We’ve done our best to turn our back, learned by heart the ways to tie a noose
Even I heard how, and I was born in 1982
We set aside all that’s right, and we left behind in the darkest night
All the folks we didn’t want next to us, or even near to us, cruisin on our avenue
We like it mean, a cowboy scene, and in the wind, The American Dream
Singing sweetly across The South, blood on its hands, and blood on its mouth
We like it rough, we like it tough, and if its blood wе owe than Jesus gave еnough
For all the men and women and children we’ve bled out, In God We Trust, ain’t no doubt
This is America
Put your hand on your heart for the American Dream
When the curtains of this night are peeled back
And we know what we’ve done in the darkness
Our bodies will choke
On the pillars of smoke
That crawl from the blazes we started
When the curtains of this night are pinned back
And the clouds are rolled up like a scroll
When the fields have all burned
But the storm has adjourned
Our sorrows, like oceans, will roll
This song’s for Walter Scott
This song’s for Emmett Till
This song’s for Philando Castile
When the curtains of this night are pinned back
And the silence is thick with a light that’s unknown
And the ashes have woven
Themselves through the ground
And the lies that were bought are now sold
When the curtains of this night are peeled back
And it’s clear what we threw on the pyre
We will shout for forgiveness
For all bearing witness
Or flagrantly fanning the fire
This song’s for Walter Scott
This song’s for Emmett Till
This song’s for Philando Castile
This song’s for Sandra Bland
Stephon Clark and Freddie Gray
This song’s for Rodney King
Michael Brown, Botham Jean
Corey Jones and Tony Green
This song’s for Martin Luther King