One could be forgiven for thinking that this year’s BAFTA drama was scripted, were it not for the fact that nobody in their right mind, especially in the arts world of 2026, would dare flirt with as diabolical a dilemma as confronted award season aficionados on Sunday night.
I say that because I don’t know how better you demonstrate that western culture has come to prize victimhood status more than actual compassion than with a scenario in which a man with the uncontrollable Tourette Syndrome involuntarily shouts a racial slur at two black men presenting an award on live TV, and ends up getting bucketloads of abuse for it anyway.
That is precisely what happened the other evening, when Scottish Tourette Syndrome campaigner John Davidson shouted “n****r” into a silent auditorium while acclaimed (and, crucially, black) actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented an award onstage.
Despite the presumably abundant kindness and compassion of those in the room, it went down about as well as a cup of cold sick, and this despite host Alan Cumming’s reminder about the nature of Tourette Syndrome and apology to those who may have been offended by it.
Additionally, entertainment outlet Variety reported that floor managers on the night informed guests and attendees sitting in the vicinity of Mr Davidson that they were likely to hear outbursts and exclamations, without specifying what exactly they were likely to hear, so it can’t have come as a huge surprise to a good number of people in the room.
Indeed, it was but one of Mr Davidson’s audible shouts during the course of the evening.
Mr Davidson was there in connection with the film, I Swear, a biographical comedy-drama about his own life, and for which actor Robert Aramayo (who plays Mr Davidson) won the Best Actor award on the night. Speaking to a CNN reporter on the red carpet before the event, Mr Davidson said that “Certain things — like today, lots of people around, I’m feeling very, you know, more tics in case I lash out. Different situations can trigger different emotions and tics and stuff”.
Little did he know.
For their part, the men who were actually on stage, despite their evident shock, seemed to take it reasonably well, Michael B. Jordan keeping his silence while Mr Lindo simply said that he wished someone from BAFTA spoke to them afterwards about the incident. Fair enough. It is a loaded term, especially in the American context, and was probably the last thing either of them expected to be shouted while they were up on stage.
Boy, did people queue up to be outraged on their behalf, though, among them actors Jamie Foxx and Wendell Pierce, the former writing below an Instagram post that “he meant that shit” while the latter said on X that “it’s infuriating that the first reaction wasn’t complete and full throatted [sic] apologies to Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan”.
“The insult to them takes priority. It doesn’t matter the reasoning for the racist slur,” he said.
Sinners production designer Hannah Beachler decided to take things up a notch to a positively spiritual level, claiming that one of Mr Davidson’s outbursts was directed at her on the night and that while her “spiritual vibration is tuned to a higher level than what happened,” she is “not steal [sic], this did not bounce off of me”.
The whole incident clearly didn’t “bounce off” Mr Davidson either, who chose to leave the hall and watch the rest of the ceremony from a screen, despite the fact that, as BAFTA said in its subsequent statement, it “should have been a night of celebration for him” as well.
The moral hordes have been busy in the aftermath, though, offering such enlightening comments as “he should have stayed home if he knew he was prone to this”, and “Involuntarily says the N-word, but voluntarily refuses to apologize… we know what you are”. Another social media user, whose post on the topic racked up thousands of likes, said that while he has sympathy for people who struggle with a disability, “if you use a wheelchair and accidentally run over someone’s foot you instantly apologize”.
It’s true, Mr Davidson in his statement didn’t apologise, saying rather that he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to 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 and I will continue to do so. I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing,” he added.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but clearly it does: John Davidson doesn’t have to apologise.
If he did so, why shouldn’t he have to apologise to the hundreds, likely thousands, of people he’s encountered in his lifetime who’ve taken issue with his tics and utterances? That would be no sort of life at all. But then, those who’ve rushed to take offence on the actors’ behalf don’t seem all that concerned with Mr Davidson’s wellbeing at all.
This incident has revealed that for no small number of people, the matter is settled: race comes above disability in the victimhood hierarchy where a clash between the two is perceived to have taken place. In those situations, the disabled will be treated with little more than polite contempt, if even that, as evidenced by the torrent of abuse and accusation levelled at Mr Davidson in the wake of his, again, involuntary comments.
People who no doubt think of themselves as good and righteous will without a second thought put forward the idea that a disabled person should just stay at home if there’s the slightest risk they’ll offend or inconvenience someone, or that if they choose to come among us, they should have to apologise to each and every one of us whose toes they tread on.
There’ll be no sleep lost by Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo, Hannah Beachler or any of the innumerable morons outraged for them, but it’s likely a different story for John Davidson who I imagine will probably, sadly, in future steer clear of events he has every right to be at.
A real shame for him, and for all of the other people with Tourette Syndrome who’ve now seen that they’re going to be held accountable by the world’s shiniest, happiest people for something entirely out of their hands.
Compassionate, my ass.