By: Vincent L. Hall
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
My paternal grandfather was a real pistol. He looked half white, but everything he said was supportive of Black people. He was stern and serious about ev-er-y-thing!
When I asked him why he bought a different brand of cigarettes every day, his retort was compact but complete. “I ain’t ‘gon make no one son-of-a-bitch rich! Rich people will take over!”
Oxfam International released a report in January 2026 that supports everything my grandfather said. Ed Hall was not limited by his fourth-grade education because he always followed the money!
Listen to the headlines.
“Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to the highest peak ever, sparking dangerous political inequality!”
It went on.
“The surge in billionaire wealth coincides with the US Trump administration pursuing a pro-billionaire agenda. It has slashed taxes for the super-rich, undermined global efforts to tax large corporations, reversed attempts to address monopoly power and contributed to the growth of AI-related stocks that have provided a boon to super-rich investors world-wide.
Billions of people are being left facing avoidable hardships of poverty, hunger and death from preventable diseases because the system is rigged against them. Worldwide, one in four people face food insecurity, having to regularly skip meals.
The rate of poverty reduction has stagnated at levels broadly where they were in 2019. Extreme poverty is rising again in Africa. Political decisions made by governments across the world last year to slash aid budgets have directly hit people living in poverty and could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.”
My daughter, Dr. A.V. Birch, a college professor, read the report and shared her impressions with me. What could I say to my audience? Here is a thumbnail sketch of four suggestions she gave me.
“1) Billionaires Bought Your Country, but Money Can’t Vote. Emphasize the harm(s) of Trump’s billionaire-backed administration while challenging us to use the power that we do still have (for now) to push the country back into some semblance of a democratic state. We must begin to inch this country forward toward what it has always claimed on paper.
2) Stop Blaming THEM for Everything, While They Rob US ALL Blind! Cease and desist the scapegoating of immigrants and other groups of racio-ethnic minorities while billionaire wealth explodes. Black Americans specifically must see the bigger issues so that we shun being xenophobic ourselves and organize with other oppressed people.
3) The Rich Get Richer, The Rest Get Riot Cops. Highlight government repression of protests against inequality while protecting oligarchs. Be clear that our federal law enforcement/military agencies are basically being pimped and hoodwinked by billionaires who are expanding their fortunes and their structural power. All of us are on the menu!
4) Democracy or Oligarchy? Don’t Let the Rich Decide for You! Direct your energy toward the core question of the report. It speaks to how political power has been captured by the rich and issues a clarion call: we can’t sit idly by and let them demolish what we’ve bled and died to build.
They’re all confrontational suggestions but solidly grounded in the material reality of who wins and who suffers under extreme inequality.
For me, reading this report finally put something else Papa said to me in context. At age 14, when I overslept the 4am alarm clock ring to go to work with him, he made a declaration that I had never comprehended until now.
“Son, I don’t know how you can sleep knowing you owe them White folks!”
Apparently, the White folks he was referring to were the billionaires of his day.
Don’t sleep.
Keep your eyes on the ones we have now!
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
