The cutting of a teenage wrestler’s hair was a familiar act of violence for black athletes

When Andrew Johnson had his dreadlocks hacked off at a wrestling meet, it was an indictment of coaching, the media and the power structure of sport

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 teenager 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.

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