The huge outpouring of support for Karmelo Anthony — who allegedly stabbed another teen in the heart — should scare all of us
Karmelo Anthony stabbed another teen in the heart — and for that, he and his family have been rewarded with more than $455,000.
Donors from across the country, celebrating a 17-year-old who pulled out a knife at a track meet, have flooded a GiveSendGo fundraiser set up by the Anthony family with contributions and racially provocative comments.
“Keep doing what you do, young man,” one anonymous donor of $100 wrote. “You are an antibullying hero, a scholar, and a gentleman.”
Another $20 donor, alluding to the fact that the perpetrator is black and the victim white, wrote, “US AGAINST THEM! PERIOD!”
“We are the defenders of our LINEAGE. This is America, and these flat-whiteness immigrants from all over the world has always been open ENEMIES towards FOUNDATIONAL BLACK AMERICANS from Day 1 NO MORE,” a donor comment with 23 likes reads.
The largest amount came in at $3,000, and more than 20 people have contributed at least $1,000 to Anthony, who is facing first-degree murder charges.
According to witnesses, 17-year-old Austin Metcalf tried to push him out of a tent during a track meet in Frisco, Texas, on April 2,?leading Anthony to allegedly stab the other teen in the heart.
Metcalf bled out in his twin brother’s arms, according to a police report.
Given the available facts, the outpouring of support and valorization is downright disturbing.
But it’s nothing new for the “victim” industrial complex, facilitated by social media and crowdfunding websites that incentivize people adjacent to the situations to keep fanning the flames.
Anthony was released from jail on Monday on a reduced $250,000 bond, which was lowered from the initial $1 million. During court proceedings that day, his attorneys clarified the donations were “not a bond fund” and were being used by his parents to pay their rent and bills.
The family are reportedly now living in a $900,000 home inside a luxurious gated community in Frisco.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of pressure,” attorney Mike Howard said. “I think at this point, living in a gated community, given everything, the safety of their younger children, is very warranted.”
Anthony’s family isn’t the only one cashing in on martyrdom.
Who can forget when Black Lives Matter leaders used donations to buy multi-million-dollar homes? Meanwhile, mothers of dead children have begged the organization to stop using their names for fundraising.
Another cause célèbre of the moment is fundraisers related to deportations, with one for detained Colombian student Mahmoud Khalil tallying some $557,000, while the wife of Armando Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported to El Salvador, has received more than $235,000 on GoFundMe.
But those are far less surprising. The real irony with Anthony is that he is the alleged perpetrator of a crime with an actual victim.
And yet the donations keep pouring in. “Let the racist tears flow,” a donor who called themselves Black American Lineage wrote. “WE GOT YOUR BACK BROTHER KARMELO.”
Every person is entitled to due process. Something could come out of Anthony’s trial that turns the case on its head. Nobody should be jumping to absolute conclusions until he has his day in court.
But it’s still alarming that more than 13,000 donors have decided to reward him, declaring his alleged act a sort of racial vindication,?as though Metcalf is a slain symbol of white America.
“This is for justice and equity… This does not make up for legacies of racism and white violence, but it is a small ripple in a larger fight for justice,” one anonymous giver commented.
This is part of a larger, sick trend of conflating individual victims of violence with larger political issues. Just as United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson — allegedly murdered by Luigi Mangione, who has become a folk hero to some — was seen as a personification of the healthcare system, donors to Anthony’s campaign justify celebrating Austin Metcalf’s murder by turning him into the face of white supremacy.
And it’s a racialized, politicized mess on both sides.
Donors to the Metcalf family’s own GoFundMe fundraiser, which has amassed more than $388,000 in gifts, have littered the comments with anti-black messaging and white power tropes.
That’s just the opposite of what Austin’s father asked for. Days after the incident, Jeff Metcalf took to Fox News, pleading that people don’t turn his child’s death into a race war.
“This was not a race thing. This was not a political thing,” he said. “Please do not comment if you do not know what happened. Try not to turn this into a racial thing. It was not. Do not politicize it.”
