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?