(NewsNation) — A young Kansas City Chiefs fan is being accused by some of being racist against Black and Native Americans for painting his face black and red while wearing a native headdress to a football game.
However, overnight, Holden Armenta’s mother posted on Facebook that her son is actually Native American himself as well as his grandfather who is serving on the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
The picture of the boy was taken on Sunday at the Chiefs-Raiders game in Las Vegas. Armenta was shown on national TV and was also videoed doing the “tomahawk chop” along with tens of thousands of fans in attendance. Even some Chiefs players were doing the gesture on the field.
But after the image of the boy aired, Carron J Phillips, a senior writer with Deadspin, wrote a scathing article about the boy’s “racist” and “disrespectful” actions.
“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 in his story.
He continued, “Despite their age, who taught that person that what they were wearing was appropriate?”
Phillips also called out the NFL, calling on the league for “relentlessly participating in prejudice.”
In 2020, the NFL changed the Washington Redskins name, which was started in 1933, to the Washington Commanders. The change came after Native American groups complained for years that the Redskins name was racist.
After the death of George Floyd in 2020, the NFL also promoted messages of equality and racial justice, yet Phillips said no one from the NFL is calling what the young boy did wrong.
However, Phillips has also received criticism for blaming the boy for being racist.
When Phillips posted a picture of the kid online, he only showed the black side of the boy’s painted face, which some say was done intentionally to provoke a strong public response.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, called Phillips out for being deceptive.
“You really want to ruin this little kid’s life over him wearing his favorite team’s colors? This is an embarrassing take and you should be ashamed of yourselves,” another X user wrote.
But Phillips is sticking by his story on the kid and his parents’ decision to allow him to wear the look.
Phillips also has supporters who said he was right to call them out for being racially insensitive. Others say the family should sue Phillips and Deadspin for defamation for falsely calling the kid a racist.
NewsNation reached out to Deadspin, Phillips and the NFL but have not received a response.