The parents of 9-year-old Holden Armenta have hired Clare Locke LLP to demand that the sports news site and senior writer Carron Phillips issue a retraction for his story headlined “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress,” The New York Post reports.
The are also threatening further legal action, according to a letter obtained by NewsNation.
“These articles, posts on X and photos about Holden and his parents must be retracted immediately,” the letter read.
“It is not enough to quietly remove a tweet from X or disable the article from Deadspin’s website. You must publish your retractions and issue an apology to my clients with the same prominence and fanfare with which you defamed them.”
From The New York Post:
The sports news site has come under fire for Phillips’ article, which featured a photo of Holden standing sideways — suggesting that he was wearing blackface with no mention of the red side.
Phillips, a former New York Daily News reporter, also slammed Holden’s Native American headdress and his “Tomahawk Chop” gesture, claiming the boy “found a way to hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time.”
“It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once,” Phillips wrote in the article, which has since been tagged with a community note on X branding it “purposely deceiving.”
“This is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate,” he wrote. “You give future generations the ammunition they need to evolve and recreate racism better than before.”
The boy’s outraged mother, Shannon Armenta, shared numerous images of her son getting a warm reception at the game — while suggesting Deadspin focused on a photo that hid the fact that half her son’s face was painted red.
“This has nothing to do with the NFL,” she wrote, suggesting the photo was picked purely “to create division.”
“He is Native American — just stop already,” she wrote of her son.
Holden’s grandfather, Raul Armenta, sits on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California.
More over at The New York Post:
Parents of 9-year-old Chiefs fan who was accused of wearing blackface threaten to sue Deadspin https://t.co/ReVFCKAsy4 pic.twitter.com/YlCqIt6gse
— New York Post (@nypost) December 4, 2023
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