(PJ Media) Deadspin could be in for an expensive apology after trying to “scalp” a nine-year-old Chiefs fan it falsely accused of wearing blackface.
The boy’s family — which just happens to be Native American — filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. Back in November, 9-year-old Holden Armenta attended a football game wearing a headdress and with his face painted. This get-up offended wacky, woke Deadspin senior writer Caron Phillips, who accused the little boy of simultaneously being racist against natives and black Americans.
Except that Phillips didn’t mention Holden’s face was painted black and red — and he didn’t know that Holden’s grandfather serves on the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. Now the Armentas are on the warpath for the serious accusations Phillips plastered online.
MRCTV’s Nick Kangadis reported on Feb. 8:
Phillips had based his accusation on a still from a CBS Sports broadcast showing only the side of Holden’s face that was painted black. Black and red are the Chiefs’ colors, hence Holden’s face paint. Kangadis noted that Deadspin has a history of being biased and that staff was even fired in 2019 for not sticking to sports articles, as management insisted.
At the time, Phillips sneered at Holden’s “Tomahawk Chop” gesture (which black Chiefs players also do), saying that along with the paint and headdress, the boy had “found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.” Ironically, not only is Holden ethnically native, but video showed black football players spying Holden’s Tomahawk Chop and making the gesture with him.
