Jeff Metcalf Called Karmelo Anthony A ‘Watermelon Felon’

Tell me something . . . Why is it that whenever racists try to degrade Black folks, one of the most popular tropes they always reach for is watermelon?

Think about it. 

It’s never lychee, kumquats, dragon fruit, guava, or even a cheap Del Monte fruit cup. It’s never a charcuterie board with seedless grapes, artichoke hearts, or pâté de foie gras on a water cracker. Nope. It is always watermelon.

I’m really posing a rhetorical question here because you and I both know that the racist imagination will go digging through the same Jim Crow junk drawer every time. That’s because the racist imagination is not only violent and irreparably diseased, it’s boring, lazy, repetitive, and always on some unoriginal plantation vaudeville foolishness.

Which brings us to the racist father of Austin Metcalf, who finally broke his silence after a Texas court sentenced 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison for defending his own life. On Wednesday night, Jeff Metcalf sat for a nearly three-hour interview with Jinxed Reality/JinxedSip to talk about the conviction and sentencing of Anthony. He insisted this case was never about race, right before spectacularly and undeniably confirming that race was sitting underneath this situation the whole time, waiting for the gag order to be lifted.

“We don’t see color. We’re not racist,” he said right before obsessing over race and giving a full white grievance sermon. 

“We have friends of all diversities, nationality, ethnicities. It doesn’t matter. I’m like, God, God doesn’t see color. Justice doesn’t see color. Hate doesn’t see color. Love doesn’t see color. If you put on those glasses and you see color as an individual, you need to look in the mirror. You need to re-evaluate who you are.”

In other words, “I don’t see color,” but I see “culture,” “race cards,” “Black fatigue,” “watermelon,” and let me tell you exactly what’s wrong with Black people and prove that I can see Black people just fine.

When he was asked about the public backlash around the case and to respond to Black commentators who had criticized his family and the racial dynamics of the trial, Metcalf said that Black people had embarrassed their “own culture and race.” He told Black people not to “blame the white person” and claimed, “we all have equal rights.” He mocked “your culture” while talking about criminal records. And he called Karmelo Anthony’s parents “grifters” and suggested CPS should check on their other children.

And then, as if he wanted to make sure nobody missed the point, he reached for the oldest racist trope in the book.

“Let me make something racist up so y’all can go viral,” Metcalf said. “I got a new name for Melo, okay? Because he was such this little boy y’all was trying to portray. How about watermelon felon? How’s that one strike you?”

There it is. Watermelon felon. And with those two words, Black Americans everywhere got confirmation that we have been gaslit by a whole year of denials as Metcalf threw an entire history of anti-Black racism at a Black teenager. Those two words verified that Black folks weren’t “making it about race” or being “divisive.” 

Now, I could sit here and give you an academic breakdown about the stereotypical association of Black people with watermelons. I could talk about the jokes, coon songs, minstrel shows, consumer ads, racist postcards, lithographs, and ephemera that turned Black folks into grinning, barefoot caricatures, tearing into huge slices of watermelon. I could explain how this is all tied to post-Civil War era fears about Black self-sufficiency and how whites had to make the case that Black folks were lazy, greedy, animalistic, sexual, and unfit for citizenship.

But honestly, why bother? That would be a waste of my intellectual energy and your time. Because racists like Jeff Metcalf know the history well enough to know where to reach. He knew exactly where to reach because he told us before he did it. “Let me make something racist up,” he said. “Watermelon felon.”

This wasn’t just an insult. What Metcalf did was fuse criminality with caricature. He took “felon,” a legal label, and attached it to “watermelon,” a racist symbol, so that Anthony can be imagined as both criminal and cartoon, laughable, dangerous, punishable, and less than human. That’s the old racial script.

His own words remove the possibility of a stumble into an unfortunate phrase. He did not unknowingly invoke a racist image. He announced his intent unapologetically with a setup and punchline. Some folks will say, “Well, he is grieving.” But grief is not a racial alibi. The language was already there inside the speaker.

A grieving white father does not get to launder racism through his loss. He does not get to turn a Black teenager into a Jim Crow joke and then demand immunity because he is suffering. Black people have suffered for centuries in this country, and we are still expected to choose our words carefully, show decorum, swallow our rage, forgive, manage white feelings, and prove our humanity before we are granted even the smallest measure of empathy.

So my people, let’s go ahead, take this racism, and return to sender. “Watermelon felon” does not reveal any truths about Karmelo Anthony or other Black youth demonized by America. Instead, it exposes Jeff Metcalf and every other racist who swears they “don’t see color” while carrying a whole dusty, fetid Jim Crow museum in their mouths.

SEE ALSO:

America Still Wants To Snatch Our Black Children From The Future

Texas Reporter Makes ‘Gorilla’ Reference During Karmelo Anthony Trial

Jeff Metcalf Called Karmelo Anthony A ‘Watermelon Felon’ was originally published on newsone.com