In the very definition of “punching down,” Deadspin writer Carron Phillips accused a young KC Chiefs fan of “hating black people and Native American people at the same time” by wearing black paint on his face while also donning a feathered headdress — and it only gets worse from there.
First, readers pointed out that the only shot Phillips apparently looked at, a photo of the boy turned to the side, missed the red paint on the other side of his face: He was just wearing Chiefs’ colors.
That is, it was plainly a pretty standard fan outfit, donned by a kid — something you’d think a writer for a sports blog would recognize.
Yet Philips doubled down, claiming (in a now-deleted X post) he “could make the argument” that the red paint “makes it even worse.”
He even absurdly implied it wasn’t clear whether the 9-year-old was “a kid/teenager or a young adult.”
Then the lad’s family spoke up: Holden Armenta, the boy accused of “hating” Native Americans, is Native American.
In fact, his granddad sits on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, Calif.
Bottom line?
Phillips saw a photo and amateurishly jumped on it to launch a tired social-justice rant: “This is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate. You give future generations the ammunition they need to evolve and recreate racism better than before.”
(Want to guess what he studied in college?)
All without bothering even to do the basic fact-checking of looking for other photos of the kid, or asking himself how it’d even make sense to wear blackface with the rest of the outfit.
Pretty pathetic, even if you’re just grinding out clickbait all day.
That whoever passes for editors at Deadspin let this hack job publish is shameful, but not surprising: They probably figured they’d get accused of racism if they even asked any questions.
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