"They Want Us All to Fail

(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