QUIT PLAYIN: Talk is Cheap…BUT!

BY: Vincent L. Hall

In the words of my late father, “Don’t let yo’ five dolla mouth get yo’ million dolla ass in trouble.” 

What you may hear me say in private about the senseless shooting of Charlie Kirk is different from what you will get in print, both here and on the “world wide web.” And yes, if the shooter intended to stifle, silence, or subdue the opinions of the late father and husband, the killer’s actions were senseless. 

Charlie Kirk was virtually unknown to most non-White, non-MAGA people before Tyler Robinson ascended a rooftop and took a single but fatal shot. Killing Kirk, like King and both Kennedy brothers, generally moves the fallen to martyrdom. Violence never has and never can quell the power of thoughts that become movements. 

So it perturbs me that so many of us run to the internet and do exactly what our parents taught us not to do. It has always been instilled in African Americans that we never openly gloat or show glee in the misfortune of others. Much less trivialize the loss of life.

Part of that wisdom imparted to us was based on history, and in this instance, we have a relatively recent example. A 1963 article in the New York Times should remind us. 

“Malcolm X, a leader of the Black Muslim movement, was suspended yesterday because of a speech in which he mocked the assassination of President Kennedy.

The action was taken by the group’s ruler, Elijah Muhammad, who said Malcolm’s remarks were an inaccurate reflection of Muslim attitudes. “With the rest of the world,” he declared, “we are very shocked at the assassination of our President.”

In a speech last Sunday at Manhattan Center, Malcolm said that Mr. Kennedy’s death was a case of “the chickens coming home to roost.” Amid laughter and applause from his followers in the audience, he added:

“Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.”

Yesterday, he seemed contrite. “I shouldn’t have said what I said,” he conceded. “Anything that Mr. Muhammad does is all right with me.”

Talk is cheap, but it can have some grave consequences, especially for the talker. 

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was as savvy politically and socially as any American preacher, politician, or potentate. He knew there was a line that could not and should not be crossed. Muhammad silenced Brother Malcolm for 90 days, but Malcolm’s relationship with the Nation of Islam was irreparably harmed. 

It bothers me that too many of us, African Americans specifically, are loud in the echo chambers of social media surrounding the death of Kirk. We can never lose sight of the empirical fact that we make up less than 13% of the population and that far too many of our people are locked in prison. 

Black people need to spend more time on social strategy than bane and benign bluster. Malcolm often quipped that, ”we need to do less singing and more swinging.” His message was that we needed more action than talk. 

Just in case you are too old to appreciate Malcolm, allow me to paraphrase Jay Z, in the hit song Tom Ford, from his 2013 Magna Carta Holy Grail album. The line went, “F hashtags and retweets NINJA, we need 140 characters in these streets, NINJA!” 

Everyone has the right to free speech, or at least we believed so up until roughly eight months ago. But talk is cheap, and you can’t afford to let yo’ five dolla mouth get yo’ million dolla ass in trouble. NINJA!

A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.