Bombed and you slaughtered
We crossing the border
We just tryna live, ay, yea
Ain't cut no corners
You try to deport us
We just tryna live, ay, yea
Detain my father
His papers in order
He just tryna live, ay, yea
Hire my mother
And then you extort her
She just tryna live, ay, yea
We rushed to the States, in search of the Gold
Only to be in mines, working for coal
Wasn't no Dreamville, purpose was solely
To make enough to send earnings back home
Facing exclusion, violence, and hate
Kinda makes you think Why would they stay?
We built the tracks connecting this country
So how could they view my kind in this way? Look
When they abolished the practice of slavery
They brought my people in as a replacement
Had to work daily, and for low wages
Afterwards they was banned from the nation
Chinatown Massacres 1871
Hate crimes happened back way then
Smuggled us in to do manual labor
Then said Go back home to Asia
Immigrated to this vicious racist setting
Anti-Asian laws: bigots hate our presence
Thinking that we never settled on this land
When Filipinos came in 1587
And we 'gon carry this fight
That's our God-given American right
Transcending mythical stereotypes
No Yellow Peril in sight
Bombed and you slaughtered
We crossing the border
We just tryna live, ay, yea
Ain't cut no corners
You try to deport us
We just tryna live, ay, yea
Detain my father
His papers in order
He just tryna live, ay, yea
Hire my mother
And then you extort her
She just tryna live, ay, yea
In the mid-'60s, the US, they targeted all of these Marxist regimes
Called it a threat to the US security - that's a familiar scheme
Destabilize regions and then open up all the borders with welcoming arms
Attracted these Asians to cross the Pacific by promising government funds
Khmer and Vietnam, this traumatized Laos, Mienh, and Hmong
Dropped into the inner cities like US planes dropped a ton of bombs
They had no English and no pensions, so tensions rose up like a fog
Fast forward forty years and Obama started deporting them from home, Whoa
Fuck assimilating to a fucked-up nation
How could I show any love to them? They hate us
Don't respect our culture but they love to use it
Props in their movies, cream cheese in their sushi
I'm that ginseng that don't melt in the pot
They wanna exclude us in case you forgot
All these westernized Asians pretending
They toss out their heritage so they can fit in
But we just some chinks to them
Our lives are so cheap to them
Them soldiers posing next to stacks of bodies by the road in my lai
Rest in peace to them, aye
Chink in the armor, grease on my elbows
My people they worked on the railroads
Now look at me how I'm layin these tracks down
We spent way too long in the background
And I dont wanna preach but fuck it y'all learning today
I got time, I got somethin to say
They used to burn down every Chinatown
Thought we was stupid till everything changed
New immigration act only allowed in professionals
You was poor coming here was too difficult
Most of who came was privileged individuals
Don't let that make you forget the atrocities
Poverty rates of our Chinatowns
Southeast Asians who get shot by police
Refugees who saw babies sucking on their dead mamas titties
It's brutal, the shit that they seen
The shit that our government pulled overseas
While telling us they fight for peace