(Verse 1 — MMIW)
The red road runs with mothers' tears
Sisters vanish into years
Amber never came home from the store
Government got a file drawer
For every pipeline, every mine
But not one minute of their time
For the daughters of this stolen land
They want the earth, not the hand
(Verse 2 — ICE / Border)
South of the line they built a wall
Now they're coming for us all
Cages for the ones who grew
The food that's on their table too
La migra knocking, 3 AM
Terror is the policy, friend
Abuela praying, niños cry
Same system, different lie
(Chorus)
And the drums beat out across the night
Black hands raised, "We told you right"
They want us all to fail
They want us all to fail
Divide the red, the brown, the black
So we don't see the same attack
They want us all to fail
But we refuse to fail
(Verse 3 — Black Witness)
Four hundred years of knowing eyes
Watching new chains, same disguise
From Tulsa streets to Standing Rock
Same clock ticking, same lock
"We told you so" ain't victory
It's grief in community
When one of us can't breathe free
None of us are free to be
(Bridge)
But what if the drum and what if the blues
What if the border ballad broke through
What if the red, the black, the brown
Put our different sorrows down
And saw the same hand on the gun
The same lie that we're the ones
Who don't belong on our own ground?
(Final Chorus)
So the drums beat out across the night
Black hands raised, "We told you right"
They wanted us to fail
They wanted us to fail
United red, and brown, and black
Now we see the same attack
They wanted us to fail
We refuse to fail