Last year, a young Kansas City Chiefs football fan, Holden Armenta, was accused in an article written by Deadspin of wearing “blackface” during a game. Recently, a Delaware judge ruled that a lawsuit filed by the nine-year-old’s family against the outlet could proceed. Photographs from the 2023 game show Armenta with half of his face painted black and the other half red, in honor of the team’s colors, while wearing a traditional Native American headdress.
However, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips accused the young boy of managing to “hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.” Furthermore, the article called out Holden’s parents suggesting that they had taught him “hatred.” The Armenta family subsequently filed a lawsuit in February, accusing the outlet of attacking their son, only showing half of his face with the black paint and accusing them of racism.
Earlier this week, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg denied a motion from Deadspin to dismiss the lawsuit. “Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims,” the judge determined.
Lugg continued, “Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing [Holden] of wearing black face and Native headdress ‘to hate black people and the Native American at the same time,’ and that he was taught this hatred by his parents, are provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable.”
The Deadspin article now has since been updated to include clarifications and a title change. The initial title reportedly read, “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress.” Whereas the current title of the article reads, “The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands.”
An update from the editor reads, “On Nov. 27, Deadspin published an opinion piece criticizing the NFL for allowing a young fan to attend the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 26 wearing a traditional Native American headdress and, based upon the available photo, what appeared to be black face paint.”
The statement of clarification continued, “Unfortunately the article drew attention to the fan, though our intended focus was on the NFL and its checkered history on race, an issue which our writer has covered extensively for Deadspin. Three years ago, the Chiefs banned fans from wearing headdresses in Arrowhead Stadium, as well as face painting that “appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.” The story’s intended focus was the NFL and its failure to extend those rules to the entire league.”
“We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family. 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,” the update continued.
Watch a clip of the young Chief’s fan below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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