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Carron Phillips, a senior writer at the woke sports site Deadspin targeted a young Kansas City Chiefs fan at an NFL game. The November 27 article "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress" has created ongoing controversy.

Phillips, a Pulitzer nominee, first accused the child of wearing "blackface" based on a photo taken in their profile. 

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Deadspin, Woke Sports Site

In the article, Carron Phillips claimed that a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to express disdain for both Black people and Native Americans simultaneously. The focus of the article was a photograph capturing a young fan with one side of his face painted black, wearing a Native American headdress.

While accusations of blackface circulated, a closer look at additional images revealed the fan had adorned team colors across his entire face, accompanied by the Native American headdress.

Reactions

Some netizen comments slammed Phillips for being a "bully," because his article was targeted toward a child.  And some commenters agreed with him.

The article did not mention that the undisclosed half of the child's face was painted red, representing the team's colors. When additional photos were shown Phillips, doubled-down on the racism accusations in a since-deleted post on X.

Phillips wrote, "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."

The boy wore a Native American headdress, banned by the NFL team since September 2020. 

Cultural Appropriation or Celebrating Heritage?

The child, identified as Holden Armenta, has Native American heritage, with his grandfather serving on the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. Raul Armenta is listed on the tribe’s website as a “business committee member” elected to the board in 2016.

“He looks forward to continuing the legacy of building a solid economic foundation for future generations of the Chumash tribe,” it reads.

The child’s mother, Shannon Armenta, clarified on Facebook that her son is Native American, urging people to stop the criticism.

Phillips criticized the NFL, arguing that their failure to address issues like the "chop" at Chiefs games and the team's name change contributed to such incidents.

Phillips contended that the NFL, as a prominent institution, participates in perpetuating prejudice. And that if the NFL had taken the initiative to rename the Chiefs, similar to the Washington Redskins becoming the Washington Commanders, the controversy might have been avoided.