Spencer had this story earlier this morning. A Deadspin writer tried to cancel a young Kansas City Chiefs fan for sporting red and black face paint, the team colors. Yes, it went down that road regarding blackface—and it was hilariously wrecked by a community note exposing the faux outrage:
The picture on the article is misleading. Other pictures of the child in question show that the other half of his face is painted red, black and red being the team's colors.
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
The writer, Carron Phillips, then doubled down:
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
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.
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.
That’s sort of the byproduct of the fall of Gawker over the Hulk Hogan sex tape controversy—all those woke writers found refuge at Deadspin and have since spewed some grade-A nonsensical drivel, most of which is too dumb to waste your time debunking. If Slate ever went into sports, it would be something like Deadspin. Let’s not forget that this same publication went after the Miami Dolphins for hiring another white coach, Mike McDaniel, last year; McDaniel is biracial.
Yet, this little Chiefs fan, who I hope won’t have his life ruined, isn’t the only victim of the phantom blackface threat. Earlier this month, “J.A” of Muirland Middle School got suspended for wearing eye black, which every athlete on Earth wears. The kid is in eighth grade (via NY Post):
Imagine your kid wearing eye black to a football game.
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) November 9, 2023
Now imagine your kid’s eye black getting them suspended and banned from sporting events for “blackface.”
It’s not only ridiculous — it’s unconstitutional.
That's where FIRE throws the flag for roughing the First Amendment. pic.twitter.com/XfuRLzldjT
A California middle school just suspended an eighth-grader for wearing face paint to a high school football game, and banned him from all school sports events on the claim that it was blackface.
“J.A.,” the Muirland Middle School kid, merely painted his cheeks and under-eyes, albeit with black paint — but photos show it’s just the common fan face job, not anything like what Justin Trudeau or Ralph Northam used to do.
Somehow, the San Diego Unified School District (which even denied an appeal from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) insists the paint job amounted to an “offensive comment” with the “intent to harm.”
What’s offensive is the idea that anyone could mistake the obvious here.
Now J.A.’s at risk of carrying an utterly false “racist” label that could mar his reputation for decades, all because educrats feel some need to prove their own exquisite sensitivity.
Is this almost as bad as when some leftists freaked out over not knowing that a “K” meant a strike in baseball? Maybe, but Deadspin also had something to say about that, too.