The sports website Deadspin has lost its effort to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of a young boy accused of wearing blackface during a Kansas City Chiefs game last November.
“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. This is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate,” Deadspin writer Carron J. Phillips wrote last year.
The boy’s face was painted half red and half black in support of the Chief’s colors. His also has Chumash-Indian heritage, The New York Post reported.
“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,” Suprior Court Judge Sean Lugg wrote.
“Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing H.A. 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,” the judge added.
Elizabeth Locke, an attorney for the family, told the New York Post: “Deadspin and Carron Phillips have never shown a morsel of remorse for using a 9-year-old boy as their political football. The Armenta family is looking forward to taking depositions and presenting this case to a jury at trial.”
