White referee forced a black wrestler to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit a match

Buena Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson gets his hair cut courtside minutes before his match. Photo / AP

Andrew Johnson stood at the side of the mat, shoulders slumped forward, as teammates from Buena Regional High School stepped up one at a time with a high five and some encouragement.

"Don't worry about it," one said, putting his hands on Johnson's shoulders as a team athletic trainer stood behind the wrestler, shearing off his hair.

Johnson wore thick, dark brown dreadlocks to a meet last week against rival Oakcrest, another one of the top wrestling teams in southern New Jersey. But before the 55kg bout could begin, the referee gave Johnson a choice: Forfeit the match or get a quick haircut to comply with athletic regulations.

Johnson opted to get his hair cut instead of forfeiting the match, which he later won in sudden-victory overtime, according to SNJToday.

But a video posted of the black teenager getting his dreadlocks cut before the match prompted anger and frustration. Mike Frankel, the reporter whose video of the incident went viral, explained that as Johnson's coaches argued the referee's ruling, the injury time clock was started, which was when Johnson agreed to have his hair cut.

To many, the episode was yet another example of the ways that racial bias manifests itself over seemingly personal issues like hairstyles, one data point among many about the ways in which minorities are treated differently than white people.

The fallout prompted state investigators to open a probe into the matter, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association said in a statement today, in a joint effort with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

The involved referee will not be assigned any matches until the review is complete, NJIAA executive director Larry White said.

In a personal moment unusual for public statements, White said he spoke as "as an African-American and parent - as well as a former educator, coach, official and athlete" struck by the racial and social undertones.

"I clearly understand the issues at play, and probably better than most. The NJSIAA takes this matter very seriously," he said.

NJSIAA spokeswoman Sharon Lauchaire said the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, part of the state Attorney-General's office, opened an investigation yesterday into the incident under a 2013 agreement with the NJSIAA about incidents of potential bias in high school sports.

A New Jersey referee who forced a high-school wrestler to cut his dreadlocks right before a match has been barred from further officiating, pending an investigation into the incident, school district officials said.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 22, 2018

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tweeted that he was "deeply disturbed" by the incident.

"No student should have to needlessly choose between his or her identity & playing sports," Murphy wrote.

Sports broadcaster Taylor Rooks also keyed on the racial aspect of an incident was one of "terrible discrimination."

"The ref should be ashamed," she wrote on Twitter. "In the black community, hair is often tied to identity. Expressing disapproval of the hair is in many ways expressing disapproval of the person."

The referee was identified in news reports as Alan Maloney, who drew news media coverage in 2016 after a dispute with a black referee. The referee said at the time that Maloney, who is white, called him the N-word during an argument, an accusation which Maloney said he did not remember, but did not dispute, according to the South Jersey newspaper the Courier-Post.

The white high school wrestling official who told a black player to cut off his dreadlocks immediately or forfeit the match had been accused of using a racial slur against a black referee in 2016 https://t.co/apGf0NE9zD

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 22, 2018

Maloney did not respond to a message left for him on a number listed in public records.

Bert Ashe, a professor of English and American studies at the University of Richmond, said that dreadlocks, which have become more en vogue as a black hairstyle in recent years, often provoke strong responses from people who seek to uphold cultural norms.

"The reality of cultural norms goes across all cultures in one way or another," he said, saying that in another instance, a kid with a pink mohawk would likely face consequences in certain situations. "It's just a penalty for violating those norms when you are not white and male is so much more severe then for the white men who violate those norms and don't get punished."

Others too saw it as a clear-cut case of racial bias, unconscious or not.

"This is not about hair. This is about race. How many different ways will people try to exclude Black people from public life without having to declare their bigotry?" the ACLU of New Jersey said in a statement. "This was discrimination, and it's not okay."

This incident is a Rorschach test for racism. A white referee who once called a colleague “nigger” told a black wrestler to cut his dreadlocks off or be forced to forfeit. A white journalist called the young man a “team player.” I saw a kid being violated. https://t.co/P7snXXflug

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) December 21, 2018

The National Federation of State High School Associations dictates the rules for high school wrestling matches. One of its new points of emphasis for wrestling officials this year is to ensure all equipment worn on the mat, including hair coverings, fits "snug" to a wrestler's body.

Johnson was reportedly wearing a hair covering, but it was not clear whether it was in compliance with the body's new rules. He had wrestled without incident before the match, the Courier-Post reported.

David Cappuccio, the superintendent of the school district, said in a statement that "no school/district staff member influenced the student into making this decision."

New Jersey is a top-ranked state for high school wrestling, according to Wrestling Insider Magazine.

Two referees who were not involved in the match told the Courier-Post that they believed that the wrestling rules had been interpreted correctly by the referee.

George Maxwell, the high school's wrestling coach, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jordan Burroughs reaches out to wrestler forced by referee to cut dreadlocks https://t.co/4KmwQykJ5o pic.twitter.com/iiPqHajaPa

— NBC OlympicTalk (@NBCOlympicTalk) December 22, 2018

Ashe, who wrote Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles, a book about his quest to grow dreadlocks after he turned 40, said that the hairstyle has been around since antiquity, saying evidence of them had been found in tombs in ancient Egypt. But he said they were brought back into mainstream consciousness the 1960s and 70s because of the growth of Rastafarianism in Jamaica. They have continued to grow in popularity in recent years.

Ashe compared them to tattoos, saying what was began as a transgressive and nonconformist statement has increasingly become more normalised.

"It only becomes a big deal when someone who has some form of cultural authority, like a referee at a wrestling match or a principal of a private school, or someone who instead of having to deal with the reality that it's part of American culture, can say 'No not here, not on my watch,'" he said. "Those sorts of moments are shrinking. They're very minute now. But that's part of why they make the news."

He estimated that Johnson's dreads likely took him a couple of years to grow out.

Frankel, the reporter who captured the hair cut on camera, was criticised for his framing of the incident.

He had described Johnson as the "epitome of a team player," setting up the story as one of a generous player making a sacrifice for his team. He later apologised because, he wrote, he had "missed the bigger picture".