Deadspin, which bills itself as a provider of “sports news without fear, favor or compromise,” took its eye off the football on Sunday and instead attempted to tackle a little kid.
“The NFL Needs to Speak Out Against the Kansas City Chiefs Fan in Black Face, Native Headdress,” the headline blared across the Deadspin website.
“It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,” reporter Carron J. Phillips wrote with an obvious heated passion. He included a photo of the fan that showed only one side of his face, which was painted black. You can find this photo on the internet, but we’re not showing it here.
Phillips then rattled off a litany of people to blame for the alleged racism, from the CBS cameraman who chose to focus on the fan to Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, for not doing enough to fight racism but also for pretending to care about racism by painting “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us” in NFL endzones. (“The idea that it takes all of humanity to end racism is not only asinine, but insulting and infuriating,” Phillips wrote. “By doing that, you’re taking away the responsibility and necessity of accountability from the ones who created it and actively participated in it.”)
It wasn’t until 5 paragraphs into his article that Phillips addressed the age of the fan, and then questioned whether he was “a kid/teenager or a young adult.” If you look at the photo, you’ll see this is clearly a young child.
In the end, Phillips didn’t care. “Despite their age,” he continued, “who taught that person that what they were wearing was appropriate?”
The answer emerged the next day: his parents.
The young boy, you see, is Native American. His grandfather, according to Daily Mail, is a member of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
And what of the black face? The other side of the boy’s face was painted red. Kansas City Chiefs primary colors are red and gold but also include white and black. Has Phillips ever seen the profile of a Steelers fan with their face painted half black and half gold? Or a Bengals fan wearing half black and half orange face paint? Has he written articles about them being racist, or did he think focusing on someone in elementary school would be more effective?
Even when people on social media pushed back and let Phillips know that the child was not wearing black face, he persisted. “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.
“Y'all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.”
Who said anything about Mexicans?
The young fan was also shown on national TV doing the infamous “tomahawk chop” cheer. It’s not like he was doing it alone. Some Chiefs players saw the boy doing the tomahawk chop in the stands and joined him. The chop has a long history in Kansas City, but has been considered controversial the last several years.
Whatever you think of the headdress, the face paint and the chop, it’s wrong to exploit a child to further the argument of racism in professional sports. Take it up with a grown man or woman, but leave the kids out of it, especially if it turns out that the child in question is Native American.
The boys’ mom had a message for Phillips, Deadspin and everyone promoting Phillips’ article. “Just stop already,” she posted on Facebook.
Phillips choosing to zero in on a child, plastering his face across the internet and social media, and holding him up as a symbol of racism takes a lot of chutzpah. But Phillips isn’t the only one to blame for this lack of ethical journalism. At least one person at Deadspin must have reviewed the article, and an editor likely had to sign off on running it. Shame on all of them.
With all the serious displays of racism, antisemitism, and hatred going on in the world, choosing to whip up more anger by focusing on a child who painted his face in team colors seems a bit bizarre.
Like the Guardians (former Indians), the team has banned headdresses and face paint at Arrowhead Stadium. This game was not at Arrowhead, it was played in LA and thus as the visiting team had no control. I agree, the child should have been left alone. The writer has not apologized or retracted a story that was short on facts. The family is threatening to sue, and I hope they do. This action was akin to the Covington Catholic student who was accosted by a protester in Washington DC.