An AI-generated image of late far-right activist Charlie Kirk meeting civil rights leader Malcolm X in Heaven has sparked backlash after circulating in the wake of Kirk's assassination last week.
Conservative influencer Drew Pavlou shared the image, which shows Kirk and Malcolm X shaking hands, and included the following caption:
“It’s an honour to meet you, Mr. X.”
“You’re alright for a white boy Charlie.”
Pavlou later added this embarrassing update after initially assuming Malcolm X was a Christian:
"I just discovered Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam rather than a Christian. Will keep this in mind in future."
You can see his posts and the image below.
@DrewPavlou/X
Malcolm X was one of the more prominent activists during the civil rights movement until his 1965 assassination. He believed firmly in Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the African American community, ideas he promoted in his speeches and his posthumously published autobiography.
Though Malcolm X was initially critical of the civil rights approach advanced by the late Martin Luther King Jr.—who was assassinated himself—he would not have aligned himself with Kirk, a virulent white supremacist.
Kirk once said that the U.S. "made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s," contending that the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed job discrimination and racial segregation in public places, schools and federally assisted programs, “created a beast” by prioritizing equality of outcomes over equality of opportunity, actions he claimed contributed to higher crime rates.
Notably, Malcolm X was also a devout Muslim whereas Kirk thoroughly supported the implementation of a Christian theocracy as outlined in Project 2025.
In fact, Kirk, months before his murder, linked New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to the September 11 terror attacks, saying that "America’s largest city was attacked by radical Islam 24 years ago, and now a similar form of that pernicious force is poised to capture city hall."
In short, Malcolm X believed Blacks in the U.S. would never be treated fairly because of people like Kirk.
The AI-generated image was thoroughly bizarre—and the mockery was swift.
It's abundantly clear that thinking before tweeting isn't in the MAGA playbook.
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@FPWellman/X
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