Mama lions always protect their lion cubs. Good parents of human children are no different.
Recently, a child cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs was bullied online by a journalist for Deadspin, Carron Phillips (pronounced “Karen”). His crime was wearing a Native American headdress and black & red face paint. Carron suggested her son was engaging in racist vitriol against both Black and Native communities. Here was his opening remarks in the now-scoured article:
“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.”
The child’s mother, Shannon Armenta, had seen enough.
Armenta took to social media (where all beefs are handled now) to defend her lion cub. She informed the uninformed that her son is of Native American descent. She also pointed out that people had been purposely using a photo depicting him in only black face paint, setting whiny forever-miserables into a panic. Mama Lion suggested that the people engaging in this type of misinformation were only doing so to “create division.”
Holden unexpectedly became the subject of a Deadspin article by the former New York Daily News reporter. The article, focusing on a photograph showing Holden from the side, implied he was wearing blackface, neglecting to mention the red paint on the other side of his face.
The headline of the article accused the boy of exacerbating racial stereotypes, while Carron criticized the child’s Native American headdress and his “Tomahawk Chop” gesture. Carron suggested the child was disrespectful towards both Black & Native American communities, likening it to “Jon Gruden’s emails.” Quite the potshot.
In the article (which has now been flagged with a community note on X for being misleading) Carron used an image from CBS’ game coverage showing only the black-painted half of the child’s face. Carron took this prime space to virtue-signal, attempting to tie the child’s fan costume to broader societal issues related to racism & education.
Armenta responded by posting multiple pictures showing her son being warmly received at the game. She argued that Deadspin chose to omit the fact that her son is of Native American heritage.
Oopzies.
Guess he wasn’t Native American enough for Carron. Or, he just didn’t care enough to do his homework.
In fact, the child’s grandfather, Raul Armenta, is a member of the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California. He was elected to the position in 2016. His role mainly focuses on the building of economic stability for future generations of the Chumash tribe.
Mama Armenta’s Facebook posts assert her son’s Native American identity, in response to the criticism. A community note (added to the posts sharing the Deadspin article on X) clarifies that the child was not wearing “blackface”, and the article misrepresented the entire situation.
Carron, in a now-deleted post on X, went ballistic as whiny-types like him do. He drew a comparison with those who wear sombreros on Cinco de Mayo yet harbor negative sentiments towards Mexicans. That was me putting it nicely. Here’s how he said it:
“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 [de Mayo].”
Typical whiny Capitalist Altruist; whenever they lose an argument, they descend into adolescent name-calling. I do the same, but I prefer adjectives over nouns. And I don’t delete what I’ve said. It’s called having a backbone.
But Carron wasn’t satisfied with only bullying a child.
He continued to descend into a diatribe accusing the National Football League of complicit racism, suggesting that more proactive measures by the NFL (such as banning the “chop” at Chiefs games & reevaluating the team’s name) could have prevented such incidents. He expressed that while the NFL is not solely responsible for eradicating racism & prejudice taught at home, the league has historically engaged in discriminatory practices. So the past makes them complicit today.
See how that works? Vindication is impossible. No matter what, the Carrons of the world will be forever victims.
Let’s be honest. Dude is named Karen, just spelled differently. None of what he said is shocking. There is absolutely no chance the insatiable thirst for drama & victimhood ideology by these types could ever be quenched. It’s like talking to a piece of wood, or a lampshade; it’s one-way. He will believe that he is always smarter than you, and if you do stump him, he will undoubtedly call you a bigot, racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobicblahblahblah in an effort to shut down the conversation. Any efforts to enlighten him will only cause him to dig his heels deeper.
But still, we must try. Because maybe, just maybe, Carrons like him will realize they were able to live out the American dream, earning college degrees & fancy jobs in media & elsewhere. And they did so because of America, not in spite of.
So the real question is this:
How much descendent blood must one have in their genetic makeup to partake in the traditional cultural customs of their ancestors? In percentage, please.
Answer in the comment section below, or follow us on Twitter: @BleacherBrother
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