What It Means
Drive-By Truckers

[Verse 1]

He was running down the street

When they shot him in his tracks

About the only thing agreed upon

Is he ain't coming back

There won't be any trial

So the air it won't be cleared

There's just two sides calling names

Out of anger out of fear

If you say it wasn't racial

When they shot him in his tracks

Well I guess that means that you ain't black

It means that you ain't black

I mean Barack Obama won

And you can choose where to eat

But you don't see too many white kids lying

Bleeding on the street


[Verse 2]

In some town in Missouri

But it could be anywhere

It could be right here on Ruth Street

In fact it's happened here

And it happened where you're sitting

Wherever that might be

And it happened last weekend

And it will happen again next week

And when they turned him over

They were surprised there was no gun

I mean he must have done something

Or else why would he have run

And they'll spin it for the anchors

On the television screen

So we can shrug and let it happen

Without asking what it means

[Chorus]

What it means?

What it means?


[Verse 3]

Then I guess there was protesting

And some looting in some stores

And someone was reminded that

They ain't called colored folks no more


I mean we try to be politically

Correct when we call names

But what's the point of post-racial

When old prejudice remains?

And that guy who killed that kid

Down in Florida standing ground

Is free to beat up on his girlfriend

And wave his brand new gun around

While some kid is dead and buried

And laying in the ground

With a pocket full of skittles


[Chorus]

What it means?

What it means?


[Verse 4]

Astrophysics at our fingertips

And we're standing at the summit

And some man with a joystick

Lands a rocket on a comet

We're living in an age

Where limitations are forgotten

The outer edges move and dazzle us

But the core is something rotten

And we're standing on the precipice

Of prejudice and fear

We trust science just as long

As it tells us what we want to hear

We want our truths all fair and balanced

As long as our notions lie within it

There's no sunlight in our ass'

And our heads are stuck up in it

And our heroes may be rapists

Who watch us while we dream

But don't look to me for answers

Cuz I don't know what it means


[Chorus]

What it means?

What it means?????????


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Lyrics by Drive-By Truckers

  (It's Gonna Be)/I Told You So   (Somebody's Got To) Give Pretty Soon   14-Feb   18 Wheels of Love   3 Dimes Down   72 (This Highway's Mean)   A Blessing And A Curse   A Ghost To Most   A World Of Hurt   After The Scene Dies   Aftermath USA   Angels And Fuselage   Assholes   Birmingham   Birthday Boy   Bob   Box of Spiders   Bulldozers and Dirt   Buttholeville   Careless   Carl Perkins' Cadillac   Carl Perkins' Cadillac   Cartoon Gold   Cassie's Brother   Check Out Time In Vegas   Cottonseed   Daddy Learned To Fly   Daddy Needs A Drink   Daddy's Cup   Daddy's Little Pumpkin   Dancin' Ricky   Danko / Manuel   Darkened Flags on the Cusp of Dawn   Daylight   Days of Graduation   Dead, Drunk, and Naked   Decoration Day   Demonic Possession   Do It Yourself   Drag The Lake Charlie   Drive-By Truckers A World of Hurt   Easy On Yourself   Everybody Needs Love   Eyes Like Glue   Filthy and Fried   First Air of Autum   First Air of Autumn   George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues   Get Downtown   Go-Go Boots   Goddamn Lonely Love   Goodbye   Goode's Field Road   Goode's Field Road (Alternate Version)   Goode’s Field Road   Grand Canyon   Grandpa Rock City   Gravity's Gone   Gravity's Gone (Remix)   Gravity's Gone   Gravity’s Gone   Greenville to Baton Rouge   Guitar Man Upstairs   Hanging On   Hearing Jimmy Loud   Heathens   Hell No, I Ain't Happy   Hell No, I Ain’t Happy   Home Field Advantage   I Do Believe   I'm Sorry Huston   Late for Church   Let There Be Rock   Life in the Factory   Like A Rolling Stone   Lisa's Birthday   Little Bonnie   Little Pony & The Great Big Horse   Little Pony and the Great Big Horse   Loaded Gun in the Closet   Lookout Mountain   Love Like This   Made Up English Oceans   Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)   Margo and Harold   Marry Me   Mercy Buckets   Monument Valley   Moved   Mrs. Claus' Kimono   Mrs. Dubose   My Sweet Annette   Natural Light   Natural Light (Alternative First Take Recording)   Never Gonna Change   Nine Bullets   One of These Days   Opening Act   Outfit   Panties In Your Purse   Pauline Hawkins   Perfect Timing   Plastic Flowers On The Highway   Play It All Night Long   Primer Coat   Pulaski   Purgatory Line   Puttin' People On the Moon   Putting People On the Moon   Ray's Automatic Weapon   Rebels   Road Cases   Ronnie and Neil   Sandwiches for the Road   Santa Fe   Self Destructive Zones   Shit Shots Count   Shut Up and Get on the Plane   Sink Hole   Sounds Better in the Song   Space City   Steve Mcqueen   Sun Don't Shine   Surrender Under Protest   Than Man I Shot   The Boys From Alabama   The Buford Stick   The Company I Keep   The Day John Henry Died   The Deeper In   The Fireplace Poker   The Flying Wallendas   The Fourth Night Of My Drinking   The Home Front   The Living Bubba   The Man I Shot   The Monument Valley   The Night G.G. Allin Came To Town   The Opening Act   The Part of Him   The President's Penis Is Missing   The Purgatory Line   The Righteous Path   The Sands of Iwo Jima   The Southern Thing   The Thanksgiving Filter   The Three Great Alabama Icons   The Tough Sell   The Weakest Man   The Wig He Made Her Wear   This Fucking Job   Three Dimes Down   Til He's Dead or Rising   Till He’s Dead or Rises   Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus)   Tornadoes   Trying to Be The Boss   Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife   Uncle Frank   Uncle Frank (Alternate Version)   Uncle Frank [Alternate Take]   Used To Be A Cop   Wallace   Wednesday   When He's Gone   When He’s Gone   When the Pin Hits the Shell   When The Well Runs Dry   When Walter Went Crazy   Where the Devil Don't Stay   Where the Devil Don’t Stay   Where's Eddie   Why Henry Drinks   Wife Beater   Women Without Whiskey   You And Your Crystal Meth   You Got Another   Your Daddy Hates Me   Zip City   Zoloft

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