When will the liberal media learn? It's an evergreen question because they never do. This time around, Deadspin is the perpetrator of a race hoax targeting a literal child who was just trying to enjoy a night out at a Kansas City Chiefs game, and senior writer Carron (yes, really) Phillips has already doubled down on his smear amid justified blowback for his story.
"The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, native headdress," was Phillips' story on Deadspin, run with a side profile photo of a young boy with black paint on his face.
The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress https://t.co/9eGBsA8nca
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) November 27, 2023
But, as the now community-noted tweet of the story from Deadspin notes, Phillips conveniently avoided using a photo of the fan's full face which other photos show was painted half in black and half in red — two colors on the Chiefs' insignia. Apparently, pesky facts got in the way of his desired narrative that a white kid showed up to a Chiefs game in blackface.
Why is @Deadspin @carronJphillips trying to ruin this little kid’s life? They’re accusing him of blackface but conveniently left out his full face which was painted for the game https://t.co/kFfgAL4aDH pic.twitter.com/750u5sfETE
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 28, 2023
When Phillips got called out, he responded with...even more nonsense. Attacking those critical of his false smear of a child "idiots" — perhaps a smidge of projection, eh? — he claimed that wearing Chiefs colors "makes it even worse" than if the child had worn blackface before attacking his critics for hating Mexicans while wearing sombreros.
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.
— Carron J. Phillips (@carronJphillips) November 27, 2023
Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.@Deadspinhttps://t.co/MfoG8vArWs pic.twitter.com/oQTxhUeA00
So no, the fan wasn't wearing blackface. But Phillips doesn't care about that — and he claims his narrative being debunked somehow makes the kid's outfit worse? — because it doesn't serve the outrage narrative that seeks oppression around every corner and, apparently, in every young football fan's youthful eyes. So the deception was published anyway. Apparently, clicks and ginning up a racial news cycle are worth enough to try to ruin a kid's life with a lie.
As OutKick reminded in a story on the phony Deadspin smear:
Fans have used double face paint during games to support their teams since the inception of sports. It happens at every stadium, in support of every team.
Cowboys fans paint their faces blue and silver. Vikings fans paint their face purple and gold. Jets fans paint their faces green and white. Likewise, Steelers fans paint their faces black and gold.
Yet because the Chiefs’ secondary color is more ambiguous — yellow? — fans understandably default to stock colors, like black or white.
Perhaps the child wearing a black shirt under his red jersey played a role in selecting black face paint.
Second, headdresses are synonymous with, well, Chiefs.
Apparently, someone on X/Twitter ruled that donning a headdress as a white person is inexcusable. Because that is not a consensus belief.
A Virginia Commonwealth University study explained in 2017 that while there is some dispute over the meaning of wearing a headdress, “most of the people wearing headdresses think of it as a homage to native peoples.”
There is also the common sense element to the photo. No one in their right mind could seriously argue the kid’s intent was malicious.
Anyone arguing otherwise is either pandering or probably has a headdress in their closet that they wore a few Halloweens ago.
The little Chiefs fan is not a racist. Nor are his parents. He is an innocent 5-year-old boy who was thrilled to attend an NFL game on Thanksgiving weekend.
Yet he is now a target of the culture war, his face is plastered across the internet and websites are calling for the NFL to condemn him.
All the kid did was enjoy a football game cheering on his team, no one got hurt (other than Phillips' credibility), and any grownups screeching "racist" might want to watch their words before the little Chiefs backer is approached by a lawyer who's looking to teach liberal media outlets a lesson a la Nicholas Sandmann.
Ultimately, the story is unsurprising — though no less shameful — given its author. Carron Phillips, as Townhall reported previously, has penned other gems such as "White fans were entertained by Black athletes a day after a racist killed Black people in Buffalo — this is what white supremacy looks like."
It seems as though Carron Karen Phillips is always willing to dish it out in the form of hit pieces on children but can't take the heat himself:
Oh no, Karen blocked me for calling out his child-bullying, racist idiocy. What a perfectly named "male." You deserve the heat you're getting @carronJphillips pic.twitter.com/T8XEGvE4Z4
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) November 27, 2023