AT THIS year’s Bafta awards, a moment of pure neurological chaos unfolded. John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner and subject of the film I Swear, let out an involuntary shout of the N-word while the black actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented an award. Davidson has coprolalia, a severe form of the disorder that forces out taboo words without warning or consent. He did not choose it. He did not mean it. Yet the backlash was swift, vicious and revealing.
The socially awkward timing of shouting out that word was ultimately hilarious for most people and sadly also a call to professional victimhood by others. Most of us felt so sorry for John and hoped that Jordan and Lindo would have given him a hug and showed even a hint of kindness and understanding once they learned the reason for the outburst, but that would require a level of class and maturity that is rare in Hollywood and at other similar award ceremonies. Anyone remember when Will Smith attacked Chris Rock and not one person stood up in protest? That’s the quality of people were talking about, but this time it was a neurologically disabled Scots lad at the receiving end of the attacks.
Davidson did apparently remove himself from the auditorium and watched the Baftas from backstage, but the damage to the fragile Americans was done. Celebrities piled in with all the entitlement of those who have never faced a brain glitch they could not control. Jamie Foxx led the charge, commenting on Instagram that Davidson knew WTF he was doing and asked: ‘Why didn’t he yell it out when somebody else was on stage?’ He doubled down on his ignorance by commenting further on social media: ‘Nah, he meant that s**t. Out of all the words you could have said, Tourette’s makes you say that? Unacceptable.’
Here is a multi-millionaire actor, adored by millions, using his platform to dismiss a disabled man’s condition. Foxx and his supporters own the word, apparently, and the rest of us must tiptoe around it or face the weaponised accusation of racism. It is uncomfortable, this fear non-blacks live with, forever scanning for the tripwire that could paint us as bigots and racists.
It seems preferable for a white man like Quentin Tarantino to write a movie such as Django Unchained, where Leonardo DiCaprio says the N-word many times as the villainous plantation owner Calvin Candie. DiCaprio felt awkward about uttering the word during script readings until the black actor and producer Samuel L Jackson told him: ‘Say that s**t, mother****r. It’s just another Tuesday.’ The movie went on to win Academy Awards for best original screenplay and best supporting actor, while grossing over $449million (£333million) worldwide.
So do Foxx and other outraged celebs tolerate white people using the word when it’s in a big budget film that brings awards, fame and pay cheques? The Bafta backlash suggests yes: profitable scripted slurs get a pass, but an involuntary tic from someone with Tourette’s is called unacceptable and intentional. The double standard feels pretty stark.
The desperation to be offended shines through. Actress Rachel True chimed in on social media: ‘Does Tourette’s make you unable to apologise tho?’ Well, Rachel, next time I see someone in a wheelchair holding up the queue, I will demand they say sorry. The lack of understanding from these zombies is staggering. Online commentators insisted Davidson must have been thinking the slur, associating it with black people. Yet the hypocrisy is palpable: to avoid saying it, one must first think it and suppress it. The same logic they reject when it suits them.
The BBC, which has come under fire for failing to edit out the word in a recording broadcast later, reports that Bafta will learn from the shocking racial abuse at the ceremony. These words reveal a glaring lack of understanding, wiping out any empathy for Davidson’s neurological condition and instead framing him publicly as a racist. Who holds the BBC and Bafta accountable when their own statement slanders a man with a documented disability? Did they even watch the movie they awarded the Bafta to?
We have two black men, famous for their masculine roles, who heard a racial slur at an awards show. A little surprised at first? Fair enough. Even a nervous laugh at the bad timing might have been human but once they learned the truth and the context, laughing it off would have been the mature, thoughtful response. It was not aimed to hurt them. It was on Davidson’s mind as it is on everyone’s who links the word to race. Some black people still grant the word power, turning it into a call to violence when uttered by anyone but themselves. The online mob turned an unfortunate tic into a war.
The irony is thick when the people pushing the hardest ban use the word themselves every day among friends or allow it when fame and money are tied to it.
The old style systemic racism isn’t there any more, regardless of feelings, and acting as if it is just keeps everyone divided. Even plenty of black people are fed up with it. Have a quick look at this clip from The Angryman:
He turns ‘black fatigue’ on its head and explains how even black people are fed up with black people’s whingeing.
The point is that the conversation isn’t black versus white any more. Most people just want common sense, a bit of personal accountability and an end to using words or history as a club to shut everyone else up. Forcing people to walk on eggshells for ever while pretending context doesn’t matter doesn’t help anyone move forward, but it is understandable that the social benefits for black people are something they would want to keep hold of.
This episode yet again exposes how uncool Hollywood has become, gripped by group identity politics that trample disability rights and show lack of empathy. Attacking a man with a neurological disorder is unforgivable. Davidson deserves an apology from Bafta, Foxx and everyone who took to social media to attack him.
Reasonable people would stand up against genuine racial attacks on anyone. But pretending this involuntary outburst is the same thing is disingenuous and deeply offensive, particularly to people with Tourette’s. They had the chance to show understanding, yet chose to play the race card instead, and lost the respect of millions.
