The family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan who accused Deadspin of using “blackface” told the outlet on Tuesday that the charges were defamatory and caused irreparable harm to the young football fan. filed a lawsuit.
Holden Armenta’s parents, Shannon and Raul, claimed that Deadspin intentionally published defamatory articles and subjected their family to a “barrage of hate, including death threats.”
“This article falsely claims that: [Holden] He “found a way to hate black people and Native Americans at the same time.”It claimed that [Holden]“Taught” by parents Shannon and Raul [Holden] “Racism and hatred” is rampant in the country,” the lawsuit filed in Delaware states.
“It intentionally painted the Armenta family as anti-Black, anti-Indigenous bigots who proudly committed the worst acts of racism, motivated by their family’s hatred of Black and Indigenous people.”
The lawsuit comes after weeks of legal threats by the Armentas family, who told the sports news site and its senior writer Caron Phillips, “The NFL is the Kansas City Chiefs in blackface.” They demanded that the article be retracted with the headline “We need to speak out to our fans.” Native headdress. ”
This article includes a photo of a young boy shown on CBS Sports during the Nov. 26 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, standing in profile, wearing blackface and a traditional Native American headdress. The photograph showed a boy who appeared to be doing something.
However, the film does not mention that the other half of the boy’s face is painted bright red, representing both of the Chiefs’ team colors.
According to the Armentas, Deadspin and Phillips specifically used this grab to “maliciously and unreasonably attack a 9-year-old boy and his parents in service of Phillips’ own racially charged political agenda.” It is said that he did.
Phillips claimed in the article that the boy “disparaged two groups of people at once,” and the article was subsequently labeled “deliberately deceptive.”X Community notes about are tagged.
The story immediately sparked controversy, with Armentas factions leading the charge against Deadspin.
The boy’s parents shared numerous photos of Holden with his face clearly painted in two colors, and the shocking revelation that the boy himself is Native American and that his own grandfather sits on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California. shared details.
Armentas repeatedly asked Deadspin to retract the story and apologize to the family, but the news organization did not respond, the complaint states.
Instead, Deadspin quietly revised the article, removed Holden’s image, and included an editor’s note with “regrets” in the publication.[s] There was no hint that we were attacking,” the 9-year-old said.
But the damage has already been done, with Holden’s family claiming he has been called a “slut” and “motherfucker” online and threatened to kill him with a “wood chipper”.
“Deadspin has gone too far. [Holden] No one should live with their faces plastered on social media with false accusations of racist behavior. “His parents should not be forced to live with false and defamatory allegations that they are teaching ‘hate in the home,'” the lawsuit states.
“The Armenta family filed this lawsuit to set the record straight and hold Deadspin accountable for knowingly spreading inflammatory lies about a 9-year-old who chose Race as a means to an end.”
The family is seeking unspecified damages and other “relief that the court deems just and appropriate.”
