Racism is as American as apple pie

And if one black man dies who's gonna cry?

Smashed and handcuffed and beaten to death

One colored boy to deal with less



A graffiti artist was his crime

Mayor Koch says New York's finest are fine



Can justice really be this blind

Is the responsibility yours or mine?



South Bronx elderly woman can't pay her rent

She's a mental case so the SWAT team was sent

Wouldn't open the door so through the window they went

Blew her away in cold blood without regret



Pregnant woman from east L.A

Asked who knocked, they would not say

Refused to answer, those sheriffs went wild

Shot her in the stomach and she lost her child



Just another police related death



Those teenage boys from Texas caught with a little dope

It was Black Freedom Day, a prayer and a hope

Sent handcuffed in a boat to the middle of a lake

The boat sank, the boys drown, precautions they did not take



15,000 police homicides in America last year

How many dents did it make in any policeman's career?

The mayor and chief cry crocodile tears

Just look a but concerned as election time nears



Two sets of laws for the rich and the poor

Look at the prisons and tally the score

Black man's chance of prison one in four

Prejudice and racism wrapped in class war



If Malcolm and Martin were alive today

How many lives of grief and pain they could relay

And how for these injustices can anyone repay?

And with what amount of sorrow can anyone convey?



How much suffering must be endured

before this social cancer can be cured?

Do color and class make one good or bad?

Doesn't prejudice and hate make humankind sad?