By now you’ve seen the viral video of the New Jersey teen who had his dreadlocks cut before a wrestling match.
It was disturbing, unsettling and uncalled for, considering that the teen, Andrew Johnson, was wearing a head covering that is allowed during wrestling matches for people with longer hair. The referee, Alan Maloney, who it turns out has a pretty racist past that includes dropping the n-word on at least one occasion in mixed company, demanded that the Buena High School teen either cut his hair or be forced to forfeit the match. Johnson complied begrudgingly and ended up winning his match, although he was visibly upset with losing his locs.
Now the New Jersey school district is backing up the wrestler by announcing that none of its teams will compete in matches refereed by the asshole who forced Johnson to cut his hair.
New York’s WABC reports that “the decision came out of an emergency Buena Regional school board meeting held Wednesday with community members to address the incident that saw the mandate made on the black high school student by a white referee with a reported history of using racist language.”
Some community members believe that an adult from the school should have stepped in to take the “choice” away from the teen. Community members also wondered why Maloney wasn’t challenged about the hair rule when he decided to spring it on the team before Johnson’s match.
A rules official at the National Federation of State High School Associations told Yahoo Sports Johnson “should have been allowed to wrestle with the head covering.” And, the Johnson family’s lawyer told the news site that his head covering was allowed in other wrestling events.
“The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association has arranged with other groups that assign referees to not assign Maloney to another match until further notice,” according to a report viewed by Yahoo Sports.
Wednesday’s decision to pull all schools from matches in which Maloney is working appears to be an effort to ensure that the allegedly racist referee (who totally owns a MAGA fitted and blackened out his Nike swoosh on his referee shoes) never oversees another wrestling match.
And he shouldn’t. Because he’s a trash can.