with people like Rockwell and Trent Lott in the minds of black people--and any white person who heard what I heard behind your statement when I read it. There is such a thing as latent racism, and I can more than see it in you by your statement.

It is my firm belief that most politicians desire to cleanse their spirits of racism. I would hope that you would like to. For that to happen, it becomes imperative that you see what you have done wrong. And whether you apologize to the black constituency in North Carolina or not becomes irrelevant to me as long as you learn from your mistake and learn to articulate what you truly mean in a way that does not demean an entire populace.

You're better than that Pat McCrory, and only by choosing to be above sweeping indictments and mild forms of racism can you help to bring about the kind of racial harmony that was once America's dream. I hope you're listening.

Sincerely,

Chris De La Cruz

The angrier version of my comments appears in my personal blog. But I thought that the Black Tuesday crowd might be interested in my little side project. I expect to receive a half-hearted e-mail from his secretary telling me that he meant no offense and blah, blah, blah, he's not apologizing and doesn't feel that he's wrong. Regardless, this should be interesting. I've never tried to discuss anything with a government official. I'm not fond of politicians, but I hope there's more to them than bs. There's flesh in there somewhere.

Oh, and I do not have any intention of posting his e-mails (if I get any) on here. That would be wrong, even if he is a public figure. But if he pisses me off...

Just Read This

(to read the associated article, click on the title)

I am completely against American mythologizing of history. Romantic notions of both the "founding" (raping) of America and the "Gone With The Wind" and "Song of the South" spin on ante-bellum America make me just as sick as white and black bullsh*t concepts of the Civil Rights Movement. Even I, at times, fall into the trap. But I think that the link I'm giving might help whomever a little to free their mind of lies and spin.

I'll say this a million times: history is linear. At no point does it completely fracture so that the time line itself ceases to be a single history. Africa's pre-colonial history is just as much of the global narrative as China's, India's, the Aztec's, Mayan's, Olmec's, and Europe's. The appropriate timeline is global in concept. Not regional. We are learning history wrong. Nothing in history occurs in a vacuum. It all goes back to someplace or something. That being said, the Civil Rights Movement didn't "begin" in the late 50's and "end" in the late 60's. It began when Africans were first brought to America, and ends whenever the dreams of the African slave are fulfilled. So, what congress is talking about doing is exactly the same thing we've done to historical figures like Christopher Columbus, and George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. We're creating clear-cut binary figures of good and evil, when that has never been real. We need a postmodern perspective of history for our people, American people, all people to grow up mentally healthy. Read it, and decide. Speak out, think in.

the black student

(to read the associated article, click on the title)

I set up my personal blog so that it would be easier to check the news for relevant black issues. Today I came across news about black graduates in X state. I really didn't care about the state, because black male dropouts are a nationwide phenomenon rather than a regional one.

When I was in the 8th grade, there wasn't one black male graduate in my hometown. That is a fiasco. It is a failure of the school system, and more so a failure on the part of black culture. No matter how racist a school system is, it takes genuine disinterest to just drop-out in a society that requires a high school diploma for even the most remedial of jobs.

I realize that there are no black parents that want their children to dropout. But there must be someone other than the school system that has to take responsibility for establishing a sense of dedication and will in a child. You don't have kids, you raise them.

I also realize that countless black parents are incapable of spending a lot of time with their children because they are forced to work multiple sh***y jobs just to get by. That's systematic: but just because the parent is trapped in the system doesn't mean the children have to be. If black parents today would show the kind of dedication to education that black parents had fifty years ago, we just might be better off.

Here's how I see it: The Black Power movement gave us something we desperately needed and we bastardized the message and robbed ourselves of something equally necessary. We needed our pride, we need a strong sense of history, we need to know that the school is structured for white kids and that if we want to know some Truth...we can't get it there. But the lies in school are no excuse for ignorance. If you aren't learning what you want to learn in school, don't choose to be stupid. Use that thirst for knowledge. Go to the library. READ A MUTHAF***IN BOOK!

I have to question whether black parents are doing what they need to do to create that thirst for knowledge in their children. I'm not sure how my mother pulled it off. I know plenty of black parents who were able to do just as well as my mother in far worse conditions. I suppose it's all in the attitude.

Don't confuse it, you can be militant and intellectual, but being militant and stupid makes you a pawn. The question is: is my generation a generation of pawns to be used by the racist, military-industrial, capitalist machine; or is my generation to grow and become a class of strong, intelligent, autonomous black people capable of dethroning the power-structure that has long kept our people under the yoke of oppression.

You cannot stop what you don't know exists. Learn something.

And to my black brothers who are getting an education: If you aren't doing anything for your people after you get that cash...you might as well put on some white gloves and cork. And I mean that!

Reversing the Revolution

This is my first post on the Black Tuesday Blog...hopefully you'll like it: actually, I hope you don't.

In a recent search of google news I discovered that the Supreme Court has voted to eliminate affirmative action programs in the public school system. This is only years after the windfall decision to eliminate affirmative action programs in all public instituions of higher learning. What this means for anyone who is not a white male--and in primary school just white--is that now, thanks to the glories of white flight, good schools can no longer give you entrance into their school for the purpose of creating diversity. Without directly saying it, the Supreme Court has singlehandedly rejected the importance/relevance of an ethnically diverse student body to a rounded education. To the rest of us, non-white people, that means that the ignorance that somehow survives the already "diverse" educational system will only get worse. Get ready for it.

Under normal conditions, as a "black nationalist", the idea in and of itself doesn't bother me. I've long thought that it was a stupid idea to bus black kids out of their neighborhoods to go to school with a bunch of white kids, without first improving the schools that remain in the black community. If the government doesn't improve the inner-city public school system, how does integration really benefit anyone. So granted, integration didn't do anything but make sure white kids knew a few black kids. Good. Okay. We're on the same page. The problem with the Supreme Courts decision is multi-faceted: It eliminates the only real benefit that came with integration--an answer to the ignorance component of racism (to the detriment of the long traumatized black children who integrated, but that's beside the point), it results in de facto segregation--the long-standing way of the North--thanks to the post-Civil Rights white flight phenomenon (which has actually existed as long as n****'s been free), it cripples the very root of the Civil Rights movement--Brown v the Board of Education, and it sets the tone for a reversal of all of the economic and political progress that had been made in the last forty years.

What I want to emphasize is the Brown v BOE decision and the economic and political progress component of my thinking. Look at it like this: Brown vs the Board of Education was meant to prove that segregated schools were mutually detrimental to both black and white students. Racially segregated schools are inherently unequal. That is still the case today when you look to inner-city schools versus suburban schools. Even with de facto segregation you can still observe the disparity between the white haves and the minority have-nots. By suddently arguing that it is more important to return to region-based student selection (which is likely to be what it becomes) than it is to use race-based student selection, the doors are opened to treat regional racial demographics as the ultimate out for white communities who don't want blacks. What will inevitably happen, is that black parents who want their children to get an education in predominantly white communities will have to prove that their children are academically superior enough to be around the white students--thereby affirming white superiority--and find their own way of getting there--because the government will inevitably no longer bus a bunch of minorities from the inner-cities to outside communities for their education. If the government were to invest in poor communities, it wouldn't be so bad. But they won't. Nothing will change except demographics, and whites will have all the reason in the world to reduce integration to pure tokenism. (As if it wasn't that way already.)

My other main point is this: over time, twenty/thirty years or so, the inferior education of inner-city schools will reach the point that it will again become a 1950's style academic divide. It is a statistical fact that the more educated an individual is, the more likely they are to vote. By leaving all of the minorities in communities which are notoriously non-voting, and then under-educating those children, when they become adults, there will be an entire generation of lost voters. You've disempowered an entire generation of minorities by one single action. You've also economically disempowered an entire generation of minorities by one single action. This is not to suggest that the world is better because a few black kids get into white schools, but rather, the world is worse when very few minority students, from academically inferior communities are rejected entrance into academically superior communities simply because conservatives have found a way of spinning things to make it sound like race-based affirmative action is discriminating.

I'll end with this thought: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE-DISCRIMINATION!!! Reverse-discrimination is a neo-conservative, white privileged tool of establishing an undeserved victim status to a race of people who have been, and continue to be, collectively, empowered. Conservatives use "reverse-racism" to point the finger away from themselves and blame minorities for their inability to re-establish their global superiority. Reverse-discrimination is white people upset that they don't get their privileges and minority empowerment tactics. They don't want to pull their hand out of the cookie jar. They're standing up screaming, "N*gger get your hand out of my pocket!" But telling us that if we don't we're racists. Okay.

It's not that I don't understand their logic. Meritocracies sound nice on paper, but doesn't equality come first, and a merit-based society second? I think that the conservative movement is destroying the world for black people (in the Malcolm X sense of the term black). True, it is due time for race-based legislation and codes to be abolished, but it is the failures of society that have perpetuated the need for such legislation. Change society, then the laws. Stop reversing a revolution that has yet to be completed!