Black Tribalism

Karmelo Anthony’s people rallying to his side is no surprise at all

Karmelo Anthony fatally stabbed Austin Metcalf over a disputed seat at a Frisco, Texas, track meet earlier this month. “This was not a race thing,” Jeff Metcalf immediately said of his son’s murder. But the black community disagreed and rallied to support his son’s killer.

There is little doubt of guilt here. Being asked to move out of a seat is not a self-defense situation. But to blacks, it is. The 17-year-old is now the new Rosa Parks. Anthony’s family has raised over $500,000 for his legal defense thanks to black support.

As one donor said on his fundraiser page: “When I was Karmelow s [sic] age. I would have had to get up and not say a word. God bless this young man.”

Another donor wrote: “This is for justice and equity. I am donating because this country is inherently racist and has not treated people of our skin tone fairly. This does not make up for legacies of racism and white violence, but it is a small ripple in a larger fight for justice.”

And another frankly didn’t care how the family spent the money: “Donating again until Karmelo is free. I do not care how the money is used. I am not concerned with the comments of pocket watching tethers, coons, nor any other anti-Black racist. Keeping the family in my prayers.”

Black Twitter shares this lionization of Mr. Anthony. His victim is treated as a racist bully who got his comeuppance. Viral memes mock Metcalf’s death and his family.

This may shock white observers. How could people hear about this story and come to the conclusion that Anthony was in the right? Who stabs someone over a seating dispute? And how could blacks insist that it was a race thing?

This boggles white minds because they don’t understand black culture and norms. Blacks, unlike whites, are tribalistic. They rally behind their own against racial outsiders. They collectivize these cases while whites individualize them. They also view seating disagreements and other minor slights very differently from whites. These can be grounds for murder in their bizarre form of honor culture.

Blacks will regularly defend their own who are clearly guilty of vicious crimes. The most famous example is O.J. Simpson. The evidence undoubtedly proved that Simpson killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. But blacks felt the former football star was framed by racist police, so he was exonerated. Black women on the jury browbeat their peers into agreeing into a not guilty verdict. The rationale was that Simpson was their “brother” and they wanted to pay back the system for acquitting the officers involved in the Rodney King beating. The verdict shocked white America. How could a jury acquit a man so obviously guilty? They didn’t get black tribalism at all.

This tendency has only gotten worse since the George Floyd Revolution. A Florida jury in 2021 tried to hand out a lenient sentence to a black man who brutally murdered a white woman in a home invasion. It was murder, but black jurors felt the defendant, Dayonte Resiles, deserved only manslaughter charges because he was a young black man. They accused the non-black jurors of racism for considering the stiffer charges. The verdict was scuttled by the mixed-race Puerto Rican forewoman who felt the defendant was guilty of murder.

At least in this case the jury felt the defendant was guilty of something. In another 2021 trial, a South Carolina jury found Devon Dunham, a black man, not guilty of murdering a white retired fire chief. Dunham claimed the victim startled him when he approached his vehicle, and this justified shooting the white man to death. That convinced what was likely a majority-black jury to acquit.

I’ve covered many other examples in the past. It’s a common occurrence and it will impact Karmelo Anthony’s trial. If there are a number of black female jurors, his chances of a mistrial or his charges being downgraded are pretty high. There’s even a chance he could be found not guilty. Tribalism is his best bet for staying out of jail.

Blacks with a hood mentality also feel stabbing someone over a seat is perfectly normal.. Giving up your seat in the ghetto would establish you as a punk that others can walk all over. Everyone will take advantage of you in this version of honor culture. The only answer is to resort to violence to let others know you aren’t a punk. It also explains why some blacks shoot each other over getting their shoes stepped on and other “disses.” These are insults that demand a response. While Anthony may not have been living in the hood, he imbibed the mentality.

This is completely alien to how suburban whites operate. A seat dispute could lead to harsh words, but no one would think to stab each other over such a triviality. There’s nothing lost in giving up a seat. Reason and good sense prevail. If someone steps on your shoe, you say sorry and the matter is done. No one needs to kill over their honor. Middle-class whites abide by different rules and norms than those of the hood. Austin Metcalf was a victim of this culture clash.

Anthony wasn’t just standing up for his own individual “honor”–he was standing up for the honor of his race. Metcalf’s seat request was doubly offensive because he was white. The young athlete wasn’t a mere individual. In the eyes of Anthony’s black supporters, Metcalf embodied all the evils of white America. By virtue of being white, he was a lyncher and a Klansman. Anthony struck back against white supremacy with his knife. They collectivize the stabbing, seeing their race in Anthony and their enemies in Metcalf. That’s why they donate to the black youth’s fundraiser.

Normal whites, like Jeff Metcalf, can’t comprehend this. They just see it as a matter between two individuals. Neither represents any larger group. One individual did something very wrong, and justice must be done to him. Reason and logic make this an open-and-shut case. There are a few delusional whites, such as Tim Pool, who buy the bogus theory of “self-defense.” But they are a tiny minority. Most whites see this as an unjustified murder, regardless of whether they acknowledge the racial element.

It is a sign of progress that whites don’t fall for black distortions about the case. If this had happened in 2021, Anthony may not have even faced charges. He would’ve certainly received more support from the mainstream media. The country was in the grasp of Black Lives Matter propaganda, and was more liable to believe the lies of his supporters. Now, only blacks (and Tim Pool) believe Anthony’s ridiculous defense.

But that still may be enough to prevent justice. If black tribalism dominates the jury, Metcalf’s family will be denied a righteous verdict.

White Americans would prefer every other group adopt their individualism and norms. But other groups prefer group-based outlooks and norms alien to the Anglo-Protestant mainstream. The murder of Austin Metcalf should serve as a wake up call to whites. Not everyone thinks and acts like them.