Lyrics - American reckoning

America's on fire, there's protests in the street
Her conscience has been looted and her soul is under siege
Another mother's crying as history repeats
I can't breathe

God damn those eight long minutes
Lying face-down in cuffs on the ground
Bystanders pleaded for mercy as one cop shoved a kid in the crowd
When did a judge and a jury become a badge and a knee
On these streets?

Stay alive, stay alive, shine a light, stay alive
Use your voice and you remember me
American reckoning

I'll never know what it's like to walk a mile in his shoes
And I'll never have to have the talk
So it don't happen to you
Three little words written 'cross the chest
Of a twelve-year-old who hasn't lived life yet
"Am I next?" "Am I next?"

Stay alive, stay alive, shine a light, stay alive
Use your voice and you remember me
American reckoning

Is this a moment or movement?
Is this the tide or a flood?
Is our American reckoning
Our story written in blood?
Or in love? Or in peace?

Stay alive, stay alive, shine a light, stay alive
Use your voice and you remember me
Stay alive, stay alive, shine a light, stay alive
Use your voice and you remember me
American reckoning
In our American reckoning

-> Jon wrote this song after the death of George Floyd in America and as protest against the missing equality of the American people. He said that one of his tasks as songwriter is to witness history and happenings that move the society and then pack it up in songs. 

-> All the proceeds from the single get donated to the Bryan Stevenson's equal justice initiative

-> Jon played this song to Dorothea and she said: great verse, not a good chorus; so he had to rewrite it and played it to her again

-> Tico told JBJ that 'American Reckoning' is the right title for the song, Jon actually wanted to call it 'I can't breathe'

-> JBJ thinks that this is one of his bests songs compared to all that he's ever written and is really proud of it