The family of the 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan accused by Deadspin of wearing “blackface” filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the outlet, alleging it defamed and caused irreversible harm to the young football fan.
Holden Armenta’s parents, Shannon and Raul, alleged that Deadspin intentionally published a defamatory article, exposing “the family to a barrage of hate, including death threats.”
“The article falsely alleged that [Holden] he had “found a way to hate black people and Native Americans at the same time.” He alleged that [Holden]Shannon and Raúl’s parents ‘taught’ [Holden] ‘racism and hate’ at home,” states the lawsuit, filed in Delaware.
“He intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta family as anti-Black and anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist behavior motivated by their family’s hatred of Black people and Native Americans.”
The lawsuit came after weeks of legal threats from the Armentas, who demanded that the sports news site and its senior writer Caron Phillips retract their story titled “NFL needs to speak out against Kansas City Chiefs fan with black face. Native headdress.”
The article included a photo of the boy that was broadcast by CBS Sports during the Nov. 26 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, showing him in profile and appearing to wear blackface and a traditional Native American headdress.
Holden Armenta attended the Nov. 26 game with his face painted half black and half red to support the Kansas City Chiefs. Shannon Armenta/Facebook
However, the article fails to mention that the other half of the boy’s face was painted bright red, representing two of the Chief’s team colors.
According to the Armentas, Deadspin and Phillips specifically used the grab to “maliciously and senselessly attack a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-soaked political agenda.”
Phillips alleged that the boy had managed to “disrespect two groups of people at once” in the article, which has since been tagged with a community note about X calling it “purposefully misleading.”
The story sparked immediate controversy, with the Armentas leading the charge against Deadspin.
The boy’s parents shared numerous photos of Holden with his face clearly painted in two separate colors, and shared the shocking detail that the boy himself is Native American, with his own grandfather sitting on the board of directors of the Chumash tribe in Santa Ynez, California.
The Armentas repeatedly demanded that Deadspin retract the article and apologize to the family, but the outlet did neither, the lawsuit claims.
Deadspin originally used a profile picture of Holden, which only showed the black half of his face. Deadline screenshot
Instead, Deadspin quietly amended the story, removing Holden’s image and including an editor’s note that said the publication “regrets[s] any suggestion that we were attacking” the 9-year-old boy.
However, the damage had already been done, the family claimed: Holden was called a “p-ssy” and a “motherf-ker” online, as well as being threatened with death via a “wood chipper”.
“Deadspin has gone too far. [Holden] He should not have to live with his face plastered on social media along with false and defamatory accusations of racist behavior. “Her parents should not be forced to live with the false and defamatory accusation that they are teaching ‘hate in the home,’” the lawsuit states.
The article has subjected the Armenta family “to a barrage of hate, including death threats.” Shannon Armenta/Facebook
“The Armenta family is filing this lawsuit to set the record straight and hold Deadspin accountable for intentionally spreading inflammatory lies about a nine-year-old boy whom it chose as a vehicle for its race-baiting agenda.”
The family is seeking unspecified damages and other “remedies that the Court deems just and appropriate.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn