For those not paying close attention, the issue of Black Texas teenager Karmelo Anthony’s alleged stabbing of high school football star Austin Metcalf during a busy track meet seems cut and dry: Anthony murdered someone and he should pay the consequences. At least...that’s what the MAGA faithful would have you believe.
“This is clearly premeditated murder,” said conservative loudmouth Matt Walsh on the Daily Wire. He implies that 17-year-old Anthony, a kid with no history of violent behavior, brought a knife to a championship track meet with the intent to kill.
We also have Terrance K. Williams, a proud MAGA shuck-and-jiver, posting videos going on and on about how sad he is that Metcalf lost his life while wearing the reddest “Make America Great Again” hat you’ve ever seen without considering that what happened might have been a bit more complex.
The story is too complicated for these simplistic takes. We should not rush to say that Anthony is completely innocent, but we also have to protect him from people who want to throw him in jail without hearing all the evidence as almost all of the conservative commenters seem to want to do.
There are three reasons why this case is far more complicated than the good folks on Fox News want to make it out to be.
What happened is likely wildly different than what was reported
Initially, we were told that Metcalf simply asked Anthony to move, and Anthony was so angered that he took out a knife and stabbed the victim. But anyone who said that is a lie and the truth ain’t in them.
Anthony’s family insists that it was raining and their son went under the tent because needed shelter. Metcalf apparently didn’t like that and confronted Anthony, leading to some kind of altercation that led to Austin being stabbed. Of course, none of us were in the tent to see what happened, but what we can’t do is allow white folks to throw a Black kid in jail without him getting a fair trial.
Anthony wasn’t a thug or a gang member. He said he felt scared and defended himself. If this was premeditated murder, then why did he go immediately to the police as soon as he left the tent? Something doesn’t add up.
The same logic that protects white citizens when they shoot unarmed (mostly Black) folks should work for Karmelo
Kyle Rittenhouse. Remember him? The white kid who shot and killed two people because they were protesting the shooting of a Black man? He got off for self-defense. What about George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin and started the Black Lives Matter Movement? Yeah, he claimed self-defense and got off. That should work with Anthony…especially in Texas.
But, of course, it probably won’t. Because...well..you know why.
Metcalf’s father said he does not want race brought up in this case
Jeff Metcalf told Fox News, “This was not a race thing. This was not a political thing. Please do not comment if you do not know what happened. Try not to turn this into a racial thing. It was not.” Except that’s an impossibility: A Black kid is accused of killing a white one. Conservatives brought race into this. We must protect Anthony and make sure he gets the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law.
This whole situation is a tragedy. Metcalf died and Anthony’s life will never be the same. But in a different era, they would have hung Karmelo Anthony on the steps of the courthouse without a second thought; with the administration we have, we need to protect Anthony and others from suffering a fate near it.