white people are so scared of black people

they bulldoze out to the country

and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets

and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest

the berlin wall still runs down main street

separating east side from west

and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse

in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses

so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps

just to prove they got no manners

no mercy and no sense



and i'm wondering what it will take

for my city to rise

first we admit our mistakes

then we open our eyes

the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots

in the city of good neighbors that history forgot



i remember the first time i saw someone

lying on the cold street

i thought: i can't just walk past here

this can't just be true

but i learned by example

to just keep moving my feet

it's amazing the things that we all learn to do



so we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter

serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water

and the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall

and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall



i'm wondering what it will take

for my country to rise

first we admit our mistakes

and then we open our eyes

or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision

and america the beautiful

is just one big subdivision