Remember when a braindead columnist tried to accuse a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan of wearing blackface at a football game in an op-ed for Deadspin? Well, it appears the child’s family will be able to hold the news outlet accountable for publishing the fallacious piece.
A Delaware judge declined to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against Deadspin over the article, which attempted to paint the 9-year-old child as a virulent racist.
The lawsuit was filed by California residents Raul Armenta Jr. and his wife, Shannon, on behalf of themselves and their son, Holden, who attended a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders last November.
According to the lawsuit, Holden, referred to in the lawsuit as “H.A.”, is a Chiefs fan who also loves his family’s Chumash-Indian heritage. He wore a Chiefs jersey to the game, with his face painted half-red and half-black, and a costume Native American headdress.
The author, Carron Phillips, wrote an article accusing the child of wearing blackface because his face was painted half black and half red, the colors of the team he was rooting for.
Hey @carronJphillips, were you aware at the time of publication that the little boy who you framed as a racist for wearing blackface wasn’t wearing blackface, but the double red and black paint to support the Chiefs?
Do you plan to apologize to him and his family? https://t.co/wexzIFjUGh pic.twitter.com/BSkzaot8VY
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) November 27, 2023
In the article, the author not only pretended the boy was wearing blackface, but also accused him of disrespecting Native Americans because he was wearing a traditional headdress.
It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. On Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, someone in the stands at the Kansas City Chiefs game wore a headdress and face paint that some observers found objectionable, leading to lots of unanswered questions.
Why is Native American headdress banned in Arrowhead Stadium but not in every stadium in the league?
Related: Looking Over the Evolution of the Deadspin Hit Piece on a Child
Football Fan – It is Still a Mess
The author claimed the boy had been taught “hatred” by his parents and called on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to condemn the child and his family.
Amazingly, when Phillips was called out for his blatant race-baiting lie, he doubled down in a post on X. “For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse,” he wrote. “Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco [de Mayo].”
He later deleted the post. But the damage was already done. The child’s family indicated they began receiving hateful messages and even death threats over Phillips’ lie. One even threatened to murder Holden “with a wood chipper,” according to the lawsuit.
The judge definitely made the right ruling in this case. Phillips’ article was clearly a deceptive way to stoke racial tensions. There is nothing abnormal about this, as left-leaning members of the chattering class have been doing this for years.
But the fact that he chose to use a child to ignite a racial controversy is about as low as whale excrement. Hopefully, Deadspin will be held accountable for publishing what was obviously a cynical attempt to exploit racial tensions for attention.
