Tags: Anik Khan, Immigration
“America was made from black backs and brown shoulders, yellow and beige arms we brought culture”
Queens-based rapper Anik Khan released his single “Columbus” today. The song is a direct response to the anti-immigration and racist fervor that led to Trump’s executive order banning Muslims from entering the country.
In a post he made on Instagram right before the release, Khan said “I am the son of a Muslim freedom fighter; a master degree-holding, cab-driving immigrant. I’ll be damned if I don’t have to something to say.”
“It’s easy to persecute people who are helpless,” he continued. “Come to Queens with that bullshit, I dare you.”
The lyrics to the song are haunting. In the first verse, Khan takes on the perspective of one of the first colonizers Christopher Columbus, “Even if it’s yours/I’ll take your spot/And make it mine.” In the next he goes into how America was built off the labor of black and brown people, while they never stood to benefit.
Listen to the whole track below.