Generation 1.5 Lyrics

We shed our skin back in '73

The children of a stranger sea

And fixed our names to suit your speech

And our minds to dream your dreams

We grew up in your children's schools

And learned your ways and kept your rules

And watched our parents toil through life

When your dreams demanded sacrifice

We shed our skin and came out clean

And lived our lives to chase your dreams

And cast aside our foreign birth

And used your scales to weigh our worth

We shed our words to learn your tongue

As well as any native sons

And sang your songs, and played your games

And thought ourselves to be the same

We shed our skin and came out clean

And lived our lives to chase your dreams

And never thought to sum the cost

Of what was gained for what was lost

If we belong, why ask yourselves

If we're "one of the good ones", or one of the rest?

All you asked of us, we became

And we know ourselves to be the same

We shed our skin, became like you

So forgive us if we seem confused

When we're not seen, but seen instead

As the color of the skin we've shed