I was 11 the first time I was racially abused on a soccer pitch. My coach stood by, because he didn’t know what to do – and hadn’t bothered to learn. Twenty nine years later, it appears not much has changed.

I was reminded of the incident by Andrew Johnson. The teenage wrestler is a champion, not because he won an important match for his high school team last Wednesday, but because he survived an act of violence in order to do so. Johnson is a talented black wrestler at Buena Regional High School in New Jersey. Just before Wednesday’s match a white referee, Alan Maloney, told him he could cut his dreadlocks or forfeit the contest. Maloney insisted that the cap Johnson was wearing did not comply with regulations. Out of nowhere, a pair of scissors were procured and a white woman was soon sawing away at Johnson’s hair. Watching that gave me a pain in my chest that I cannot describe.

How could a teenager be forced to make a crippling decision like this? How is it allowable for his identity to be questioned in the most shameful manner? When indifferent adults are in charge, this is not only possible, but likely.

Whether Maloney, who is now the subject of a joint probe by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, should have been at the meet in the first place is questionable. In 2016, he was accused by several eye witnesses of using a racial slur to a black referee at a private gathering and the two confronted each other. Maloney apologized for the incident but did not deny using the slur. Both men were suspended although the bans were later overturned.

'Cruel, racist': anger over high school wrestler forced to cut his dreadlocks Read more

Like other situations in sports involving hair coverings or uniform accommodation, it’s hard not to see this as racial discrimination. I have spent almost a decade researching and writing about inclusion in sports and unfair bans of athletes from marginalized communities, involving hijab, turbans and braids. These policies have very little to do with “safety” and are instead a means to control the bodies of black and brown athletes.

Christian Pyles of FloWrestling reported that it was not actually the cap that was considered problematic but the “unnatural” state of Johnson’s hair. Perhaps it was the dreadlocks that Maloney had a problem with and, as we often see, wanted white standards of hair to be the norm. Johnson had wrestled in a cap before, and there were no issues.

I watched the video of Johnson’s dreadlocks being massacred as he stood there distraught but silent, propped up by his white teammates and coach. As an athlete, a woman of color and a mother I felt like vomiting. I was also enraged. I thought about all the ways that racists have invoked vacuous and bigoted reasons for hacking the young people’s hair in order to maintain systems of white privilege. I remember stories of how Indigenous children’s long braids, which had spiritual and traditional significance, were cut off in order to appease colonial white powers. Those were acts of violence, this was too.

Dr Amira Rose Davis, an assistant professor of history, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State University, explains that hair is often used to uphold the racial status quo in sports.

“What we see with Andrew Johnson is reminiscent to what we saw with, say, Venus Williams incurring a penalty for beads falling out of her hair. Or a common tale you hear from parents of black kids who struggle with hair regulations in ballet – that efforts to discipline, exclude and humiliate athletes of color are often focused on their hair,” Dr Davis says. “The constant demand to ‘tame’, conform and change their natural hair to accommodate or assimilate into white dominated sports spaces is an all too common demand of so-called integration and a power move designed to remind athletes of color of their place and the terms of their inclusion.”

Olympic wrestling champion Jordan Burroughs shared his solidarity with Johnson in a powerful Twitter thread on Saturday. He pointed out how difficult it must have been for Johnson to fend for himself as parents and coaches failed to intervene.

Jordan Burroughs (@alliseeisgold) A thread: I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the young man who was forced to cut his hair during a wrestling match in order to avoid being disqualified. That young man is Andrew Johnson of Buena High School in New Jersey. Let me start off by saying, I commend Andrew for

The fact that Johnson’s coach, George Maxwell, was heralded as a hero was equally disturbing. A team coach must advocate for, and support their athletes. Instead Maxwell stood by as Johnson’s hair was cut. It is part of a coach’s role to understand and protect athletes from the communities they represent. Schools should pay for training by people of color, who can educate coaches to understand their students.

The media do not come out of the incident well either. SNJ’s Mike Frankel first shared the story on Twitter and proclaimed that Johnson was the “epitome of a team player”.

Frankel missed the point: Johnson’s plight was a clear case of of a team failing to protect a black teenager. Frankel later apologized – with the usual “I’m not a racist” rejoinder – but he failed to recognize his own privilege as a white male. There was absolutely nothing good about the story. Had Frankel had any ability to critically analyze race in sports, he might have known this. Then again the misunderstanding is hardly a surprise: sports media is overwhelmingly white and male, something that people of color in media highlight constantly, myself included. Sports media is in dire need of change, and the incident with Johnson reaffirms this.

I am a sports writer and a sports activist. There are very few things that I find shocking. But the video of Johnson’s dreadlocks being sliced off have cut deep, as jarring as the first time I was racially abused, on that soccer pitch as a girl. I have not forgotten. I don’t expect Andrew Johnson to forget any time soon either.



