A sports reporter who accused a young Chiefs fan of racism against both black people and Native Americans has learned that not only was the child not wearing blackface, but he is a Chumash Indian to boot.
Deadspin reporter Carron Phillips accused Holden Armenta of mocking black people after seeing a picture in profile which did not show the half of his face painted in the red of his beloved football team.
Phillips also slammed Holden’s Native American headdress and his ‘Tomahawk Chop’ gesture claiming the little boy had ‘found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time’.
This evening it emerged that the youngster has Native American heritage himself with a grandfather serving on the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, and that the team’s multi-ethnic squad had enthusiastically joined in with Holden’s ‘Indian’ chopping gesture.
‘Just stop already,’ the boy’s mom Shannon Armenta wrote on Facebook, ‘He is Native American.’ Phillips’ remarks caused a storm of debate when he plucked out the picture of Holden among the 65,000-strong crowd at the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.
Other websites picked up on the story with some slamming broadcaster CBS for zooming in on Holden’s outfit. ‘Everyone is making a massive deal out of this and only trying to show one side of his face to push their narrative,’ protested Real Kansas City Chiefs Fans on Facebook.
Deadline found itself corrected by content curators on social media platform X when it tweeted the story. ‘The kid is not wearing ‘blackface’,’ they wrote. ‘The Deadspin article is purposely deceiving. As several fans in attendance noted, the other half of his face is painted red.’
Within hours other pictures of the boy emerged showing his face painted in the full red and black team colors, but the Pulitzer nominated reporter was unabashed. ‘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,’ he tweeted.
The football team has come under increasing pressure to drop the ‘Chiefs’ from their name, following the lead of the former Washington Redskins who were renamed the Washington Commanders in 2022.
Native American headdress has been banned at the team’s Arrowhead Stadium since 2020 and there is pressure on them to also ban the chopping motion said to resemble a tomahawk blow with which the fans show their appreciation.
‘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,’ Phillips wrote in his piece. ‘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.’
