The family of the young Kansas City Chiefs fan accused of blackface by a Deadspin reporter has filed a lawsuit against the sports outlet.
During the Chiefs' game against the Las Vegas Raiders back in November, Holden Armenta, 9, was captured by CBS Sports cameras wearing team colors across his entire face as well as a Native American headdress.
However, after painting his face black and red, cameras initially only caught the black half of Armenta's face, leading to accusations of blackface from Deadspin's Carron J. Phillips.Phillips later wrote in a story, which was titled 'the NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress', that Armenta had 'found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time' with his face paint at the game.Following the article, fans were quick to point out that Armenta actually had the other half of his face painted red too and was merely wearing Kansas City's colors, before the youngster's family revealed they are also Native Americans themselves.
The family of the young Kansas City Chiefs fan accused of blackface by a Deadspin reporter has filed a lawsuit against the sports outlet
Holden Armenta, 9, was captured by CBS Sports cameras wearing team colors across his entire face as well as a Native American headdress at a Chiefs game
Deadspin's Carron J. Phillips (pictured) wrote an article accusing the youngster of blackface
And just over two months on from the incident, the Armentas are now suing Deadspin for defamation after their son was branded racist by Phillips.'The Article falsely alleged that H.A. had "found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,"' the lawsuit says.During the Chiefs' game against the Las Veg Raiders back in November, Holden Armenta, 9, was captured by CBS Sports cameras wearing team colors across his entire face as well as a Native American headdress.However, after painting his face black and red, cameras initially only caught the black half of Armenta's face, leading to accusations of blackface from Deadspin's Carron J. Phillips.Phillips took offense and later wrote in a story that a Chiefs fan had 'found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time' with his face paint at the game.Following the article, fans were quick to point out that Armenta actually had the other half of his face painted red too and was merely wearing Kansas City's colors, before the youngster's family revealed they are also Native Americans themselves.And just over two months on from the incident, the Armentas are now suing Deadspin for defamation after their son was branded racist by Phillips.'The Article falsely alleged that H.A. had "found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,"' the lawsuit says.
Almost two months on, Armenta's family has filed a lawsuit against Deadspin for defamation
The Armentas claim the story 'maliciously and wantonly attacked a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-drenched political agenda'
'It alleged that H.A.’s parents, Shannon and Raul, "taught" H.A. "racism and hate" at home. It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-Black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for Black and Native Americans.'The family is also asking to be given 'all costs, disbursements, fees, and interest as authorized by law' over an article they claim 'maliciously and wantonly attacked a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-drenched political agenda.'They also claim to have received a number of abusive messages in the wake of the story, while alleging that Phillips has a tendency to focus heavily on racial narratives in his reporting.Back in December, Deadspin issued a half-hearted apology to the Armentas after receiving a backlash over the story, instead claiming Phillips' piece was intended to point the finger at the NFL over its 'checkered history on race.''We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan,' the note said. 'To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan. We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story.'A week before that backtracking statement came, however, Armentas' father had already insisted it was too late for apologies.
Armentas and his dad Bubba spoke out on the reaction to his Chiefs outfit back in December
Asked if he would like an apology from Phillips, Bubba, the boy's dad, said on Fox News: 'You know, I don't even know what to think about that. It's a little too late for that.'The damage is already done, it's worldwide... now there's comments all over, there's disrespect towards Native Americans and towards my family. We never in any way shape or form meant to disrespect any Native Americans or tribes.'Holden was also asked how he was feeling amid the reaction to his face paint.'It's ok because a lot of the kids at school are getting excited,' he said. 'But it's starting to get me a little nervous - because if they go overboard it's a little scary.'ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKugpL%2B1e82fo2iZoqm2pLjEZmhsaGVsg3iDjqSYp6uRqHqktdOyZJygmZqztHnFmqVmmpyWsKyywJycZpyVlrG0vMinZKudoKS%2FtbHRZ5%2BtpZw%3D