Wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

When the right bodies bleed red
it’s red alert on brown skin
funny head dresses and last names
Didn’t have a problem tagging along on the mehndi
meditation bandwagon
But when more than overpriced incense is burning
you want to know why the hell we ever came.

Let’s grieve for the America we used to know
Even though for some of us
burning buildings
police presence
and everyday living
have started to look the same
Even though some of us
have been used for target practice since we came.

And the woman at the store
in the shopping mall
Malled by racks of discount boutique fashion
laced with traces of an immigrants blood
says Let’s grieve for the America we used to know.

All dreams
and dollars
and safety
and peace
Pieces of apple pie
that never got divvied up to aunties and sisters
getting paid by the piece
When brown hands bleed red
it seems to get blacked out in the local press release.

When their veins popped and backs cracked
like a World Trade tower
it never made no primetime TV hour.

When bombs were going off
in heads of brown-skinned people
told to explode language and custom and myth
’cause it was dirty and backward
and might get you deported.

No one said Americans under attack
They said You can’t stand the heat in the slave-wage kitchen
get your
gun smuggling,
terrorist ass back
where you came from.

To whatever country you’re from that
don’t respect human rights
Although I see more lefts than rights
Leftover jobs you say we’re stealing
Leftover healthcare that leave our people bleeding
Leftover stereotype from Hollywood blockbuster hit
where a man in a turban threatens what’s left
of Harrison Ford’s machismo
Whoops there goes the last of it.

Now that the cameo’s over he’s hung out to dry
’cause you know there ain’t gonna be no brown folks on TV
unless there’s a bomb or yoga studio nearby.

And the television
newspaper
radio station
print front page clip of nondescript
illegal paki immigrant
to make white America feel enraged and appeased
’cause they all seem to agree
that this is a sign that it’s time to sweep the streets
of those that just can’t seem to understand
that America was built on creeds and mottos
and master-race plans.

That we should all observe five minutes of silence
at major retails chains
where brown bodies have laid down their lives
so white backs can get clothed for cheap
Blisters on fingers and extra mild curry
so white tummies can always eat.

Men in turbans
women in hijab
beaten down
detained
asked to
spell out holy names.

Make you believe murder is an import
just like dishes that are too spicy
you can send it back from where it came.

Well I have a news flash for
you
We can’t grieve for America as it used to be
as it once was
safe from murder and mayhem
before ill shit was imported
The illest murders on this soil are still celebrated
in turkey dinners
now replaced by Chinese food orders.

America was built on mass genocide
for which it has never apologized
Unlimited justice for the nation
but let’s just forget that little matter of slavery
They’ll repair every scabbed white knee
before there’s an ounce of reparation.

Eloquent speeches about the value of lives
but when it comes to freezing starving poor
when it came to Rwanda
then we ain’t so sure.

So don’t give me this
Land of peace and hope tarnished
by an Asian invasion
bullshit
When America is a nation of minefields and graves
Of civilian targets never once missed.

No one counts causalities of everyday war
That doesn’t make your globe or your star
No tribute CD
for the causalities of Caucasian normalcy.

Where is the headline saying
America Attacks?
Attacks decency
dignity
with every
back cracked
blood pact
welfare cheque held back
sacred forest hacked.

It’s not that I don’t feel for
people who died
It’s not that I don’t feel for people’s fears
But I just want y’all to remember that
while some bombs can detonate quickly
the lady liberty I know has been burning crosses for years.

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