In one of the dumber stories of 2023, disgraced "sports news" site Deadspin decided it would be a good idea to attack a nine-year-old for supposedly wearing "blackface." The accusation arose after the child was photographed in Las Vegas wearing black facepaint and a headdress.

As RedState reported, it wasn't long before the real story came out. The boy was simply a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, and the other side of his face was painted red to denote that. Later, it was even revealed that his grandfather was a Native American elder, though I don't think that was especially relevant. A child should be able to paint their face to support a sports team regardless of their lineage. 

Despite the backlash, the original post by Deadspin is still up, and the author of the piece doubled down multiple times on social media. 

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 question then became what the parents of the boy who was doxxed and falsely accused would do, and we are getting our first clues about that. To start, a letter has been sent by their lawyers demanding a full retraction of the story. They are also threatening to sue. 

The family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan whom Deadspin accused of being racist for wearing a Native American headdress and painting his face half black and half red is threatening to sue the publisher and reporter.

Holden Armenta’s parents, Shannon and Raul, have hired Clare Locke LLP to demand that the sports news site and senior writer Carron Phillips issue a retraction for his story headlined “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress.” 

They also threatened further legal action against the reporter, Deadspin, publisher G/O Media and Great Hill Partners in a letter obtained by NewsNation.

“These articles, posts on X and photos about Holden and his parents must be retracted immediately,” the letter read.

“It is not enough to quietly remove a tweet from X or disable the article from Deadspin’s website. You must publish your retractions and issue an apology to my clients with the same prominence and fanfare with which you defamed them.”

It doesn't appear that the request for a retraction is being made in place of a possible lawsuit, which means even if Deadspin gives one, there's no guarantee they won't end up in court anyway. Still, producing a retraction could go a long way in showing a judge and jury that some remorse existed. Does Deadspin have that kind of humility as a publication? I've seen no evidence of that so it would surprise me if they do anything but thumb their collective noses. 

If that happens, a lawsuit should follow. There is no reason to allegedly defame a small child over face paint and a costume. I don't care what one thinks about "blackface" as a political issue. There should not be a total societal prohibition on anyone ever using a dark-colored facepaint for things that are completely unrelated to racism or even anything to do with black Americans. The idea that we are going to doxx and shame children for painting their faces is absurd, and it's a sign of a very unhealthy society.