Imagine being a 9-year-old boy going to a football game one day and within a week being so well known that if someone, like me, Googles your name there are more than two million hits?
Such is the case for young Holden Armenta, who recently attended a Kansas City Chiefs football game.Holden went all out in support of his team, from his jersey to facepaint and a Native American headdress. Now that there are literally thousands of images of him across the internet, one could see how happy this little boy was cheering on his favorite team. But someone’s always got to ruin someone's else good time in feigned outrage, because, well, it's 2023 and that's what people do these days, even if it’s being offended by a happy 9-year-old boy.
Unfortunately, the searching-to-be-offended person is a writer for a major national sports blog, which means lots of eyeballs on their written words.
“Deadspin” writer Carron Phillips saw images of Holden and wrote an entire column on it. That would be OK if it was a column about “look at how happy this little boy is at a football game." But no, it was literally an attack on the child and on the NFL for allowing the child to, I don’t know, have fun? It accused the child of being in “blackface” and shared a profile image, deliberately leaving out he fact that the kid had a half black and half red face — the Kansas City Chiefs' team colors. It accused the child of being a fan who “found a way to hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time." It questioned “Why did the producer allow that camera angle to be aired at all?” And “Is that fan a kid/teenager or a young adult?”
He’s 9. You really couldn’t tell it was a child before attacking him on a national stage?The internet outrage grew against the NFL and against a small boy.
First, let’s start with the “blackface” accusation. The fact the image shared was a profile omitting the other half of the red painted face, was deliberate to fill a narrative he wanted to pursue absent of truth, and the writer knows this. Secondly, just having black paint on your face isn’t “blackface” and to claim so minimizes what “blackface” really was and is.
According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture: ”The first minstrel showswere performed in 1830s New York by white performers with blackened faces (most used burnt cork or shoe polish) and tattered clothing who imitated and mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. These performances characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice.”This “journalist” just accused 9-year-old Holden of doing that.
Then in his rambling and nonsensical article that brought up Critical Race Theory and book banning and others things I couldn’t see a connection to, he noted the boy in his headdress with his “tomahawk chop” during the game found a way to “hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time.” He’s 9.
The internet was outraged at this apparent little racist and his parents and the NFL for allowing this little bigot to express his loathing for racial minorities. Did I mention he's Native American and a member of the Chumash Tribe for which his grandfather is a board member? Yup.
It is incredibly common for fans at football games to wear face paint. When a Patriots fan puts on blue face paint, who is he being racist toward? Smurfs?
For those thinking, “OK, but maybe the tomahawk chop and chant was a bit too far.” If you went to a Winnacunnet football game anytime prior to the “I'm outraged and going to share it on the internet” generation, you did it, too. As did I. It's not racism, it's celebration and inspiration for our team.
This brought up the whole, "Well the Chiefs shouldn't be the Chiefs anyway because it's offensive toward Native Americans and they should change their name like the Washington Redskins did.”Why? How is acknowledging a culture offensive to anyone? I have never understood this, and I never understood why the Redskins changed their name to the Commanders. Acknowledging a culture and honoring it by having a team named for an entire race is not offensive. Interestingly, the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) thinks so as well and in September filed a lawsuit against the football team for defaming them in their efforts to get the team to change it's name back noting, "the powerful are pushing the delete button" on Native American history. "NAGA's members were huge Redskin fans precisely because they were the Redskins. It was the only team in the NFL to honor an actual Native American. They were proud to watch professional football players engage in a different kind of battle, with the stoic face of Chief White Calf on their helmets.”
Hate begets hate.This writer should know that and everyone who followed suit online should know it as well. Stop making something out of nothing and stop taking away children's joys.
Speaking of children’s joys, Christmas parades are coming up, I just might don some red and white face paint. I hope Santa isn’t offended.
Alicia Preston Xanthopoulos is a former political consultant and member of the media. She’s a native of Hampton Beach where she lives with her family and two poodles.Write to her at PrestonPerspective@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: 9-year-old Native American boy a Chiefs fan, not a racist
