This speach was delivered on April 3rd, 1964. This was approximately a decade after the end of the Korean War which took place from June 1950 to July 1953 between the United Nations supported South Korea and The People’s Republic of China supported North Korea. this war served as a proxy war in relation to the Cold War. Malcolm is highlighting the contradiction in sending black people to fight, kill and die within a country they have no freedom, respect or equality in.

Given the time the original speech was delivered it’s likely Malcolm was also referring to the Vietnam War which was fought from November 1955 to April 1975 between the communist supported North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam. This particular war is the one in which former heavyweight boxing champion of the world Muhammad Ali refused to fight in after being drafted, as a member of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X’s former organisation he chose to be a conscientious objector based on his religious beliefs

Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.
- Muhammad Ali

an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere, here Malcolm is saying that with dedication and perseverance the aim of a cause can be reached

Negative, destructive behavior seems positive and anybody that highlights the contradiction is considered a hater

Whether being ‘fucked up’ on drugs or leading a ‘fucked up’ lifestyle, it’s become a trend

Men that could have fulfilled their potential and promote progress have been fed negativity through the media, record labels promote a certain image far removed from the positivity of recognizing a struggle, everybody wants the image of a ‘killa’, reinforcing the stereotype and promoting a negative lifestyle. The lifestyle that helps create so many killers with a gang mentality who don’t understand they’re killing for no reason

Highlighting the perceived injustice and contradiction of rappers who reinforce negative stereotypes and do little to help a cause and in some peoples point-of-view commit treason by displaying ignorance

These lines highlight the potential some rappers have and the gift of messages they could bring the world had their creative talents been driven as opposed to ‘dumbed down’

The energy and intelligence it might take to sell drugs and run an illegitimate business is done at the cost of achieving something legitimately

In one sense, we were huddled in there, bonded together in seeking security and warmth and comfort from each other, and we didn’t know it. All of us—who might have probed space, or cured cancer, or built industries—were, instead, black victims of the white man’s American social system. – Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

‘They’ may represent the perceived governmental systems of oppression or record labels who help distort the image of realness and integrity making it so that ‘realness’ loses its original definition and becomes about senseless things, likely referring to money, power, women, drugs etc.

A quote from fellow New York rapper, Nas' song The Message. As time goes by things change a people change for reasons we might not know