For a few days now, the news cycle has been consumed with the story of a writer at Deadspin — the avowed sports and proven activist portal — who slandered the character of a young boy at the most recent Kansas City Chiefs game. In case you do not have the details, here they are in capsule form. Setting aside the testicular deficiencies leading to such a decision as nationally condemning a child, the emotional fervor one must have cooked up in the mind in order to plow ahead with such a charge is a mystery.
Writer Carron Phillips saw an image of a young boy in profile at the Chiefs game, wearing a feathered headdress in team colors, and the visible side of his face colored in black. As a result, Carron (pronounced as “Karen” and also behaved as one) pronounced this to be “blackface” and doubly racist towards Native Americans, and he called on the league to take action. Then, it was revealed through other images this boy had red paint on the other half of his face. Once this was pointed out to him, Phillips lashed out at others, calling his critics “idiots” and accusing them — for reasons known only to him — of hating Mexicans.
Well,…things have become even worse for Mr. Phillips. We’ll get to the new information in a moment; first, let us address what Carron elided in his rush to deliver this grand treatise addressing the racial hegemony enacted by a nine-year-old adorned in team regalia. He failed to consider:
- He was accusing a child of poisonous racism.
- What reason would a young boy be slathered in blackface?
- Why would he be engaging in a racist act in public?
- Could there be more to the appearance, given the tribal headgear he was wearing?
- Why was Carron the only person on the planet bothered by this boy’s appearance?
Undeterred, Mr. Phillips forged ahead, pausing only to occasionally wipe the spittle marks off his screen as he pounded out his anti-racist screed. Well, his intended goals of correcting a social ill and, most importantly, elevating himself to a new stratum of social virtue were both dashed by a crude aspect of life – namely, reality.
Not only has the young lad’s dual-hued adornment unraveled the justified outrage from Phillips, but the remaining component he rested upon — that being the offensiveness to the Native tribes of this country — has now been equally rendered as farcically wrong. It has been shown that the family of this youngster is…(this is too delicious)…Native American.
It appears the boy’s mother, on her Facebook page, has been defending her son, and she alerts that they are, in fact, Native Americans themselves. They have attended prior Chiefs games, including the team’s Super Bowl appearance. There are numerous photos she has posted of her son around the stadium. She reposted an entry from the account The Real Kansas City Chiefs Fans about her son. That account has another posting where it was stated the family is part of the Chumash Tribe in the southern California region and that the grandfather is a member of that tribe’s governing board.
That sound you hear of shattering glass is the credibility of Carron Phillips. He began to realize trouble when he shut off the replies of his Xitter account. But he is apparently the very type of hysteric Deadspin prefers. This outlet is known for this kind of hysterical racial outburst, absent of logic and basic journalism.
Just under two years ago, there was a lengthy piece grousing about the Miami Dolphins hiring Mike McDaniels as their new head coach. This was said, at the time, to be an example of the ongoing racism in the league. He was described as “the next trendy, young, white guy who takes a head coaching position before one of the many deserving Black candidates.” Writer Sean Beckwith also said, “McDaniel is a perfect example of how qualified Black candidates get overlooked.” You could almost predict what happened next.
As of this publication, Deadspin has yet to make any corrections or make an editor’s note to the Phillips tirade. Now we learn the child allegedly offending Native Americans is one of their own. Further silence on this debacle means Deadspin’s credibility is going to match that of their fractured reporters. Perhaps it is by design.
