Last November, Deadspin posted an article falsely stating a nine-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan for wearing blackface during an NFL game. The moment and that article went insanely viral.
Deadspin called it blackface. Many more deemed his Native American headdress racist.
It was demoralizing to the family.
Now, the family of that 9-year-old is suing Deadspin for “maliciously and wantonly” attacking the child, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.
The child, Holden Armenta, painted one side of his face red but the article sent out only showed the black side.
The family is suing the outlet for its alleged “race-drenched political agenda” over the article alleging that Armenta “found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,” according to the complaint titled Armenta v. G/O Media Inc.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
“By selectively capturing from the CBS broadcast an image of H.A. showing only the one side of his face with black paint on it—an effort that took laser-focused precision to accomplish given how quickly the boy appeared on screen—Phillips and Deadspin deliberately omitted the half of H.A.’s face with red paint on it,” the complaint reads.
The suit further alleges Deadspin and Phillips knew the boy did not wear blackface, but decided to write an article “viciously race-baiting” a young boy to “generate clicks.”
The parents had previously threatened to sue unless the outlet retracted the story. They chose to include an editor’s note stating the article focused on the National Football League’s (NFL) “failure” to extend anti-racist rules across the entire league instead.
“Deadspin did not retract the Article, and it did not apologize,” the complaint states. “Rather, it published a series of further ‘updates’ that not only failed to correct the record, but instead established that Deadspin fully understood the Article’s highly damaging and defamatory nature—while maliciously refusing to back down. And Deadspin’s lawyers threatened the Armenta family with counter-legal action should Raul and Shannon attempt to hold Phillips and Deadspin accountable for their false and defamatory Article.”
The lawsuit further states Armenta’s grades and test scores have dropped in school since the article’s publication and has caused his father, Raul, to become a “pariah” at work. The father also reportedly thought about moving out of the state due to the incident.
Armenta has suffered “a devastating loss” of his “innocence of youth” and an “encumbered love for his favorite football team and its players, according to the suit.
“Sadly, H.A. will never know a life in which his face and name are not inextricably linked to false accusations of racist conduct. When you Google H.A.’s name, the first result states that he has “been accused of racism by a reporter” for Deadspin. The second alleges that the ‘article alleged that [the Armenta’s] son, [H.A.], exhibited racist behavior[.]’ The third describes what happened to H.A. as a “viral hit piece” the suit reads.
