Professor Howard blames the values ​​of the father of the murdered child in the Carmelo Anthony case

A professor at Howard University is saddened by the statement about the victim made by the father of a child who was recently killed in Texas, Austin Metcalf, arguing that the child's death “did not start with the knife” used by Carmelo Anthony but instead the father's style as a parent was to blame.

Dr. Stacey Patton, a professor at Howard University's School of Communication, wrote an opinion piece titled “Dear Jeff Metcalf: Your Son Is Dead Because You Failed to Teach Him That Black Boys Have Limits” on Substack on Wednesday, in which she asserted that Anthony was defending himself.

“You FAILED to teach your boy that Black children have boundaries,” Patton wrote. “You FAILED to teach humility, self-control, or the sacred truth that someone else's body is not your power. You FAILED to teach him that another child's place is not a challenge to be overcome. You FAILED to teach him that “community” does not mean that white boys are the ones who have to choose who can be among them and who is not.

Patton's piece was published a day after Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison for Metcalf's murder. The case drew national attention after the now 19-year-old Anthony stabbed 17-year-old Metcalf in the heart during an argument at a high school assembly in April 2025. The case has become a landmark in the broader debate about race, with Anthony's supporters arguing that he was treated differently because he is black, while critics have rejected the murder. race.

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“You have OBVIOUSLY failed to teach your son that touching, confronting, choking, tasing, or being the police can have consequences,” Patton wrote. “And you failed to teach him that the same world that cheers white boys on for being brave and aggressive won't always be there to save them when they make the mistake of holding back on someone else for approval.”

He criticized Jeff that Anthony had failed his parents in his decision to kill his son.

“It's easier to stand in court and call Carmelo Anthony a failure than to admit that Austin's death did not start with a knife,” Patton wrote. “It started with every lesson that told your son that he had the right to approach, challenge, and cross the line. It started with every adult who smiled at the merits of the white boy and called it leadership. It started with every cultural script that taught him that Black boys are the ones to be feared, but they never taught him that Black boys can be feared.

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Jeff Metcalf talks about the stabbing of his son, Austin Metcalf, at a high school reunion. (Jeff Metcalf)

He also alleged that Jeff's victim impact statement was based on racism, telling Jeff that Anthony “doesn't belong” in society because of what he did.

Patton wrote: “You are not part of this community” is not just a passing father's grief. “It's a declaration of removal. And it's the language of someone who believes they have the authority to decide who stays, who should disappear, and whose presence pollutes the social order. Like father, like son.”

“Your words come over centuries of Black children being told they don't belong in white schools, neighborhoods, playgrounds, pools, churches, churches, white organizations, white ideas and white definitions of innocence,” Patton continued. “They came upon all the Black boys. This country has become a threat before he had the chance to be a child.”

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He said his son was not the only victim in this case and Anthony's family was also in pain.

Jeff Metcalf stands with his son Austin Metcalf, a junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, who was stabbed in the chest during an altercation, allegedly by 17-year-old Carmelo Anthony of Frisco Centennial High School. (Courtesy of Jeff Metcalf)

“Austin is dead. Your family is devastated,” Patton wrote. “That's important. Carmelo Anthony is alive but he's trapped inside the racial ideology that condemned him. And that's important, too. Two families have suffered. And the whole country is using this tragedy to rehearse the same old script about black guilt and white innocence.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Patton defended his opinion by saying that he “criticizes the power of race” and said that he is not “blaming a dead child, attacking a grieving father, justifying violence, and rejecting the legal system.”

“My argument is simple: Black kids are kids,” Patton said. “They are not monsters because white Americans need one, and their humanity should not be discussed because the decision has been made.”

“Now, run and feed your propaganda machine,” he added, declining to answer several questions from Fox News Digital. “I'm sure you're hungry to mutilate another Black woman. That's my statement.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Howard University and Metcalf's family for comment.

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Patton's Substack episode is the latest in a growing chorus of voices calling the killings racially motivated.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, asked on her podcast whether Carmelo Anthony's race played a role in his conviction. Crockett questioned whether Anthony received a fair trial, spreading the false claim that all jurors were white and that would have affected their ability to be impartial.

“I'm not really convinced — not that I can tell you the name of a single person on this judge — that we had 12 non-white people in Collin County sitting in this black man's court,” Crockett said.

Crockett also suggested that black mothers face far greater pain on a daily basis than the victim's family.

“Black women, especially black women with black men's children, live in fear and pain every day,” she lamented. “The fear and pain I promise the Metcalfs probably never spent a day living that way.”