*Karmelo Anthony‘s murder conviction has ignited one of the most heated public debates in recent memory, and Cardi B is at the center of it.
On Tuesday, June 9, a Collin County jury found Anthony, now 19, guilty of murder for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Hours after the verdict, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Jurors had the option to sentence Anthony to anywhere from two years to life behind bars.
Cardi B was among the first major voices to respond publicly, posting on X, “Wow! Just freakin wow! DISGUSTING… This is not justice, this is trying to make an example!!!” The post exploded to 10 million views, and the backlash that followed prompted the rapper to go deeper.
In an extended follow-up on X Spaces, Cardi framed her position as that of a mother first. She said she tells her own sons to always defend themselves and never allow anyone to make them feel diminished. She expressed serious doubt that Anthony walked into a tent full of football players looking to start trouble, and argued that Metcalf, who she said was twice Anthony’s size and reportedly trained in jiu-jitsu, should have taken his grievance to a coach rather than getting physical.
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She also acknowledged the complexity of the situation. “Just because somebody provoke you… if you put your hands on them, it’s still wrong. It’s illegal to put your hands on somebody,” she said, while maintaining that Anthony was cornered and protecting himself.
Cardi took particular issue with the pace of the deliberations, questioning how jurors could weigh a teenager’s future in just three hours. She called the 35-year sentence “extremely excessive” and argued that manslaughter, not murder, more accurately reflected the circumstances of the case.
She also didn’t shy away from addressing race. “It would have been so different if it was a white boy that went to a Black football player’s tent… and the aggressor was black and big,” she said, adding that she doesn’t typically make everything about race but felt the disparity was undeniable in this instance.
She closed her remarks with a sobering message for her sons, saying she would now advise them to walk away from any confrontation involving a white person because, in her words, the law offers them no protection.
Listen to Cardi B’s comments on the Karmelo Anthony case in the X clip below.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Karmelo Anthony Sentenced to 35 Years for Austin Metcalf Murder
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