The parents of a 9-year-old boy are suing a media outlet for falsely accusing their son of wearing blackface.
The family argues that the outlet deliberately omitted the red paint on the boy’s face, portraying him as wearing blackface.
“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 family, who are Native American descendants, regularly wear the red-black face paint and a Native American headdress to honor the Kansas City Chiefs.
“H.A. did not wear a costume headdress because he was ‘taught hate at home’—he wore it because he loves the Kansas City Chiefs’ football team and because he loves his Native American heritage,” the complaint reads.
“Deadspin did not retract the Article, and it did not apologize,” the complaint added.
“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 incident has deeply affected the family, with the boy experiencing a decline in grades and social ostracism at school.
Despite this, the boy has bravely faced media attention, expressing concerns about potential overreaction from his peers.
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