Ani DiFranco › Lyrics › Subdivision

White people are so scared of black people
They bulldoze out to the country
And put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets
And while America gets its heart cut right out of its chest

The Berlin wall still runs down main street
Separating east side from west

And nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
In the boarded up stores and the broken down houses
So they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
Just to prove they got no manners, no mercy, and no sense

And I wonder then what it will take for my city to rise
First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes
The ghost of old buildings are haunting
Parking lots in the city of good neighbors that history forgot

I remember the first time I saw someone lying on the cold street
I thought, "I can't just walk past you, this can't just be true"
But I learned by example to just keep moving my feet
It's amazing the things that we all learn to do

So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
And the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall
And my dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall
And I wonder then, what it will take for my country to rise

First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes
'Til nation's last taker succumbs to one last dumb decision
And America, the beautiful is just one big subdivision