"American Skin (41 Shots)" is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, inspired by the police shooting and death of Amadou Diallo by four NYPD police officers who were subsequently acquitted on all charges.

The performance of the song was seen as controversial and led to boycotts and a call from the then Mayor of New York for Springsteen to not perform the song. Despite this, the song was performed throughout a ten date residency at Madison Square Garden, and has been performed on a number of subsequent tours, often dedicated to recent victims of police violence.

Springsteen wrote the song following the killing of an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean student, Amadou Diallo in the early morning of 4th February 1999. Diallo was fired upon by four NYPD plainclothes officers, part of the City's Street Crime Unit (SCU). The officers had mistaken Diallo for a suspected rapist and Diallo had reached into his pocket to produce his wallet containing ID.

One officer opened fire at Diallo, believing him to be reaching for a firearm, and the recoil from the gun caused the officer to fall backwards. This led the other three officers to believe their partner had been shot, at which point they fired their weapons at Diallo. Between them, the four officers fired 41 shots with semi-automatic pistols, killing Diallo in seconds.

The four officers were initially charged with second-degree murder but would be acquitted of all charges at trial in February 2000. However unrest and indignation continued following the verdict. A wrongful death suit was brought against the City of New York resulting in an out of court settlement for the Diallo family. The case also saw more public awareness of the activities of police units such as the SCU. Racial profiling and excessive force complaints continued to grow until the city disbanded the SCU as an active unit in 2002.

"Though the song was critical, it was not 'anti-police' as some thought. The first voice you hear after the intro is from the policeman’s point of view, I worked hard for a balanced voice. I knew a diatribe would do no good. I just wanted to help people see the other guy’s point of view."

In the first episode of the Renegades: Born in the USA podcast with President Barack Obama, Springsteen stated that the killing of Amadou Diallo had led him to think about White privilege, stating that "this incident occurs and I start to think about it and I go, 'OK skin, skin is destiny', it’s like what a privilege it is to forget that you live in a particular body."

The song's verses are written from different points of view, the first verse is written from the perspective of the police officers, with the observer watching another officer "kneeling over his body in the vestibule." Much of this opening verse is repeated in the final verse. With the addition of the line "We’re baptized in these waters and in each other’s blood" being interpreted as using the imagery of Christian baptism as a plea for redemption from sins.