I Can't Breathe

Album: Single release only (2020)
Play Video
  • Started a war screaming "Peace" at the same time
    All the corruption, injustice, the same crimes
    Always a problem if we do or don't fight
    And we die, we don't have the same rights
    What is a gun to a man that surrenders?
    What's it gonna take for someone to defend us?
    If we all agree that we're equal as people
    Then why can't we see what is evil?

    I can't breathe
    You're taking my life from me
    I can't breathe
    Will anyone fight for me?

    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh

    How do we cope when we don't love each other?
    Where is the hope and the empathy?
    How do we judge off the color?
    The structure was made to make us the enemy
    Prayin' for change 'cause the pain makes you tender
    All of the names you refuse to remember
    Were somebody's brother or friend
    Son to a mother that's crying, sayin'

    I can't breathe
    You're taking my life from me
    I can' breathe
    Will anyone fight for me?

    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Will anyone fight for me?

    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh (for me)

    Trying times all the time
    Destruction of minds, bodies, and human rights
    Stripped of bloodlines, whipped and confined
    This is the American pride
    It's justifying a genocide
    Romanticizing the theft and bloodshed
    That made America the land of the free
    To take a black life, land of the free
    To bring a gun to a peaceful fight for civil rights
    You are desensitized to pulling triggers on innocent lives

    Because that's how we got here in the first place
    These wounds sink deeper than the bullet
    Your entitled hands could ever reach
    Generations and generations of pain, fear, and anxiety
    Equality is walking without intuition
    Saying the protector and the killer is wearing the same uniform
    The revolution is not televised
    Media perception is forced down the throats of closed minds
    So it's lies in the headlines
    And generations of supremacy resulting in your ignorant, privileged eyes
    We breathe the same and we bleed the same
    But still, we don't see the same
    Be thankful we are God-fearing
    Because we do not seek revenge

    We seek justice, we are past fear
    We are fed up eating your shit
    Because you think your so-called "black friend"
    Validates your wokeness and erases your racism
    That kind of uncomfortable conversation is too hard
    For your trust-fund pockets to swallow
    To swallow the strange fruit hanging from my family tree
    Because of your audacity
    To say all men are created equal in the eyes of God
    But disparage a man based on the color of his skin
    Do not say you do not see color
    When you see us, see us
    We can't breathe

    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh

    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh
    Oh, oh, oh Writer/s: Gabriella Wilson
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Piper from Portlandin 20 years when nothing has changed we will look back on this moment as the youth of America and realize we did something during the pandemic, we got outside and made our cities and neighborhoods dirtier and more violent, we caused more division between people and we will be proud because we laid it all on the line for a habitual criminal and we can teach our children to be confrontational and perpetuate the stereotype. American youth in the hiz house
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Album Cover Inspirations

Album Cover InspirationsSong Writing

Some album art was at least "inspired" by others. A look at some very similar covers.

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat WorldSongwriter Interviews

Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.

Weezer

WeezerFact or Fiction

Did Rivers Cuomo grow up on a commune? Why did they name their albums after colors? See how well you know your Weezer in this Fact or Fiction.

Wedding Bell Blues

Wedding Bell BluesSong Writing

When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.

Eric Burdon

Eric BurdonSongwriter Interviews

The renown rock singer talks about "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors Examined

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors ExaminedSong Writing

Doors expert Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined, talks about some of their defining songs and exposes some Jim Morrison myths.