The Murder of Austin Metcalf and The Grievance for Karmelo Anthony
The Politics of Boys and Men Part 3
On April 2, 2025, seventeen-year-old Austin Metcalf, a white male, was stabbed and killed at a track meet at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas by seventeen-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a black male. On June 9, 2026, Karmelo Anthony, now 19-years-old, was convicted of the murder of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison.
There are a number of underlying tensions that become public displays of a larger grievance framework when discussing interracial crime, especially when whites and blacks are involved. In these moments, several things are true at once, but the energies and attention of a particular case suddenly become part of ideological conditions that often lead to greater division.
But before moving forward, it is important to understand that most unlawful killings are intraracial, a crime that happens within one’s own racial group—black on black or white on white or Asian on Asian and so on. Roughly 10% to 15% of murders are interracial, a crime that happens across racial lines, black-on-white or white-on-black and so on.
Some Facts about Murder, Non-negligent Manslaughter, and Homicide1
The overwhelming majority of people (of any race or sex) will never commit murder, non-negligent manslaughter, or homicide against any person.
Approximately 85% to 90% of murders and non-negligent manslaughter are intraracial and roughly 10% to 15% of murders and non-negligent manslaughter are interracial.
Although men commit approximately 85% of homicides, 99.99% of men 15 to 64 years-of-age will never commit an act of homicide, as footnoted—some homicides are justifiable, such as self-defense.
In 2020, approximately 0.014% of blacks were arrested for murder and non-negligent manslaughter compared to 0.004% of American Indian-Alaska Native, 0.002% of whites, and 0.001 of Asians. My research and analysis are similar to that of other researchers like Heather MacDonald who testified before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives. “Blacks commit homicide nationally at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined.” She also mentioned that “blacks die of homicide at eight times the rate of whites.” This happens largely at the hands of other black males.
53% of murder offenders are between the ages of 13 and 39, according to compiled data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Data (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, see Tables 1 and 2 below).
A white person is more likely to be a victim of murder and non-negligent manslaughter at the hands of a black offender, according to FBI Data.
In 2017, 2018, and 2019, the FBI reported 1,656 whites killed by blacks compared to 744 blacks killed by whites; although, those numbers are low and only account for instance when law-enforcement could identify the race of the offender.
If data was extrapolated from the nearly 50,000 murder offenders from 2017-2019, approximately 18% of white homicide victims (8,977) would have happened at the hands of black homicide offenders compared to approximately 7.7% of black homicide victims (3,847) at the hands of white homicide offenders.
Black males account for approximately 6% of the population but over 50% of the homicide offenders with the majority of offenses being intraracial.
White males, conversely, account for about 30% of the population and account for around 22% of the homicide offenders.
In the aggregate, offenders across many races are likely to come from single-parent homes.
The Karmelo Anthony Case
With the above data in mind, the actions of Karmelo Anthony seem at odds with some of the aggregate data and in line with other aggregate data. Anthony came from a two-parent home and participated in sports, playing football and participating in track and field. Some reports listed him as a very good student, although academic records cannot be corroborated due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). As far as I know, a transcript was not submitted to the court. If true, these indicators suggest someone less likely to engage in a violent act.
Other indicators should raise some concerns. Blacks 17-19 years-of-age committed 5.42% of all murders from 2016-2019, higher than any white demographic group and nearly nine times the representative share of their population. Blacks 17-19 years of age account for approximately 0.6% of the U.S. population while black males 17-19 account for approximately 0.3% of the population. Black males are the group most likely to commit an act of murder or non-negligent manslaughter and represent 91% of the black murder offenders 17-19 years-of-age. This means 0.3% of the population represent 4.9% of murder offenders, a ratio of 16:1. White males 17-19 represent approximately 1.5% of the population and about 2.7% of murder offenders, a ratio of 1.8:1.
These indictors, however, should certainly raise concerns regarding best practices to address these issues, but they should have no bearing on the case against Karmelo Anthony. People are tried as individuals not as demographics.
Certain social media posts presented Anthony as a type of thug even though Anthony has no criminal history. In his supposed last post before the stabbing of Austin Metcalf, Anthony is seen holding a lighter and raising his middle finger—a sort of defiant gesture presented as some sort of cultural bravado but certainly not criminal in any way.
Many media outlets, including CNN, amplified the racial makeup by consistently referring to Metcalf as white and Anthony as black, often doing so with the intent to appear sympathetic toward Anthony while also presenting the murder trial factually. The articles below are examples.
“A teen was fatally stabbed at a track meet in Texas. His twin brother tried to save him” April 3.
“Prosecutor tells jury that teen’s killing at a Texas track meet was murder and not self-defense” June 4.
“Murder or self-defense? Jury swiftly decides verdict in Texas track meet stabbing trial” June 9
“Texas teen sentenced to 35 years for fatally stabbing another athlete at a high school track meet” June 9
CNN certainly made this a national story with around 15 articles or videos across its platform—as did CBS, FOX News, and ABC.
Other outlets seemed to practically clear Anthony as part of the larger commitment to grievance politics and its struggle to report on black and white crime in an objective manner.
The View has made this predominately about race in such a way that the case seems less about guilt and innocence and more about the grievance politics of our time and the anchoring to notions of systemic racism in America, even suggesting that there was racial bias in assembling the jury. The show did not mention—to the same extent—that black witnesses testified for the prosecution and that the jurors were diverse even though there were no black jurors. (Eight of the jurors were women and four were men. There were three Asian and Indian minorities on the jury).
One potential black juror said he would have a “hard time putting a brother in jail”—hence disqualifying him from the jury selection. Three black female educators were struck because the prosecutors argued they did not want traditional K-12 educators on the jury, as the incident happened at a high school track meet.
Jess Metcalf (Austin’s father) expressed his deep concern about the View’s Sunny Hostin’s who commented that she could not understand how the jury did not come to the conclusion of self-defense. She suggested not doing so amounted to a two-tier justice system. Jeff Metcalf noted that she has “no idea about the facts of the case” and encouraged the View to have him on the show, which has not happened as of the date of this post.
Oddly, there was a lack of media coverage of the potential jury members struck by the defense team. The prosecution and the defense were each allowed to dismiss 10 people. The entire focus in the media was the dismissals by the prosecution.
Why does a trial about guilt or innocence in the courts suddenly take on the hallmarks of a racial inequity framework?
The celebrity class, including policymakers, often feel the need to weigh-in on cases but are too often relying on stereotypes, false information, and grievance politics. The assumptions and arguments conflate one case with an entire oppressor narrative that too easily overlooks actual victims and individual cases.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) emphasized that the jury was an “all-white jury” even though the jury was not an all-white jury and diverse, as discussed above.
Cardi B emphasized “Just freakin wow! DISGUSTING… This is not justice, this is trying to make an example.” Her arguments hinge on claims that are rooted in preconceived notions of court practice instead of the court case itself. Karmelo is a black man and so his crime, in the eyes of Cardi B, fall into an entire class of grievances—which of course—makes it nearly impossible to ever apply justice.
Bernice King emphasized that “we cannot ignore the larger truth that many Americans are wrestling with: justice is still being administered through a system with a long history of racial disparity in sentencing and punishment.” This argument tends to conflate historical practices and individual cases as part of a larger ideological precept. But I will return to her opinion later, as it is worth discussing and has some merit.
Yung Miami emphasized that “at some point we have to stand for something… "This is truly heartbreaking to see as a black mother raising a black son. I cannot get this case out of my head. Currently using all my resources to get eyes on this. I'm challenging everyone with a voice to SPEAK UP AND LETS STAND.” TOGETHER!!!! Enough is enough. If they not killing us they throwing in jail.” The statement lacks context and reality. The overwhelming majority of black people will never serve time in jail and black people are more likely to die at the hands of other black people, as intraracial homicide is the most prevalent form of homicide across all racial groups. And, black people are not being killed by white people like some type of mass process, which is the paranoia she wants to create instead of the social realities impacting black people on the ground.
D.L. Hughley emphasized that “justice in America too often depends on the color of your skin.” This statement is much the same as the others and needs clarity.
Outgoing congresswoman Jasmine Crockett did not seem to understand the details of the case but felt the need to weigh-in, misrepresenting the weapon used to kill Austin Metcalf as something incapable of killing someone. The actual knife used to kill Austin Metcalf was a deadly weapon because the weapon caused a death (see image of the knife here at courthouse news.)
Other celebrities (like Yung Miami and D.L. Hughley) weighed-in using oppressor narratives that lack context and too often incite the type of responses that encourage misinformation and threats. (After the conviction of Karmelo Anthony, the Metcalf family received death threats with even one protestor saying that Austin Metcalf’s twin brother should have been killed too.)
Bernice King raised an interesting question regarding sentencing practices based on race when—in actuality—sex, more than race, is a determining factor when it comes to sentencing. Males receive longer sentences than females, including white males receiving longer sentences than black females.
A report by the United States Sentencing Commission in November of 2023 revealed interesting findings but certainly had some limitations because of its use of multiple regression models.
One interesting finding was the length of incarcerations. The longer the length of incarceration the lesser the disparity. For sentences longer than 60 months, for instance, white males received an incarceration approximately one-percent longer than black males, which might suggest that Karmelo Anthony’s sentencing was in line with sentencing protocols for offenses such as murder and non-negligent manslaughter.
“When probationary sentences were excluded and the analysis focused solely on the 94 percent of cases in which a sentence of imprisonment was imposed, the demographic differences were less pronounced. In particular, Black males received lengths of incarceration 4.7 percent longer, and Hispanic males received lengths of incarceration 1.9 percent longer, than White males after controlling for other factors.” [It should be noted that white males received longer sentences that the other-male’s category, bold my addition.]
“Further, these differences were concentrated among individuals who received relatively short sentences of incarceration. Among individuals sentenced to 18 months or less of incarceration, Black males received lengths of incarceration 6.8 percent longer than White males. The difference narrowed to 1.3 percent for individuals who received sentences of greater than 18 months to 60 months, and for sentences longer than 60 months Black males received lengths of incarceration approximately one percent shorter than White males.”
To put some of the above in perspective:
White males would likely receive 55 more days of incarceration for a fifteen-year sentence than black males.
Black male would likely receive 7 to 23 more days of incarceration for a sentence between 18 and 60 months than a white male.
The initial reaction by many, especially those in the celebrity class, is to have a certain empathy for the offender and to overlook the rule of law. Shows like the View are sympathetic to Anthony and almost never discuss Metcalf, except for the comment that his death is, of course, sad. Then they move right on to the grievance politics.
The grievance-politics crowd tends to acknowledge Austin Metcalf’s death but with a bit of a cold cultural shrug, as if he’s gone so let’s focus our attention on the young man being incarcerated. The rule-of-law, which in Anthony case is the incarceration for an action, is at odds with the politics of the grievance crowd. The grievance crowd sees the rule-of-law as an equitable and transmutable action and not a fixed and durable commitment with compromises, which—in this case—means the incarceration of a young man for taking the life of another young man without cause.
There is something horribly wrong with these different visions because the grievance crowd seems less interested in the rule-of-law being employed equally as it is in the rule-of-law being employed equitably. In doing so, Anthony’s action becomes tied-up in past transgressions and immutable characteristics that have no bearing on individual actions.
A person’s actions today become tied up in past, historical grievances. It’s the reason the conversations meander into the length of a knife and not the deadly consequences with the knife, the length of incarceration and not the social justification and reason for incarceration, the immutable characteristics of the jurors and less about the actions of the individuals involved, including the testimony of witnesses.
It is certainly normal to feel sad about a 19-year-old young man going to prison, but that does not excuse the importance of the rule-of-law and the social compromises that come with it.
Post-Script
Our culture will have a much harder time coming to terms with justice and the best ways to help our sons, regardless of race, thrive if we fail to encourage the male protector ethos and minimize the grievance-politics crowd polluting our culture.
In an upcoming piece, I will be discussing the need for a male empowerment movement, especially in our schools and policy apparatus.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter are crimes. Homicide is the act of killing another person that may or may not be justifiable.