The Black Association of Behavior Analysts Release Statement: Systemic Disparities, Contextual Bias, and the Devaluation of Black Youth
Public Statement
For Immediate Release
Thursday June 11, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
The Black Association of Behavior Analysts (BABA) issues this public statement to address the deeply troubling and divergent legal outcomes involving two Black youths: the late Cyrus Carmack-Belton and Karmelo Anthony. As an organization dedicated to the science of human behavior, the social sciences, and the foundational mission of Black liberation, we know that human actions and courtroom verdicts do not happen in isolation. Behavior and social structures are entirely shaped, maintained, and judged by the environment. The American legal system continues to operate as an environment that disproportionately criminalizes Black youth while failing to validate the severe environmental stressors, social realities, and fear they experience.
Systemic Accommodation of Fear: The Cyrus Carmack-Belton Verdict
The acquittal of Chikei Rick Chow for the murder of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton, who was shot in the back while fleeing, serves as a devastating judicial manifestation of deep-seated societal bias. Viewed through the lens of behavioral and social sciences, this case exemplifies stimulus generalization, a process wherein an individual or system reacts to a novel stimulus based entirely on pre-existing stereotypes rather than objective, situational facts. In the United States, empirical social data consistently demonstrates that the physical presentation of a Black child is frequently misperceived as an automatic trigger for threat, evoking unprovoked, lethal aggression from civilian perpetrators. This phenomenon is largely driven by “adultification bias,” a cognitive distortion wherein individuals view Black youth as significantly older, less innocent, and more culpable than their White peers (Epstein et al., 2017).
Furthermore, this systemic misperception is compounded by a race-based size bias; psychological research indicates that observers routinely overestimate the height, weight, strength, and overall formidability of young Black males compared to White children of identical stature (Wilson et al., 2017). Consequently, these combined implicit biases strip Black children of the developmental protections typically afforded to childhood, converting their mere physical presence into a perceived physical danger that can result in fatal outcomes (Goff et al., 2014).
By rendering a “not guilty” verdict, the judicial system provides powerful social reinforcement for vigilante violence. This institutional endorsement signals that a civilian’s subjective, racially biased fear legally justifies the execution of lethal force against a retreating child. Ultimately, such verdicts inflict profound, collective trauma on Black communities, cultivating a hostile environment where Black families must confront the reality that neither compliance nor flight can guarantee their children’s safety.
The Criminalization of Survival Responses: The Karmelo Anthony Conviction
Conversely, the legal proceedings in McKinney, Texas, where 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years, demonstrate the inverse of this judicial leniency when the individual responding to a threat is a Black youth. Following a high-stress confrontation at a high school track meet, Anthony’s defense argued he acted in self-defense after being outnumbered, cornered, and physically shoved. From a behavioral and sociological standpoint, Anthony’s immediate actions constituted an escape-and-avoidance response designed to terminate an intense, aversive, and chaotic environmental threat. Within the American legal system, however, the privilege of subjective fear and defensive protection is rarely extended to Black adolescents. This disparity was structurally engineered during jury selection, where the systematic exclusion of multiple Black prospective jurors culminated in an all-White panel. By sanitizing the jury of cultural and racial representation, the court fundamentally altered the contextual framework of the trial.
Consequently, instead of evaluating Anthony’s survival behavior through the lens of the acute, terrifying environment he endured, the judicial system analyzed his actions within an artificial vacuum, systematically stripped of the very racialized and environmental realities that dictated the confrontation.
Predictable and Historical Legacy of Criminalizing Black Self-Preservation
These two concurrent outcomes are not isolated anomalies. They are selected and maintained by a long-standing, generational schedule of systemic reinforcement. When we look at the history of American social sciences and legal precedents, the behavioral trajectories of these cases mirror a definitive, recurring macro-contingency:
- The Echo of Trayvon Martin (2012): The acquittal of Rick Chow directly mirrors the legal absolution of civilians who falsely presume a Black teenager is engaged in illicit behavior, initiate a confrontation, and are legally excused for using deadly force against a retreating child.
- The Denial of Stand-Your-Ground and Self-Defense Protections: Whenever Black individuals attempt to navigate or defend against immediate, hostile, or life-threatening environments, the judicial system systematically shifts its rules to penalize them, treating Black self-preservation as a punishable act rather than a basic human right. We see this structural bias explicitly reinforced across decades of legal history:
- The Case of John White (2006): Convicted after defending his home and family on Long Island from an aggressive, hostile mob of teenagers shouting racial slurs.
- The Case of Marissa Alexander (2012): Sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 20 years in Florida simply for firing a single, non-lethal warning shot into the air to deter her documented domestic abuser.
- The Cases of Cyntoia Brown (2004) & Crystul Kizer (2024): Both young Black women faced severe, long-term incarceration for executing lethal survival responses against adult perpetrators who were actively sex trafficking and abusing them.
- The Case of Marc Wilson (2022): Convicted and handed the absolute maximum sentence after firing upon an aggressive truck that was actively attempting to run him and his partner off a Georgia highway.
An Extended Call to Action: It Takes All of UsAs behavior analysts and social scientists, we know that to permanently alter biased outcomes, we must completely dismantle the environmental variables, societal structures, and macro-contingencies that maintain them. We cannot rely on superficial fixes when the cultural practices and judicial structures themselves systematically select for punitive outcomes against Black individuals. We refuse to remain silent while our youth are systematically stripped of their innocence, their right to self-preservation, and their lives. The data from our fields is clear: systemic bias is a learned and reinforced pattern, and it will only change when we systematically alter the environment that supports it. BABA calls upon legal professionals, behavioral scientists, social scientists, media outlets, and community advocates to speak out against these double standards. We must move beyond passive awareness and actively disrupt the policies, biased jury selection processes, and media narratives that perpetuate these disparities.
Crucially, we call upon all of us—parents, caregivers, families, and everyday neighbors. The safety of our youth relies on our collective vigilance and mutual protection. We must actively support one another, cultivate shared spaces of safety, and collectively demand accountability from the institutions tasked with serving us. We will continue to intentionally engineer spaces, design interventions, and advocate for structural shifts that affirm the dignity, worth, and safety of Black individuals, and we stand in unbroken solidarity with the families of Cyrus Carmack-Belton and Karmelo Anthony.
If you are ready to translate behavior and social science into real systemic action, we encourage you to join BABA’s Advocacy Committee. Together as professionals, parents, and families, we can actively challenge these oppressive structures, advance ethical practices, and protect the rights and lives of marginalized communities.
To get involved, please contact Dr. Christiana Skinner-Walker, Advocacy Chair, at [email protected]
