The White Shore

D A F#m E
F#m C#m F#m C#m
D A F#m A
D Dm A

[Verse 1]
                F#m
We grew up into lives scrawled on back of
E                            D         A
Mediated maps in their lines visibly entrapped

And this birthright more like a birth mark whose area
    F#m
And edges grow ragged with age.
    E                        D           A
A malignancy untested, it consumes us anyway
      D           A          D           A    E
It consumes us anyway. It consumes us anyway


[Verse 2]
A                      F#m                               E
I grew up near the White Shore without ever knowing that name
                                  D                        A
Just how lines starkly drawn will check you in one box or another.
                         F#m
And in the space between past and passing, we have
E                                           D            A
Classroom discussions of Amy Tan novels but this is personal.
          D           A               D           A    E
Family is always personal. History is always personal


[Chorus 1]
A                 D                           F#m
I will not condemn what anyone did to survive
                     E                          A
But I will not defend a culture that makes us decide
                    D
To assimilate or die or that defines survival as
F#m        E           A            D          F#m
Running as fast as you can from the places you came from
   E           A                D
Forgetting the things that have made us
     F#m         E           A          D
'Til all that is left is the burning in our lungs or
    E
The pounding in our hearts that only has space for
   D                                               A
Contempt for the ones who couldn't quite make it.


[Chorus 2]
                         D                   F#m
That we are all the same: what a happy myth,
                                 E
Where race records become erased records
                                  A
With time and meter to help us forget,
                         D
Or to take away the sting as we define survival as

F#m        E           A            D          F#m
Running as fast as you can from the places you came from
   E           A                D
Forgetting the things that have made us
     F#m         E           A          D
'Til all that is left is the burning in our lungs or
    E
The pounding in our hearts that only has space for
   D
Contempt for the ones who couldn't quite make it.


[Outro]

F#m F#m
E E A