A writer for a sports blog called Deadspin targeted a child wearing face paint at a Kansas City Chiefs football game, attempting to smear the boy as wearing “black face.”

The writer, Carron J. Phillips, posted a misleading picture of the child, showing only one side of his face.

X’s Community Notes explained the other side of the boy’s face was painted red, thus wearing his team’s colors for the game.

“The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress,” Deadspin posted Monday.

“The picture on the article is misleading. Other pictures of the child in question show that the other half of his face is painted red, black and red being the team’s colors,” Community Notes explained.

https://twitter.com/Deadspin/status/1729166833520177256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1729166833520177256%7Ctwgr%5Eb3e9aeac675c0a775e50408f8c856bb2dc16f2b6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2F

Phillips wrote on Deadspin:

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.

It was as if Jon Gruden’s emails had come to life.

The image of a Chiefs fan in Black face wearing a Native headdress during a road game leads to so many unanswered questions.

Why did the camera person give this fan the attention?

Why did the producer allow that camera angle to be aired at all?

Is that fan a kid/teenager or a young adult?

Despite their age, who taught that person that what they were wearing was appropriate?

The answers to all of those questions lead back to the NFL. While it isn’t the league’s responsibility to stop racism and hate from being taught in the home, they are a league that has relentlessly participated in prejudice. If the NFL had outlawed the chop at Chiefs games and been more aggressive in changing the team’s name, then we wouldn’t be here.

X users criticized Phillips:

Phillips doubled down on his article.

“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 that it makes it even worse. Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco,” he wrote.

“The colors of the Kansas City Chiefs are red and black. The colors on the fan’s face are a reference to the team colors, not to races or skin colors,” Community Notes explained.

https://twitter.com/carronJphillips/status/1729251787259978177

X users ratioed Phillips again:

Phillips started blocking users who criticized his article.

“As a American Native, I fully condone this fan’s actions. This is not cultural appropriation for harm, but honoring by motif. If we keep removing these references we will have eventually removed all memory. The Hunt family has long honored us. GO CHIEFS!” one X user wrote.

“Turns out not only is @carronJphillips trying to destroy a little kid’s life with false accusations of blackface, he’s actually racist himself. They always accuse others of what they themselves are doing,” Libs of TikTok wrote, citing a 2016 tweet from the writer.

Elon Musk also commented, saying X Community Notes got another win exposing deception.

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