Originally Posted by
King Prince
Who am I?
Am I a dream or a memory?
A national symbol of what's meant to be, or simply a martyr to envoke sympathy?
I say in times when my people lack strength I'm their energy
I say this home if ours is dying, and I've been the remedy
But who remembers me?
My voice, just a whisper in the leaves
Saying this country is at war cause it never had inner peace
Pretty cool ambiguity here. Asking all these questions but we don't quite get an answer. An opening of intrigue that pulls me in as a reader to figure out where you're going. That woman in the picture, I like the violence and other themes you draw in. And then that line smashes us in real quick, it's such nice concept. A country at war in the present because it didn't have inner peace.
Ever since the ships came with plague, that left the mind of men diseased
Makes it harder to recognize the lies that the sinners speak
And lie they did
False treaties and promises
Of partnership, coexistence steamrolled by dominance
And madness its peril that follows the man who lavishes
And we have our answer to the questions. Native Americans in old America. Ships came with plague and disease. Lied and cheated. Killed and stole. No coexistence, just a simple fast takeover of the country. Partnership destroyed by one man's need to dominate everything.
But they're sadly mistaken if they take my people for pacifists
To just sit and watch you kill the land of which we feel so passionate
But our craftsmanship vs your fire and steel, we were no match for it
Victim of rape and ravage, yet it is we who were named as savage
Slayed in masses
Displaced by those unable to maintain the balance
And we sustained the challenge, as we blazed our trail with tears
Many fell, those frail, and those well in their elder years
The undesirable, sent to an unadmirable land
Yet trial after trial, we prove we will build a tribe where we can
A nation within a nation, if this is fate then we should embrace it
Never forgetting the past, never once getting complacent
Dawn your warpaint and make a statement
The course history's on, change it
Make them fear, respect, and honor your name as much as they hate it
While I wouldn't quite go as far to name one side wrong or right in the history of America (it was an ugly time); I like the thought here within this whole spot. The historical touches are nice, littered with Native American culture and events like the trail of tears. Called savages yet they were savagely ravaged by the european conquerors who themselves were brutally savage. Nice flow and rhythm here. I also like this call to war, a call to rise up in today's age.
Stand tall, a representation of the chiefs that they degraded
Let them know that blood flows in the ones their bullets evaded
Through the years I've sat, watching for the change of the tide
The day of our rise, I'm still waiting for that day to arrive
Along the way we took some grim loses, we went from windrunners to windtalkers
We were the first people here and we'll probably be the last to win office
Are we not better than this?
Settling for this "settler's shit"
Living off the privileges of a treaty while being indebted with it
Instead of fighting over football names we should be dominating football games
Give them a Spiritwolf to cheer for, let them know no one took our names
Are we not better than this?
Or is it better we remain in the dark
You say we're the biggest victims in this country and I say we're the spark.
Who am I?
Please don't tell me I'm no one.
All this talk of political correctness and the name of a football team when the Native American communities have much more serious problems that should be addressed. Strange that a football team gets all the media time rather than something idk... important? I like this. A call to rise, for Native pride. Become great rather than live for shit. What an interesting twist to the topic, though I'm not sure I'd call this fear necessarily. More loosely defined I suppose. Fear that the Native fighting spirit will disappear, itself fearing it will disappear.
