KANSAS, MO – A young boy adorned in face paint in support of the NFL team Kansas City Chiefs was accused of donning “black face” by a columnist at Deadspin, sparking a mix of backlash against the young boy as well as the Pulitzer-nominated journalist in light of the ostensibly overreaching opinion.
A November 27th article featured in Deadspin, written by Carron J. Phillips, has stirred quite the controversy after the premise of the opinion piece seemingly misrepresented a child attending a Kansas City Chiefs’ game while adorned in black/red face paint as having been a display of “black face.”
For the sake of context, it’s not uncommon to see NFL fans, both young and old, sporting the likes of face or body paint while attending live games which showcase support of their preferred team. A common trope associated with the aforementioned practice involves thematic colors akin to an NFL team’s jersey and/or logo or insignia.
With the aforesaid context in mind, it wouldn’t be out of place to observe some ardent fans of the Kansas City Chiefs at their live games adorning some color scheme iteration meant to blatantly convey a sense of support for the team.
This leads to a young boy amidst the stands of a November 26th game where the Chiefs were playing, with the child wearing a Chiefs #87 jersey (Travis Kelce) along with a Native American headdress and juxtaposed black and red paint on his face.
To the average viewer, this display would be consumed as nothing more than an NFL fan prominently displaying his preferred team’s colors; however, Deadspin contributor Phillips crafted an article with a narrative that sought to attribute a “black face” allegation aimed at the young boy in tandem with a photo solely showing the black side of the face paint, thereby omitting the obvious red face paint portion of the young NFL fan’s getup.
In all fairness, Phillips wasn’t the initial person to drum up the controversy, although he is responsible for making a child supporting an NFL team the center of a story meant to label an innocuous act racist. Rather, the original offender of the arguably libelous act goes to Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports, who initially launched the Twitter mob on the afternoon of November 26th with the screenshot of the child alongside a caption that read, “this chiefs fan is totally having a normal one,” which resulted in a flurry of responses from his followers which largely derided the child and labeled him, and whomever his parents are, ‘racist.’
this chiefs fan is totally having a normal one pic.twitter.com/cYEkIkAtPa
— charles (“you look good” – andy reid) mcdonald (@FourVerts) November 26, 2023
This entire debacle taps into several aspects that are a dredge to modern society and political/social discourse, one such matter being the insatiable thirst of the terminally online to find a ‘bad’ person or thing to disavow or belittle. At the end of the day, we’re discussing a child in face paint at an NFL game who has become the target of literal adults attempting to cast shame, with said adults seemingly oblivious to their deserved shame of dogpiling a child online over something misconstrued and misrepresented.
But this conjured fiasco also touches on another controversial theoretical phenomenon of recent years, in that the ‘supply’ of racism isn’t meeting the ‘demand’ insofar as having a headline of the day for people to become enraged over. What was once something one may have seen plastered over a tabloid’s front page while passing a newsstand or checkout aisle at a grocer has instead become the trending social media post of the day or week, with the buy-in of social media post consumption being clearly cheaper than the forgone era of newsstand gossip pieces running a few bucks to get the story. Ergo, even the sleaziest or blatantly misrepresentative articles can rise to the top of the news heap and garner attention and comments.
At the end of the day, the likes of the editors or journalists behind these sorts of hit pieces haven’t a care of the bearing on their targets whether innocent or guilty, adult or child – their articles and social media posts, as well as their respective impacts on consumers, serve but only two masters: their clout and their agenda.
Gregory Hoyt is a former contributor to outlets such as Law Enforcement Today and Red Voice Media, and current host of The Breakdown with Greg Hoyt. Based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona, Hoyt is a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, while also harboring the unique experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.