A senior writer at Deadspin defended fellow staffer Carron Phillips, who falsely accused a child of wearing blackface at a Kansas City Chiefs game.
Phillips received major backlash over his Monday article, “The NFL needs to speak out against Kansas City Chiefs fan in blackface, Native headdress,” in which he posted a misleading photograph of Holden Armenta’s black face paint on one side of his face, without showing the red paint on the other half. He accused the boy of displaying “racism and hate” toward black and Native Americans, despite Armenta being Native American himself.
Many conservatives and prominent figures have called for Deadspin to be sued over the false claims, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk called Phillips an “unapologetic racist.”
A fellow senior writer at Deadspin named Julie DiCaro stood by Phillips, saying the boy’s costume was indeed racist and refused to “throw a friend and colleague under the bus.” She said this in response to Outkick reporter Bobby Burack, who she baselessly accused of sexism for asking if she supports her colleague smearing a child.
“What you will not get from me is a statement declaring what a person of color deems to be racist,” she said in response to Burack. “What you also will not get from me is a statement throwing a friend and colleague under the bus on Twitter. I find it really curious that you are laser-focused on the only woman on staff who wasn’t even working when the story was published. It’s almost like (gasp) sexism.” (RELATED: We Thought The Deadspin Story Calling A Child Super-Fan Racist Couldn’t Implode Any Worse…And Then It Did)
2) what you also will not get from me is a statement throwing a friend and colleague under the bus on Twitter.
3) I find it really curious that you are laser-focused on the only woman on staff who wasn’t even working when the story was published. It’s almost like (gasp) sexism.
— Julie DiCaro (@JulieDiCaro) November 30, 2023
Phillips has not personally issued a correction on his misleading allegation after a full photograph of the boy showed red paint on the side to represent the team’s colors. He initially attempted to double down on the blackface allegations by claiming the red paint made the situation “even worse” in a now-deleted tweet.
“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 it makes it even worse,” Phillips wrote in his now-deleted tweet.
Why did our friend Carron J Phillips delete this tweet? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/MDVgX1Jrw0
— Dr. Sydney Watson (@SydneyLWatson) November 28, 2023
Deadspin updated the piece as of Thursday morning, saying the outlet is “aware” that the young boy wore the headdress and paint to cheer on the Chiefs. The statement then emphasized that the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, a Native American reservation the boy’s grandfather is a member of, does not support “wearing regalia as part of a costume or participating in any other type of cultural appropriation.”
This is not the first instance where Phillips baselessly accused people and professional sports leagues of racism. He accused National Basketball League (NBA) fans of “white supremacy” for cheering on black athletes during the G7s following a racially-based mass shooting that killed ten people in Buffalo, New York, supermarket. He also accused Michael Lewis, the author of “The Blind Side,” of having a “slave owner’s mentality” for writing about a white family who adopted former NFL player Michael Oher.