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White Referee Forces Black New Jersey Teen Wrestler to Cut Dreadlocks

HeadlineDec 27, 2018

And in Buena, New Jersey, the family of African-American high school wrestler Andrew Johnson says racism drove a white referee to demand that the teenager cut his dreadlocks before he could compete in a match. Video of the incident taken just before the December 19 match shows a sports trainer publicly and clumsily cutting the hair of the 16-year-old student-athlete, who’s dressed in a wrestling uniform and is visibly shaken to have his dreadlocks sheared off. Johnson was told he had just 90 seconds to agree to the haircut or he would be forced to forfeit the match. Just out of the frame of the video—which has since gone viral—the referee, Alan Maloney, demanded the trainer keep cutting Johnson’s hair until he was satisfied with its length. Maloney had arrived late to the match and missed a weigh-in where referees would typically raise objections to a wrestler’s appearance. In 2016, Alan Maloney admitted he used the N-word during a conversation with other sports officials, and later apologized for the racist slur. In a statement issued through their lawyer, Johnson’s family said, “The blame here rests primarily with the referee and those that permitted him to continue in that role despite clear evidence of what should be a disqualifying race-related transgression.”

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