Boy ​whose face paint Deadspin called 'racist' to proceed with defamation suit



A 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan vilified as "racist" by the sports website Deadspin will have his day in court, a Delaware judge ruled on Monday.

The controversial blog, once part of the now-defunct Gawker empire, had filed a motion to dismiss the defamation suit against it. The judge quickly denied it, noting that there was sufficient evidence for the suit to proceed.

‘Someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.’

As Blaze News reported in November 2023, Deadspin attempted to stoke outrage over the image of Holden Armenta wearing Chiefs face paint while attending a game against the Las Vegas Raiders last November.

Half of Armenta's face was painted black, half was painted red. He was also wearing a native American headdress.

Race-baiting

Using a photo of Armenta in which only the headdress and the black face paint was visible, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips accused the boy of racism.

"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," Phillips wrote.

He went on to accuse the NFL of "participating in prejudice":

While it isn’t the league’s responsibility to stop racism and hate from being taught in the home, they are a league that has relentlessly participated in prejudice. If the NFL had outlawed the chop at Chiefs games and been more aggressive in changing the team’s name, then we wouldn’t be here.

In a since-deleted post on X, Phillips defended his somewhat dubious accusations. “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. Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.”

Family faced 'barrage of hate'

Armenta's parents, Raul Armenta Jr. and Shannon Armenta, filed a defamation lawsuit against the website in February 2024. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides.

One month after the lawsuit was filed, the entire Deadspin staff was abruptly fired after G/O Media sold the website to Lineup Publishing.

The suit described Phillips as “someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.”

The Armentas said they have been inundated with "a barrage of hate, including death threats" as a result of the article smearing their son. One person even threatened to kill Holden “with a wood chipper,” according to the lawsuit.

“It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for black and Native Americans," read the lawsuit.

Last resort

The Armentas claim to have made repeated requests for Deadspin to retract the article and apologize. Instead, Deadspin revised to take the focus away from Armenta while retaining the allegations that the boy was racist.

The headline was changed from "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in black face, Native headdress" to "The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands."

The family noted that Holden's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California.

In their bid to have the case thrown out, Deadspin lawyers argued that the claims against Armenta amounted to opinion, which is constitutionally protected speech.

Crossed the line

However, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg vehemently disagreed

"Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims," Judge Lugg wrote.

"Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing [Holden] of wearing black face and Native headdress ‘to hate black people and the Native American at the same time,’ and that he was taught this hatred by his parents, are provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable," Lugg noted.

A spokesperson for G/O Media told the Associated Press that the company had no comment regarding the lawsuit.

Watch Sara Gonzales — host of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" — skewer the woke media for attacking the 9-year-old Chiefs fan.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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'I don't see a problem': Dutch soccer player Nathan Ake defends Netherlands fans accused of blackface



An active Dutch soccer player stood up for three fans who were impersonating an iconic player and were accused of doing "blackface" in the process.

During a game against Poland at the 2024 UEFA European Championships, three fans of the Netherlands painted their faces and wore wigs to imitate the look of former player Ruud Gullit, an iconic figure in Dutch soccer who was on the 1988 team that won the same tournament.

The three men were criticized online for their portrayals of the soccer legend, with many subsequent media articles publicizing the appearance.

However, the fans have not faced condemnation from the Dutch team with at least one of the players coming to their defense.

Defender Nathan Ake, who also plays for one of the top teams in the world at Manchester City, was asked by a reporter to address the controversy during a recent press conference.

'The last thing I want to do is hurt people and that's why I've decided to stop.'

"[The] community has become quite angry about a number of lookalikes of Ruud Gullit with shoe polish on their face. What is your opinion about it, and especially Nathan who is often seen as a [look alike]," the reporter stated. Ake explained that the gesture didn't bother him.

"I don't see a problem," Ake said, according to SportBible. "Can I be honest here? These topics are getting out of hand, we should be allowing things like this to happen."

"Ruud Gullit already said he finds it an honor too. Let's stop making a problem out of things like this," Ake added.

Manager Ronald Koeman simply stated, "Yes, I agree."

According to Dutch outlet De Telegraaf, Gullit himself said, "I actually feel honored," in reference to the fans.

One of those fans was identified as Bart van de Ven; he was asked about the reactions his costume had garnered.

"Maybe I made a mistake or it's a blind spot," he said, according to Dutch News. The fan noted he wouldn't be dressing up any longer due to the reactions he got online, despite allegedly wearing the same costume at many major tournaments.

"The last thing I want to do is hurt people and that's why I've decided to stop."

"I've had a lot of really nice responses as well, but clearly there is a group who feel differently," he continued.

"I have to respect that and listen to it. The last thing I want is for people to have a certain unpleasant association with my act," he said, referring to blackface.

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Students expelled over bogus 'blackface' claims just taught the school a valuable lesson worth over $1 million



A pair of 14-year-old boys donned acne face masks along with a friend in August 2017. Realizing they looked "silly," they decided to take a selfie — having no idea that a mob of thin-skinned ideologues might jump to conclusions years down the road.

The photo resurfaced in June 2020. It was immediately seized upon as an example of the racism that was supposedly everywhere in the aftermath of the deadly Black Lives Matter riots.

Rather than launch a proper investigation, which would have undoubtedly cleared the boys of any wrongdoing, the teens' school effectively branded them as racists then had them expelled.

"We would never wish the pain, humiliation, and suffering St. Francis has inflicted on our families on anyone," said the Hughes family

Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California, has paid the price for rushing to judgment.

With the help of the Dhillon Law Group, which has represented other minors similarly traduced over racially-charged hoaxes, the teens, Holden Hughes and Aaron Harley, sued the high school with their parents for over $20 million. While ultimately unable to exact the full toll for their malignment, the former students walked walked away this week with $1 million plus tuition reimbursement.

The Los Angeles Times indicated that a Santa Clara County jury sided with the former students who claimed the school breached an oral contract and failed to give them due process before expelling them.

"Twenty percent of our boys' lives have been spent seeing this process come to fruition. But the sacrifice is worth it to clear our boys' names, and to try and make sure that St. Francis can never again assume a child is guilty without giving a child the opportunity to show their innocence. To never again sacrifice any child to protect the school's reputation like they did our boys," the Hughes family said in a statement.

"We would never wish the pain, humiliation, and suffering St. Francis has inflicted on our families on anyone, but we are thankful that the jury has spoken, and vindicated our boys, and forced St. Francis to finally take responsibility for their repeated personal attacks on the boys," added the family.

Background

The original complaint indicated that on Aug. 17, 2017, Hughes and Hartley, then both 14 years old, put on white acne masks that Hartley's mother purchased to help with his skin condition, reported NBC News.

"Believing themselves to look 'silly' in the masks, [Harley] and [a friend from another school identified as Minor III] took a time-stamped photograph of themselves in the masks," said the lawsuit.

The next day, Hughes, Hartley and Minor III instead tried on a light green acne face mask.

"Again, they took a silly photograph in this mask, which had turned dark green by the time it dried on their faces," said the lawsuit.

— (@)

The boys did not share the image online. However, Minor III shared it to a friend, who ultimately "tagged a music playlist on her Spotify account with a copy of the photograph."

Years later, a student at the school reportedly obtained a copy of the photo, named the students, and insinuated that they had engaged in blackface.

Alicia Labana, a parent originally named as a defendant in the suit, made matters worse by allegedly posting the photo on Facebook ahead of a planned march to protest "outrageous behavior" and to pressure the school to act.

According to lawsuit, the image was condemned by school staff and parents alike and prompted a parent-led protest against the minors.

Jason Curtis, president of the school, reportedly rushed to issue a public condemnation. Absent an investigation into the image, a hearing taking up the accusations or the involvement of the school's review board, Hartley and Hughes were told within 24 hours of the scandal breaking they had to withdraw from the school or face expulsion.

The teens left the school in June 2020 and filed suit the following year.

Hughes reportedly indicated his family had to put up security cameras around their home and pled with the Los Altos Police to execute additional patrols in the area for fear of attacks.

Hartley said his family had to move away on account of the persistent harassment and that he had to complete high school remotely, reported the Post.

Vindicated

The Palo Alto Post reported that a jury of 12 reached their verdict on Monday following 20 days of testimony and three days of deliberation. The boys will receive $500,000 each from the high school and be reimbursed for their tuition, an estimated $70,000 for their three years at Saint Francis High School.

Saint Francis High School spokesman Jamie Perkins said in a statement obtained by the Post, "We respectfully disagree with the jury's conclusion … regarding the fairness of our disciplinary review process and are exploring legal options, including appeal as there is no legal precedent applying that claim to a high school."

The former students' legal team suggested that this case establishes a new precedent by extending protections set by the California Supreme Court in Boermeester v. Carry, which requires fair procedure rights for students at private universities. Accordingly, such fair procedure rights will allegedly apply to private high schools.

Krista Baughman, partner at the Dhillon Law Group, stated, "This case is significant not only for our clients but for its groundbreaking effect on all private high schools in California, which are now legally required to provide fair procedure to students before punishing or expelling them."

"The jury's verdict finally cleared our clients' names after four long years of repeated personal attacks from St. Francis High School. Schools are supposed to protect and nurture children, not sacrifice them when it is convenient for public relations purpose," added Karin Sweigart, counsel with the Dhillon Law Group.

The former students' parents expressed hope that this result will prompt the school's board of directors to "hold those responsible for these actions and make needed changes to protect students moving forward."

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Billy Dee Williams defends blackface in exchange with Bill Maher: 'If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do.'



Billy Dee Williams said that he believes actors should be able to do what they want to do, including blackface. The comments were made on Bill Maher's show, "Club Random with Bill Maher."

Williams called attention to Laurence Olivier's performance in "Othello," where he wore blackface. "When he did 'Othello,' I fell out laughing. He stuck his a** out and walked around because black people are supposed to have big a**es."

Following the comments, Maher replied: "Today, they would never let you do that."

"Why?" Williams responded. "You should do it. If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do."

"That's a great point of view, but the theater would be bombed," Maher replied back.

— (@)

Williams mentioned that he refused to "go through life feeling like, 'I'm a victim.' I refuse to go through life saying to the world, 'I'm pissed off.' I'm not gonna be pissed off 24 hours a day."

A recent example that the two brought up in the exchange was Bradley Cooper's prosthetic nose in last year's Oscar-nominated "Maestro." Cooper portrayed the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein, and he appears to have sported a fake nose that some denounced as anti-Semitic.

Non-Jewish people portraying Jewish people in performances has been characterized as "Jewface" by some.

Cooper responded to the claims when the film was released.

“I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it,'” Cooper said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “But it’s all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic].”

Despite some of the outrage, the Anti-Defamation League came to the film's defense, saying: “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”

Bernstein's three children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein — also came to Cooper's defense of the performance, per Variety.

“Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father. We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”

“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts," the three continued. "It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well."

"Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father. At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.”

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Blaze News investigates: 5th-grade girl accused of wearing blackface for participating in innocent field-day fun



Camille Lamy — a friendly and mature 12-year-old girl living in Austin, Texas — is not a racist, a fact to which friends, teachers, administrators, and even some area attorneys have repeatedly attested. Despite her established record of good character, however, some staff members at her former elementary school claimed that on field day last year, she inadvertently donned blackface, an act that they claimed was racist because of similar actions performed by other people with entirely different motives in entirely different contexts.

Blaze News spoke with Camille and her parents, Jay and Kelley Lamy, to understand exactly why her actions that day caused such an uproar and why the family remains indignant about the responses they have received from the school and the district regarding Camille's case.

'I'm a football player': Kids paint their faces for field day

Like most fifth-grade students at Bridge Point Elementary in Eanes ISD last year, Camille Lamy was excited about "May Madness," BPE's designated field day. A memo laying out some of the May Madness ground rules promised a day "full of FUN with tons of AWESOME stations."

BPE has several fifth-grade classes, and each class was allowed to vote for a special field day color. One class opted for blue; another chose orange or pink. Camille preferred gray, but her fellow classmates voted for black. So, Camille showed up for school on May 12, 2023, representing her class by wearing black shorts and a black T-shirt.

As many of the older BPE students paint their faces to show team spirit during May Madness, one of Camille's friends also brought what has been described as a "camo stick," a camouflage-colored, make-up-like face application often used by hunters and other outdoorsmen. Camille and several of her classmates then began applying the camo stick liberally to their arms, legs, and faces, especially under their eyes as they've seen so many athletes do.

"We were like, 'OK, look, I'm a football player,'" Camille explained to Blaze News.

Caught up in the excitement of the day and wanting to show support for Team Black, Camille and a male friend used the camo stick to draw stripes on their faces before eventually deciding to rub the face paint in, creating black smears all over their faces. At that point, the substitute teacher in charge of the class that day, Katelyn Schueller, reportedly glared at Camille and the boy and told them: "I know your intent was not to be racist, but what you did was racist."

Schueller, a white woman who taught in other BPE classes before but whom Camille had never met until that day, then ordered the two to go into the bathroom and scrub the black smudges off their faces, an exercise in futility since the only wiping tissue available in the bathroom was toilet paper. After Camille and the boy reported back that they could not remove the smears, Schueller sent the two kids to the counselors' office.

'Like I had hurt herfeelings': Camille's awkward visit to the main office

As instructed, Camille and the boy went to the counselors' office, located near the principal's office in the main office of the building. Likewise in the area was Rachael Sherman, a "school-based therapist" and one of the only black staff members at Bridge Point Elementary, a school that is overwhelmingly white. Though Sherman and Camille had no verbal interaction that day, as Camille sat waiting to speak with BPE Principal Sheri Bryant, Sherman reportedly walked by Camille several times, increasing Camille's discomfort.
"I felt really, really embarrassed and like I had hurt her feelings and she was gonna be mad at me because the sub said we were being racist," Camille later said, according to her mother, Kelley Lamy.
Eventually, Principal Bryant invited Camille into her office. However, rather than give Camille a chance to explain what happened, Bryant immediately began echoing Schueller's sentiments regarding the racist undertones of the black face paint and handed Camille a moistened towel to wipe her face, Camille said. When Camille's efforts to remove the paint were just as unsuccessful as they had been with the toilet paper, Bryant took matters into her own hands. "The principal is touching Camille and wiping her face at this point," Kelley Lamy told Blaze News.
The moistened towel and vigorous rubbing caused Camille's face to turn red and tingle with irritation, but they did also remove the supposedly offensive face paint. So, Camille was almost ready to leave when Bryant directed her to apologize to Ms. Schueller and even made Camille perform a "practice" apology before she would be dismissed, Camille claimed. Anxious to be done with the situation, Camille stated, "I'm sorry for what I did." That first iteration was unsatisfactory to Ms. Bryant — one of two principals on the district's DEI Advisory Committee — so Camille tried again: "I'm sorry for being racist." This time, Bryant approved, and Camille left Bryant's office.
When Camille returned to the area of her homeroom to grab her lunch box, she reportedly saw Sherman, the black school therapist, consoling Ms. Schueller, who was still apparently upset about the black face paint. Camille did not address either woman but grabbed her lunch and dashed off to meet her friends in the lunch room just in time to see Principal Bryant place baby wipes on all of the tables and order students to clean off all the face paint, regardless of color.
According to Molly May, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for Eanes ISD, Bryant denied "coaching" Camille in her apology and simply treated "the situation as a learning opportunity." Neither Bryant nor Sherman responded to Blaze News' request for comment.

'You knew exactlywhat you were doing': Homeroom teacher weighs in

Camille and her homeroom teacher, Mollie McAllister, missed the Monday following May Madness, but when both returned to class on Tuesday, Ms. McAllister addressed some reports of bad behavior she had received from the substitute, Ms. Schueller. "Some of you didn't even know what you were doing," McAllister told the class, according to Kelley Lamy, "but some of you knew exactly what you were doing that day."

The Lamys told Blaze News that while McAllister made no specific reference to black face paint during her general address to the class, she did look pointedly at Camille and the male student at key moments.

McAllister then passed around paper and instructed students to write Ms. Schueller an apology note. Camille was uncertain how to proceed at this time since her parents had told her not to discuss the incident with anyone at school, including her friends and teachers. However, after Ms. McAllister chastised Camille for allegedly making light of the reports from Ms. Schueller, Camille quickly scribbled a letter that read something to the effect of: "I'm sorry for what I did and for being racist."

Kelley Lamy later emailed Ms. McAllister, with whom she used to correspond regularly, and asked to see a copy of Camille's letter, but McAllister replied that she no longer had the letters in her possession. A statement from Assistant Superintendent May claimed that McAllister had "read and recycled" the students' apology letters without sharing them "with any other person," ostensibly including Ms. Schueller.

Schueller, who no longer works for the school district, and McAllister did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

'Perceived as offensive': District defends 'blackface' hysteria

Jay and Kelley Lamy were appalled that Bridge Point Elementary teachers and staff so zealously targeted their daughter for painting her face for May Madness, just as dozens of other BPE students had done. So, they hired an attorney, Stuart Baggish, to fight their cause at the district level.
And fight he did. In a series of verbal statements and written documents filed with the district, Baggish called the entire situation a "witch-hunt" and a "quixotic obsession with fighting non-existent racism." He even repeatedly asserted that it was a form of emotional and psychological "child abuse" since adults attempted to convince Camille she could commit a racist action without harboring any preexisting "race-hatred," which Baggish said is "an essential element of racism."
If anyone is to blame for racism in this case, Baggish claimed, it was not Camille, but McAllister, who knew that her students had voted black as their class color and should have anticipated that some of them would want to paint their faces black in accordance with May Madness custom. She and other adults "should have known in advance what was going to happen" but instead "wait[ed] until the kids had already done it," he said.
Finally, Baggish called out the substitute teacher, Katelyn Schueller — whom he referred to as "a privileged white woman" — for her role in instigating the matter. Schueller's "unhinged and misplaced hyper-sensitivities and political hyper-activism led her to affirmatively agitate for discord, where none would otherwise have occurred, leading to an unwarranted fiasco," Baggish wrote.
His pugnacious language may have indeed struck a nerve as Cory Rush, an attorney representing the district, attempted to downplay the political nature of the case. Rush quibbled with the assertion that the adults involved were a bunch of "social-justice warriors" and denied that the case was a matter of "wokeness" versus "white fragility."
In response to a formal grievance filed by Baggish, district Assistant Superintendent Molly Mays conducted an investigation into the Lamys' allegations. As might be expected though, Mays ultimately determined that "Ms. Schueller and Ms. Bryant acted appropriately to teach Camille that covering one’s face entirely in black paint can be perceived as offensive based on the historical context of blackface minstrelsy."
Mays did grant the Lamys' request that all references to racism be removed from Camille's permanent record, a rather hollow concession since, according to Mays, no such references "to racism or the circumstances surrounding the May Madness event" existed on Camille's record in the first place.
Mays also offered her written response as a de facto apology to the Lamys on behalf of Principal Bryant. Should the Lamys refuse to accept that apology, she offered to arrange a meeting between the Lamys and Principal Bryant "to achieve resolution of this matter." The Lamys do not accept the response as a suitable apology. Yet, to date, no meeting with Principal Bryant has been arranged, they told Blaze News.
The Lamys also criticized Mays' so-called investigation, described by attorney Cory Rush as "full" but that consisted only of interviews with three witnesses: Bryant, McAllister, and Schueller. Mays never spoke with Camille or any other student, including those who reportedly supported Camille's version of events.
Eanes ISD Superintendent Dr. Jeff Arnett, an acquaintance of Jay Lamy, did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

'The court of public opinion': The continued fight to clear Camille's name

In September, the Eanes Board of Trustees voted unanimously to uphold Mays' grievance response, drawing the Lamys' legal avenues within the school district to a frustrating close. By that time, Kelley and Jay Lamy had already spent more than $40,000 in attorney fees and other legal costs, and they were still no closer to clearing Camille's name.
They had the option to pursue their case with the Texas Education Agency, but the Lamys knew they stood little chance of winning there. So, they opted to stop "draining their assets" in the legal system and instead start "winning in the court of public opinion," Kelley Lamy said. To that end, the Lamys began working with Blaze Media to share their story and expose what is happening in public schools, even in red states like Texas.
For her part, Camille, who is now thriving in an Eanes middle school, just wants people to know that what happened to her was "not OK." "People [should not be] calling kids racist who don't know what they were doing and didn't even try to be racist," she told Blaze News.
She said she also wants the adults involved in the situation to admit they made "a mistake" in blowing the face-painting out of proportion. A simple apology, not unlike the apologies the adults demanded of her, would go a long way, she indicated.
"Then, all would be forgiven."
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Parents of boy suspended for wearing 'warrior paint' at football game sue principal and superintendent



An eighth-grade student in La Jolla, California, attended a high school football game in his free time on Oct. 13. In an effort to emulate his sports heroes, he donned warrior paint on his cheeks, temples, and chin. According to the principal of his school, this common practice amounted to a "hate incident" — at least when executed by this particular child.

The principal reportedly banned the 13-year-old from attending San Diego Unified School District sporting events for the remainder of the year and suspended him from school for two days, accusing him of hatred with "intent to harm."

In an effort to clear the boy's name, the Ameduri family is now suing Muirlands Middle School Principal Jeffrey Luna and Lamont Jackson, the superintendent of the SDUSD who denied the boy's suspension appeal. The boy's family has demanded a jury trial.

Painting a child as a villain

Blaze News previously reported that the boy, referred to as J.A. in court documents, donned the face paint for a game between La Jolla High School and Morse High School. The Center for American Liberty indicated the boy wasn't alone: "Several other students put eye black in various designs on their faces."

According to the lawsuit, the boy's intent "in having his friend paint Warrior eye black on his face was to show spirit for the football team along with the many other fans in attendance. He was not familiar with the concept of 'blackface' at the time he put on the Warrior eye black. He had no intent to mimic or mock anyone when he donned the Warrior eye black, nor did he engage in any behavior that could be characterized as mimicking or mocking Black people while wearing it."

— (@)

The game was not sponsored or affiliated with J.A.'s school. Even if it was, the lawsuit further noted that the SDUSD has not rules or policies barring fans from wearing eye black or face paint at games.

"It was a normal day, everything was normal. No one said anything. It was a normal football game and La Jolla won," the boy's father, Daniel Ameduri, told "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. "I used to go to a lot of football games when I lived in Texas, and I used to play football and sometimes we put that on if one of the kids brought it."

"Then the following Monday, Tuesday, nothing," continued Ameduri. "Wednesday afternoon the principal called J.A. into the office, and the next morning my wife and I showed up and he said, 'He did blackface,' and he was suspended for two days and was gonna be banned from sports."

The suspension notice said the boy "painted his face black at a football game" and categorized it as a "Hate Incident" with the "intent to harm."

Ameduri recalled having showed the principal, Jeffrey Luna, a photograph of his boy in an effort to "vindicate" his son, but that did not sway Luna, who allegedly responded, "No, that's blackface."

— (@)

Clearing his name

The family filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Tuesday, accusing Luna and SDUSD superintendent Jackson of violating J.A.'s First Amendment rights, his right of due process, and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

The complaint noted that J.A. was within his constitutional rights when wearing eye black "to show spirit" at the game — constitutional rights students "do not shed ... at the schoolhouse gate."

By punishing J.A. "for his protected speech, Principal Luna and the SDUSD Office of Placement and Appeals exhibited oppression, malice, gross negligence, willful or wanton misconduct, and/or a reckless disregard for J.A.'s civil right," said the lawsuit.

Furthermore, by suspending J.A. alone for wearing the "warrior eye black," the complaint suggests Luna and other defendants "intentionally treated J.A. differently from other similarly situated football fans at the Game ... among them Muirlands students, who were at the Game wearing eye black and face paint as their situations were directly comparable in all material respects."

"J.A. was irrationally singled out for punishment," according to the complaint.

The family wants J.A.'s sporting-event ban lifted; his disciplinary record pertaining to the incident expunged; a declaration on the part of the principal and superintendent that the actions taken against the boy violated his constitutional rights; and damages, in an amount to be determined at trial.

Karin Sweigart, a First Amendment specialist at the Dhillon Law Group who is representing J.A., told KFMB-TV why the success of the suit is critical: "[J.A.] might have to not only have short-term ramifications; he would have to have this on his student records when he's applying for high schools. But also, potentially, this could come up with colleges with future job applications."

Sweigart wrote on X,"Cheering at a football game is not blackface, and school administrators saying an innocent child committed an act of 'hate violence' with no investigation and no evidence to support the claim is despicable."

"As an attorney, I have been dealing with in an alarming number of situations clients calling me with similar things. And these school districts need to stop. They need to stop throwing innocent children under the bus," added Sweigart.

Late last year, liberal sports blog Deadspin vilified a 9-year-old Native American boy who turned up at a Kansas City Chiefs game with his face painted in the colors of his favorite team, accusing him of racial hatred.

Blaze News reported that following a lawsuit threat from the boy's parents, Deadspin partially amended its reports.

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Deadspin writer who said kid wore blackface tries to keep story afloat. Disgusted social media users push back with contempt.



Carron J. Phillips — the Deadspin writer who accused a 9-year-old boy of wearing blackface to a Kansas City Chiefs game — on Thursday posted two entries on the X platform calling attention to a Native American tribe's reaction to the kid wearing a headdress.

Philllips didn't use words to preface his pair of posts; instead he employed "eyeball" emojis, which typically are used as a "Look at this!" signal to readers.

But Phillips' attempt to keep his story afloat appeared only to make X users furious, as they're in the process of ratioing each entry into oblivion (i.e., when comments outnumber likes) and blasting him for "still harassing children" among other things.

Here's a tiny sampling from the nearly 1,500 comments — and counting — on one post:

Image source: X

What is the background?

Phillips used a photo for his Deadspin piece showing only half of Holden Armenta's face, which was black.

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Problem is, the other half of Holden's face was red — one of the Chiefs' team colors.

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Blaze News writer Carlos Garcia pointed out that Phillips, in his effort to double down against numerous critics railing against him, used a non-sequitur that accused them of hating Mexicans.

"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," Phillips wrote in an X post, which now appears to have been deleted. "Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco."

What's more, Holden's mother — Shannon Armenta — stated on her Facebook page that her son actually is Native American.

Fox News said the Armenta family noted they are part of the Chumash tribe of California and used to live on a reservation.

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Dubiously, Phillips wrote in his Deadspin piece that Holden "found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time."

In addition, a recent update to his Deadspin article notes that the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians released a statement "condemning" the "wearing regalia as part of a costume or participating in any other type of cultural appropriation." Strangely, the full statement from the tribe, which is included in the update, does not use the word "condemn" — rather that the tribe "does not endorse" the aforementioned activities.

Fox News' Jesse Watters on Wednesday interviewed Holden and his dad, Bubba, who said he's "mad" and "upset" about the toll the rather dubious controversy has taken on his son: "He's pretty devastated."

'Racist racist racist racist'

Here's another sample of comments out of over 400 — and counting — ripping Phillips under the other post:

Image source: X

Anything else?

Holden's father also acknowledged that he's seen a "whirlwind of comments" about his son's headdress and that some tribal members "think it's OK, some think it's not OK" but that ultimately "it's a 9-year-old boy supporting his team."

In addition, Holden's dad told Watters that it’s "a little too late" for an apology from Phillips because the "damage is already done."

On the positive side, Holden said it feels "really good" to know that Chiefs fans apparently are planning to wear black and red face paint at the next game to support him.

Greg Gutfeld had a thing or two to say about the controversy as well Wednesday night:

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