Downtown...
Downtown when ya Brown
Downtown when ya Brown on a Friday night
Downtown plays russian roulette with you,
but not with a second hand Saturday Night Special, nah,
Downtown when ya Brown on a Friday night
plays russian roulette with a polished
San Jose P.D. issued revolver.
One bullet for injustice,
one bullet for ignorance,
and one bullet for the self-hating, sell out,
latino cop, culero that will never bust enough mexicans,
harass enough chicanos, or beat the shit out of enough
cholos to feel equal to his caucasian counterparts.
Downtown when ya Brown, Officer Lopez is hunting
down chicanos like the terminator hoping in vain
that one day he'll wake up and be able to scrub the brown
out of his own skin, or at the very least, out of
Downtown.
Downtown...
Downtown when ya Brown on a Friday night
the muffled sound
of intolerance is drowned
out by the BOOM BOOM BOOM
of cherried Impalas
and tricked out mini-trucks
as the cat calls of oppression
are heard up and down Santa Clara Street
and beautiful Latinos strut 5 or 6 deep in
1983 midnight blue Buick Regals
with gold spokes and silver crucifixes
hanging from the rear view mirror.
Downtown when ya Brown all the sings say:
NO CRUISING ZONE,
but what they really mean is,
NO FUCKING MEXICANS ZONE.
Latinos are a beautiful people
Latinos are a beautiful people
Latinos are a beautiful people
and deserve to strut,
but the look of Brown Pride in the eyes of an
Aztlan Warrior
is too much for the good citizens of San Jose
to handle; too much for the downtown business owners
to feel comfortable with, and sometimes,
even too much for
Latinos themselves to accept.
And so at the 10th Street 7-11, Latinos are being
scrutinized
dehumanized
desensitized
institutionalized
marginalized
and reminded that in 1999 the only
good meskin is an incarcerated meskin.
Downtown...
Downtown when ya Brown on a Friday night
is no place to be
cause SJPD
will pull you over for being
Downtown and Brown.
That's right, I said SJPD will pull you over
for being Downtown and Brown
and you will find yourself in the parking lot of
McDonald's on Santa Clara and 27th
surrounded by four police cruisers
while you car is searched by two pigs in swat gear
and another cop frisks you
and I'm not talking about
those pussy fake frisks they do at night clubs,
I'm talkin' about a real muthafuckin' frisk
like they do on "COPS,"
where they tell you to put your hands on the car
and spread your legs and they pat you down so good
you think you're getting a hand job.
And if they can't find nothing on you,
awwwe shit!
Look out Downtown cause someone is gettin' arrested
for being Brown in Downtown,
someone is gettin' beat to a pulp by billy clubs in a back alley
for being Brown in Downtown,
someone is gettin' shot
for being Brown in Downtown
and everywhere, everywhere Chicanos are going down
for being Brown in
Downtown.
--Marc David Pinate
