This is America
The Place I Was Born

it’s ok to be black here
as long as you don’t
complain

they let you be
hungry here
too

homeless and sick

if you protest a pipeline
going through your land
you go to jail.

this is America
the place I was born

white people
killed
20 million natives
so we could steal their land

we lynch black people
too

after we removed their
chains
and set them free

just to remind them
who we are

this is America
the place I was born

we lock up little kids
because they’re poor

we lock up lots of
people for being poor

so prisons can profit
so presidents can fund wars
so oil companies can plunder
so defense contractors can buy another politician
so poor people can die
so fear can spread

this is America
the place I was born

you have the right
to your own beliefs
as long as they’re not
Islamic or Jewish or
Agnostic, or Atheist

you have the right
to love who ever you choose

unless you’re gay
and we don’t agree

then will make laws
to remind you
we don’t approve

this is America
the place I was born

we start wars
to make money

we destroy rivers
to make money

we sell poisons
to make money

we build prisons
to make money

money is our
one true God

this is America
the place I was born

you have the right
to bear arms

the right
to shoot little kids
in schools
Jews in temple
Muslims in mosques
blacks if you’re a cop

you have the right
to be raped
to be impregnated
against your will

you have the right to
conceive with out
wanting too
the right to bear children
you can’t protect

this is America
the place I was born

I use to think we
weren’t corrupt

or racist
or bigoted
or cruel
or ignorant
or greedy
or selfish

blind to suffering

but I’ve changed my mind
we’re all that and worse

this is America
the place I was born