Another culture war is brewing, and it circles around the most popular sport in the U.S.
A 5-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan went viral after the team's victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday as he was dressed in native American gear with half his face painted in red and the other half painted in black.
Popular sports site Deadspin published an article about the fan, calling out "doubling up" of racism, pointing out both the Native American headgear and Black face.
However, folks on the right called out the article saying the face paint signified the team colors of the Chiefs and not Black face. They also pointed out that the child should not receive ridicule.
Many have called for the family of the kid to sue Deadspin for the story.
Even X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk chimed in. The community notes of the Deadspin tweet highlighted that the article was "misleading," and Musk tweeted that it was another "win exposing deception" for the platform's community notes.
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Outspoken sports media personality Dan Le Batard reacted to the controversy on "The Dan Le Batard Show" on Nov. 28, calling out the "stupidity" of the arguments given that the racism was on display regardless of the Black face.
"I can't help but laugh somehow at the idea of: They want them sued for one racism while the kid is still in full racist garb. The only part of him that's not intentionally kind of racist is the Black part," Le Batard said. "The stupidity of this is remarkable."
Beyond the Native American outfit, Le Batard was also referring to the red face paint as a symbol of Native American's as Redskins, a disparaging term used to refer to Native Americans.
In 2020, the NFL's Washington Commanders dropped "Redskins" as its team monicker after 87 years.
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Le Batard's colleague Pablo Torre also spoke about the culture war, alluding to how he feels everything is getting tiring.
"Now it just feels everyone's just trying to trot out the hits," Torre said. "We're all just kind of exhausted by this."
Show producer Mike Ryan Ruiz chimed in as well, talking about how the culture war has shifted gears from the left calling out the right to what is now the right adapting the same behavior. And the evolution is that there is a "real, punitive effect" felt by companies that the right is calling out.
"When the culture wars felt more real and authentic ... it actually felt like there was genuine outrage. The right would get mad at the left for being so sensitive; They would call them "snowflakes." And now the right has taken that playbook and just tried to out-outrage in a weird way to prove the left's hypocrisy, but genuinely trying to damage companies such as Target and Bud Light," Ruiz said. "This is the same type of behavior they would openly lament a couple of years ago."
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