Family of 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan accused of blackface sues Deadspin for defamation
NY Post
The family of the 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 irreversible damage 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] had ‘found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.’ It alleged that [Holden]’s parents, Shannon and Raul, ‘taught’ [Holden] ‘racism and hate’ at home,” the lawsuit, filed in Delaware, states.
“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 lawsuit was filed following weeks of legal threats by the Armentas, who demanded that the sports news site and its senior writer Caron Phillips issue a retraction for his story headlined “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress.”
The article included a photo of the boy that was broadcasted on CBS Sports during the Nov. 26 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, showing him standing in profile and appearing to wear blackface and a traditional Native American headdress.
