Railroad

“Go back to the railroad”

The one that you took credit for?

When we were the ones carrying the load

Sweat dripping out of every pore

A waste, what was all that work for?

Treat us and our families like cargo

Give us the TNT to make the mountain blow

Pay us half of the others’ wages, though

You drink up the profits earned

While we mourned

You gained

While we spent and left and lost so much to get in

We didn't even get to bury our family before you put us on our ships and drove us out again

We gave you tea, silk, and porcelain

How did you thank us? You drugged us with opium

Then you started two wars after we threw it in the ocean

You just didn't like that we fought back

Because you were killing our citizens

There's no more head tax

So you find another way to give us the axe

Born on the eastern side of the tracks

So you go through with the attacks

Blame it on our race when you won't wear a mask

“Kung flu, China virus"

It's not just a joke when violence is what it will incite

It's not funny when a boy and his father are slashed in the street because you chose hate over insight.

They know we're human beings

Still choose to hate us more than a disease

I'm afraid to walk on the street with my family

Can't stop thinking about that day in elementary

When a kid stretched his eyes out and said he looked like me

You did nothing when the mob finds the migrants and start lynching

Burnt down Chinatown, naturalizing, excluding

Now you knife a man in the back when he isn't looking

Beat an elder until he's lying on the ground bleeding

I still remember when the name was Wuhan and not Covid

Acid in the face, spat on, insulted

Nine women killed, threatened, assaulted

Shoot five refugee children because they're Cambodian and Vietnamese

Killed Vincent Chin and you were gunning for the Japanese

Remember when you incarcerated them, even though they fought for your country?

How is that not already proof of their loyalty?

All I see is cowardice for all that talk about supremacy

You’d think after all that China would have some sympathy

Instead, they let a baby freeze to death and make the mother hold the body

So much for solidarity

I thought they’d have more respect for culture after what they did to our ancestors.

Now they're no better than our oppressors

My grandfather fought in WWII, was a veteran

My grandmother fought cancer in her colon

He is not a hunter of white women, not a yellow terror

She's not curing your "yellow fever"

You wouldn't be kissing up to her if her skin was darker

You can say "Ni hao?"

We can say "Hello!"

I don't care

I'm not going to be sized up like a piece of meat even if I'm rare

I don't like your "Lotus flower" stereotype

Sorry if I have self-respect and that means I'm no longer your type

You know in China, "Dragon Lady"'s not an insult

It's a compliment

Try speaking or reading Mandarin

If you can do it and it's fluent , then make fun of our accent

Lack of proficiency in English doesn't make you any less competent

Ironic, without us

You would have no gunpowder to wage your war on us

You would have no paper to draw your buck-toothed pictures of us

You would have no printers to publish your slurs for us

No compass to sail across the sea and colonize us

So, if we go back to the railroad,

Good luck carrying your own load.