The family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan accused by Deadspin of wearing “blackface” filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the outlet — claiming it defamed and caused irreparable harm to the young football fan.
Holden Armenta’s parents, Shannon and Raul, claimed that Deadspin intentionally published defamatory articles, exposing “the family to a barrage of hate, including death threats.”
“The article falsely claims that [Holden] has ‘found a way to hate blacks and Native Americans at the same time.’ It claims that [Holden]Parents, Shannon and Raul, ‘teaching’ [Holden] ‘racism and hatred’ in the home,” the suit, filed in Delaware, states.
“It deliberately paints a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-Black, anti-American bigots who proudly engage in the worst kind of racist behavior fueled by their family’s hatred of Blacks and Native Americans.”
The lawsuit was filed after weeks of legal threats by Armentas, who demanded that the sports news site and its senior writer Caron Phillips issue a retraction for its story titled “NFL needs to speak out against Kansas City Chiefs fans in Blackface, Native headscarves.”
The article included a photo of the boy broadcast on CBS Sports during a Nov. 26 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, showing him standing 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
The piece does not mention, however, that the other half of the boy’s face is painted bright red, depicting the two colors of the Chief’s team.
According to Armentas, Deadspin and Phillips specifically used the seizure to “maliciously and wantonly attack a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own racially charged political agenda.”
Phillips claimed 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 on X branding him “deliberately deceptive.”
The story sparked immediate controversy, with Armentas leading the charge against Deadspin.
The boy’s parents shared multiple photos of Holden with his face clearly painted in two separate colors — and shared the surprising detail that the boy himself is Native American, with his own grandfather sitting on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California.
Armentas repeatedly demanded that Deadspin retract the article and apologize to the family, but the outlet did not do so, according to the lawsuit.
Deadspin originally used Holden’s profile image, which only showed the black half of his face. Screenshot of the deadline
Instead, Deadspin quietly amended the story, removing Holden’s image and inserting an editor’s note saying the publication “regrets[s] any suggestion that we are attacking” the 9-year-old boy.
The damage has already been done, however, the family claims – with Holden being called “p-ssy” and “motherf–ker” online, as well as receiving death threats via “wood breakers.”
“Deadspin has gone too far. [Holden] should not live with his face plastered on social media alongside false and racist accusations. Her parents should not be forced to live with false and defamatory claims that they teach ‘hate in the home,’” the lawsuit states.
The article has caused the Armenta family “to receive a barrage of hate, including death threats.” Shannon Armenta / Facebook
“The Armenta family is bringing this lawsuit to set the record straight and hold Deadspin accountable for knowingly spreading inflammatory lies about a nine-year-old child it chose as a vehicle for its race-baiting agenda.”
The family is seeking unspecified damages and other “remedies as the Court deems just and proper.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
