Boy ​whose face paint Deadspin called 'racist' to proceed with defamation suit

A 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan vilified as "racist" by the sports website Deadspin will have his day in court, a Delaware judge ruled on Monday.

The controversial blog, once part of the now-defunct Gawker empire, had filed a motion to dismiss the defamation suit against it. The judge quickly denied it, noting that there was sufficient evidence for the suit to proceed.

‘Someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.’

As Blaze News reported in November 2023, Deadspin attempted to stoke outrage over the image of Holden Armenta wearing Chiefs face paint while attending a game against the Las Vegas Raiders last November.

Half of Armenta's face was painted black, half was painted red. He was also wearing a native American headdress.

Race-baiting

Using a photo of Armenta in which only the headdress and the black face paint was visible, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips accused the boy of racism.

"It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate black people and the Native Americans at the same time," Phillips wrote.

He went on to accuse the NFL of "participating in prejudice":

While it isn’t the league’s responsibility to stop racism and hate from being taught in the home, they are a league that has relentlessly participated in prejudice. If the NFL had outlawed the chop at Chiefs games and been more aggressive in changing the team’s name, then we wouldn’t be here.

In a since-deleted post on X, Phillips defended his somewhat dubious accusations. “For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse. Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.”

Family faced 'barrage of hate'

Armenta's parents, Raul Armenta Jr. and Shannon Armenta, filed a defamation lawsuit against the website in February 2024. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides.

One month after the lawsuit was filed, the entire Deadspin staff was abruptly fired after G/O Media sold the website to Lineup Publishing.

The suit described Phillips as “someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.”

The Armentas said they have been inundated with "a barrage of hate, including death threats" as a result of the article smearing their son. One person even threatened to kill Holden “with a wood chipper,” according to the lawsuit.

“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," read the lawsuit.

Last resort

The Armentas claim to have made repeated requests for Deadspin to retract the article and apologize. Instead, Deadspin revised to take the focus away from Armenta while retaining the allegations that the boy was racist.

The headline was changed from "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in black face, Native headdress" to "The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands."

The family noted that Holden's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California.

In their bid to have the case thrown out, Deadspin lawyers argued that the claims against Armenta amounted to opinion, which is constitutionally protected speech.

Crossed the line

However, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg vehemently disagreed

"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," Judge Lugg wrote.

"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," Lugg noted.

A spokesperson for G/O Media told the Associated Press that the company had no comment regarding the lawsuit.

Watch Sara Gonzales — host of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" — skewer the woke media for attacking the 9-year-old Chiefs fan.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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