Can’t let the facts get in the way of some good outrage.
How many times have we seen something go viral online, only to find out that it’s not true at all? (Everybody remembers Jussie Smollett, right?)
Well many were quick to jump on the outrage train after the cameras showed a young fan at the Kansas City Chiefs game yesterday against the Las Vegas Raiders wearing a Native American headdress with his face painted black.
this chiefs fan is totally having a normal one pic.twitter.com/cYEkIkAtPa
— charles (“you look good” – andy reid) mcdonald (@FourVerts) November 26, 2023
The outrage mob immediately took to social media to call the kid a racist for wearing blackface, and Deadspin (which I didn’t even realize was still around) even demanded that NFL condemn the young fan.
The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress https://t.co/9eGBsA8nca
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) November 27, 2023
Blackface WITH the headdress
This is deep, seasoned to the bone racism bruh
You have to intentionally, methodically do this https://t.co/JOxJWrkro9
— 🔥Mr. Pay The Cost To Be The Boss 🔥 (@RobIsRandomAF_6) November 27, 2023
Okay maybe let’s not cut to this kid in blackface and a headdress. And also please stop doing stuff like this pic.twitter.com/0iF5H5hdVv
— Tom Fehr (@TJFsports) November 26, 2023
gotta say the blackface really got me to forget about the headdress https://t.co/Nfo0Ibeizi
— matt (@IraqWarLiker) November 27, 2023
in 2023, blackface sprinkled with cultural appropriation like did we get a reset to the fucking 1940s? https://t.co/dLcbdUVKUu
— ꕥ (@belcagod) November 27, 2023
The Dan Le Batard Show also retweeted a post implying that the child was a racist:
You can't have it both ways. @Chiefs pic.twitter.com/UVWXSDVYf3
— Cujo (@cujoknows) November 27, 2023
There’s only one problem with the narrative: He wasn’t wearing blackface.
In fact, the other side of his face was painted red.
To be fair, half of his face was painted red… pic.twitter.com/YbT71NKPI0
— Andrew Barnes (@BARNESISME) November 27, 2023
Like thousands of other football fans, it turns out the kid had painted his face in his team’s colors to support them – but based on a couple of seconds on the screen, the internet immediately jumped to calling him a racist.
And when it was pointed out that the other side of his face was red, the outrage mob had to shift the narrative from “blackface” and claim that painting half of his face red while wearing a headdress was somehow even worse – completely ignoring the fact that…RED IS THE TEAM’S COLOR.
It never ends.
It’s also been mentioned online that the child is actually a member of a Native American tribe, and that his headdress was given to him by his grandfather, though that doesn’t seem to be confirmed anywhere yet.
Either way, I guess that’s just the way things are right now. If there’s an opportunity to be offended, people are going to take it.
