Making the Banned

If you could see our pain
Why would you wanna break us all the way?
Take our rights from us
Take 'em all away
But even still
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned
This the making of the banned
This the making of a people on our way
Through it all
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned

We crossed borders
But we never cut corners
Chinese migrant workers built the west in California
After the war was over
They turned to us as a source of cheap labour
'Cuz they didn't have slaves that they could order
Mined gold and built railroads fast
But they kept us out of the towns and the celebratory photographs
Low wages used to keep us low class
In '82, Chester Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act
Barring our people
Chinese skin was illegal
They drove us out in the streets and called us demons in their steeples
Killed us in the camps and in the Chinatown's
This violence isn't random,
It's just another round
We learned to keep warm in a cold land
Because luck is circumstances meeting good plans
My ancestors are workers, poets and nomads
And when we meet
Lift a toast to the ghosts who were part of the banned

If you could see our pain
Why would you wanna break us all the way?
Take our rights from us
Take 'em all away
But even still
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned
This the making of the banned
This the making of a people on our way
Through it all
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned

Dylon Dylon Dylon
We can't stand by like some pylons
While you pile on lies with smiles on
For miles on
Like tracks laid by my Chinese brothers' great-grandfathers while on
A dollar a day
Tell me what you paid for this land you arrived on?

Blankets soaked in small pox
And bibles all for their skulls
And a lot of white out for their history
Full-out assault
You see the Spanish Flu, it started out in Kansas, Auntie Em
So kick my heels then kick your face if you say "Kung Flu" again
And please excuse my French:
What the fuck's a Muslim Ban?
Divide your citizens,
It's ignorance perhaps
Or weaponizing fear,
Like when they shot Balbir Singh Sodhi from the rear
While he gardened at this gas station
Then 119 was here and Orange Man made it clear
That a red hat and white hood
Was more than appropriate gear
Good guys on both sides,
Open your eyes
Ain't no surprise, disguise their lies
Suppress our cries and cut our ties
But we all family in my eyes

If you could see our pain
Why would you wanna break us all the way?
Take our rights from us
Take 'em all away
But even still,
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned
This the making of the banned
This the making of a people on our way
Through it all
We 'gon make it all the way
This the making of the banned

Outlaw our skin, threaten our parents
Put us in camps, call us "Chinks", "Terrorists", "Foreigners"
You can never break our spirits
Or bend our bonds
We've been here, and we'll be here
Fighting together