BAFTA, or the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is a world-renowned independent arts charity and academy that hosts prestigious annual awards for excellence in film, television, and games . Founded in 1947, it supports creative talent, promotes inclusivity, and fosters the next generation in the UK and internationally (Bafta.org). This award show was also shown on the BBC network (British Broadcasting Corporation). The ceremony was pre-recorded and broadcast on a two-hour delay.
Now why am I bringing this up? On February 22nd of this year, famous, experienced actors, Michael B. Jordan and Delory Lindo were on stage presenting the award for “Best Visual Effects”. This is where John Davidson , a campaigner with Tourette’s Syndrome, Executive Producer, and subject of the nominated film I Swear, involuntarily shouted the racial slur “N***er” twice due to a vocal tic. This caused an outburst of complaints from both ends of the spectrum. This is where I come in, to provide all the necessary context and to offer a perspective that might get hidden under tons of hate and ignorance.
Like stated before, the outburst caused massive headlines. People were distraught. Jordan and Lindo stated that after the incident, no one at the event said anything to them, no apologies or anything. Davidson did issue a statement:
“I am deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or carry any meaning…I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette’s community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others…I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing” (Variety).
This leads to the question, what is Tourette’s syndrome and how does it affect people socially? By definition, Tourette’s “is a nervous system disorder characterized by sudden, involuntary, and repetitive movements or vocalizations known as tics.” These tics are involuntary, rapid, and repetitive movements (motor) or sounds (vocal). Now if you look up the type of tics vocally, you will see that the basic level of Tourette’s includes throat clearing and grunting. Davidson has Coprolalia. Coprolalia is the involuntary, uncontrollable utterance of obscene, taboo, or socially inappropriate words and phrases, most commonly associated with Tourette Syndrome (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Library of Medicine). Overall, these are known as a “neurological misfiring” in the brain’s system. Individuals cannot help these outbursts, making it different from context-dependent, conscious swearing (NBC News).
This is important because this was the basis of defense for Davidson. I also agree with this analysis. I do feel like it is very ignorant and ableist to say, “Oh, he’s just a racist”, or “He meant to say this”, or “Out of all the words why the n-word?”. It is disingenuous to his disorder. Ableism is pretty much the constant disrespect of people with disorders and different abilities. There are tons of people doing this to minimize Davidson’s disorder, which also affects other people with this disorder or similar ones.
However, this is not so black and white. Davidson, in the original statement, didn’t mention a word about Jordan or Lindo. Did Davidson mean to say this racial slur? No. However, he still needs to face some repercussions for his apology. Jordan and Lindo were invited to this space to present this award, and they should not have to be hearing horrid language and feel immediate discomfort. Jordan’s parents were also there and had to see their son get called a slur on global TV. Both Jordan and Lindo handled the situation with grace and were able to compose themselves to keep doing their jobs and not cause a scene.
So, let me put this into perspective. Imagine you are walking in the hallway at school and you bump into someone by accident because one of your friends pushed you into them person. Even though you didn’t want that to happen, the respectful response is to apologize to the person; it’s basic human decency. Another reason is that the average person would not expect something unpleasant like this to happen. Like being bumped into in the hall, it is very unexpected and could cause pain. How else would a black person react to hearing this racial slur?
I always hated how people not in minority groups would tell people in those minority groups how you should react to insensitive jokes or statements. They don’t understand the context. They never lived through the stereotypes they have faced. So, telling Jordan and Lindo to “just let it go”, or saying, “Davidson shouldn’t apologize” is irresponsible. Heck, people have even said that Jordan and Lindo should apologize to Davidson. I will say that after about four days, Davidson did elect to reach out to Jordan, Lindo, and the rest of the cast in the movie Sinners to apologize directly. The mistake on his part was lack of real empathy shown in the original statement. But this was not the biggest problem with this entire situation. In fact, I believe Davidson was being scapegoated by the real culprits.
Like I said before, this entire ceremony was pre-recorded with a two-hour delay. I talked about keeping this in mind because, for some odd reason, BAFTA and the BBC program decided to leave in the slurs and not edit them out of the broadcast. You can’t make the excuse of saying they are not allowed to because they actually can. For example, in the same original broadcast, BBC edited out a section of its coverage. In this section, Prize-winning filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. says, “Free Palestine” in his speech after accepting his award, which was cut out. Another thing that throws me off is the film company, Warner Brothers expressing their concerns with the section regarding Jordan and Lindo, wanting BBC to cut the slurs out from the broadcast. This now begs the question, why? Why is the BBC letting the use of slurs get aired? What audience are they catering to? It was so much that filmmaker, Jonte Richardson quit his job as judge for the BAFTA panel. He said the following:
“After considerable soul-searching, I feel compelled to withdraw from the BAFTA emerging talent judging panel. The organization’s handling of the unfortunate Tourette’s N-word incident last night at the awards was utterly unforgivable. I cannot and will not contribute my time, energy and expertise to an organization that has repeatedly failed to safeguard the dignity of its Black guests, members and the Black creative community” (Democracy Now!).
Overall, this is just a disappointing moment for everyone involved, from the broadcast, to the board panel at BAFTA, to the lack of care for Davidson’s disorder, to the two black men having to hear racial slurs, and finally, to the censorship or lack there of, showing what BAFTA and BBC truly stand for. So, I just want to end this off with a very articulate quote from an actress and someone who was also a part of the Sinners cast, Jayme Lawson. On February 28th, about a week after the incident, the film was nominated for 18 awards at the NAACP Image Awards, winning 13 of them. Lawson spoke with the Hollywood Reporter. The 28 year old actress said the following:
“Institutionally, we still don’t understand what inclusion means, just because you invite someone into a space, but you don’t provide the necessary resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe by them being there, that’s not inclusivity. That’s exploitation. Disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses. A real lack of care was exercised for those two Black men…You do not care for our dignity, our humanity, You want to celebrate our art, but you won’t protect [us]. And that’s why we celebrate Sinners. That’s why we celebrate Ryan Coogler. That’s why we show up to the NAACP, because those are spaces…where we feel safe” (People).
Sources:
- Tourette’s Syndrome:
- News & More Info:
- Variety “I Swear Subject John Davidson Says Tourette’s Tics Are ‘Involuntary’ After Shouting N-Word at BAFTAs: ‘Deeply Mortified if Anyone’ Thinks It Was ‘Intentional'”
- NBC News “Tourette’s activist John Davidson says he felt ‘wave of shame’ over tic during BAFTAs”
- Democracy Now! “Filmmaker Jonte Richardson Quits as Judge for the BAFTA Awards After Racist Incident
- Jayme Lawson’s full quote at the NAACP Image Awards:
