Jeff Metcalf, the father of slain Texas teenager Austin Metcalf, used an openly racist slur to refer to his son's convicted killer Karmelo Anthony during a podcast appearance last week, calling the 19-year-old a "watermelon felon" just days after the gag order in the case was lifted.

The comments came during a nearly three-hour appearance on the JinxedSip podcast with host Sarah Fields on Wednesday, June 10, per TMZ. Metcalf delivered the slur unprompted, framing it as a response to people accusing him of racism.

"Let me make something racist up so y'all can go viral," Metcalf said. "I got a new name for 'Melo, OK? Because he was such this little boy y'all were trying to portray. How about Watermelon Felon? How's that one strike ya?" He grinned at the camera afterward.

The "watermelon" stereotype is one of the most well-documented anti-Black racist tropes in American history. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the symbol became a tool of racist caricature during the Jim Crow era, weaponized by white Americans to mock and dehumanize newly freed Black people.

Metcalf used the slur after telling the courtroom during his victim impact statement, and the public during a press conference, that the case had nothing to do with race. Both the prosecution and the defense had also told jurors race was not a factor in the case. As BET.com previously reported, the jury that convicted Anthony of murder included no Black jurors, in a county where Black residents make up 12.1% of the population.

Metcalf did not stop at Anthony. He also attacked Anthony's parents, Andrew "Drew" Anthony and Kala Hayes, calling them "grifters" and "cowards." "Drew Anthony, you're a coward, and you raised one," he said, per Yahoo News. "Kala, you drunk b*tch. What'd you do to that boy to make him stab somebody? My God, what kind of mother are you?" He suggested child protective services should check on their other children.

He also accused them of profiting from the case. Anthony's family raised more than $630,000 through online crowdfunding for his legal defense before the fund was shut down following the conviction.