Newly Revealed Histories Of Racism, Misogyny, Aggression And Violence Surrounding Both Teenagers Offer An Unsettling Look At The Culture Shaping Gen Z Boys
For more than a year, America was encouraged to see Karmelo Anthony and Austin Metcalf as opposites.
Black vs. white. The defendant and the victim. One side against the other.
Then we learned more about the two.
During an August hearing over Anthony’s request for a new trial, attorneys revealed extensive character evidence that had been kept from jurors under an informal, “Gentleman’s” agreement between the prosecution and defense to focus narrowly on what happened beneath that track-meet tent.
According to court records and testimony reported by CBS News Texas, Metcalf and his twin brother had received juvenile probation after spray-painting racist and antisemitic graffiti that included “KKK,” “Kill all Black people,” the N-word and “Heil Hitler.”
Records also documented Austin using racial slurs at school and an accusation that he bullied a Black classmate. Anthony’s defense presented a motion listing 53 alleged incidents involving Austin and his brother.
Anthony’s history was no better.
Prosecutors produced messages showing an obsession with guns, knives and fighting. In one exchange, Anthony wrote that he “f—ing despise[d] black bitches,” complained that “wig glue” was getting to their heads and followed another anti-Black slur by saying, “They need to go die.”
Other messages included “I hate gay ppl.” In another exchange, after allegedly breaking into a neighbor’s home and stealing a watch, he told his girlfriend he “might gt [go to] jail.” He also kept a note containing racial stereotypes and slurs targeting Black, white and Hispanic people.
Two teenage boys from different racial backgrounds and different worlds, yet look at what appears throughout both histories: racism, misogyny, aggression, dehumanization and violence.
Distracted by culture wars, we spent too much time looking at what made them different and not enough at what brought them together.
More Than ‘Boys Will Be Boys’
This case offers a glimpse into an already tumultuous Gen Z generation, particularly its boys.
There has always been some version of “boys will be boys.” Or what researchers call “Young Male Syndrome,” a term used to describe the greater tendency among adolescent and young adult males to engage in status-seeking, risky and sometimes aggressive behavior.
But this is not boys roughhousing, showing off or getting into the occasional schoolyard fight.
We are talking about teenagers expressing hatred toward women, Black people, gay people and other minorities while repeatedly embracing threats, weapons and violence, all while putting their words and ideas into action.
What Is Happening To Our Boys?
The Anthony-Metcalf case is another lens into American culture and society and, more closely, into the manosphere, which is a racist, misogynistic network of online spaces and social media influencers that promote aggressive ideas about masculinity, among several other things. Today’s teenage boys are coming of age inside the same digital ecosystem shaping young adult men.
The “manosphere” is a loose network of influencers, podcasts, social-media communities and online spaces built around masculinity, but parts of it increasingly package grievance alongside it where women are to blame, feminism is to blame, minorities are to blame, gay people are to blame. Anger becomes identity, dominance becomes masculinity and pointing the finger becomes easier than developing empathy.
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The same clips, memes, algorithms and influencers targeting 20-year-old men are also reaching 13-, 15- and 17-year-old boys. By the time a boy casts his first ballot, he may have already spent years being politically and culturally socialized online.
I do not know what websites either teenager visited or which influencers they watched, and their records cannot directly establish that the “manosphere” caused their behavior. But their attitudes toward women, minorities and violence exist inside a broader cultural environment that researchers are increasingly examining.
A Growing Gen Z Gender Divide
The manosphere became increasingly visible during the 2024 presidential election, as Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign deliberately pursued young male audiences through podcasts, influencers and online spaces associated with a masculinity-heavy digital culture.
And the divide between Gen Z young men and women extends beyond electoral politics.
Pew Research Center data analyzed by the American Institute for Boys and Men found especially wide gender gaps among Americans born in the 2000s on issues including homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Pew itself has documented substantial generational and demographic differences on these social questions.
The manosphere alone cannot explain that divide. But researchers, journalists and social scientists are increasingly examining whether online male spaces, digital echo chambers and grievance-based content are helping widen it.
Look Beyond The Race War
While this case can be looked at as a racial tragedy, we cannot have tunnel vision as both boys held similar views about life.
This is no longer simply, “Boys will be boys.”
Because somewhere between the algorithms, grievance politics, internet masculinity and our willingness to let culture wars distract us, we risk losing our boys before they ever become men.
Until then, good night and good luck.
