You know, I\u2019m starting to think those #BeKind folk aren\u2019t half as kind as they make themselves out to be. How else to explain this meltdown over a man with Tourette\u2019s being invited to the Baftas? It has exposed the limits of the \u2018inclusivity\u2019 preached by the virtue-signalling\u00a0set.<\/p>\n
A man who has had to struggle his entire life with humiliation due to his condition has been humiliated due to his condition, all in the glare of the world\u2019s media, <\/p>\n
It should have been one of the best nights of John Davidson\u2019s life. The 54-year-old Scot and Tourette\u2019s activist was at the Baftas with the crew of\u00a0I Swear, a film inspired by his life growing up in the 80s and 90s. It lays bare the rough reality of living with the condition, with the lack of understanding of Davidson\u2019s outbursts leading to bullying, beatings and trouble with the law.<\/p>\n
Instead, the night ended in another unnecessary humiliation for him. Early on in the show, Davidson\u2019s tics got the better of him. He began shouting and swearing. As Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, the black stars of Jim Crow horror flick\u00a0Sinners, presented a prize, he blared out the n-word. Jordan and Lindo soldiered on, understandably\u00a0startled<\/a>. Davidson stepped out, not wanting to cause any more of a fuss.<\/p>\n Davidson, along with one in ten people with Tourette\u2019s, is prone to something called coprolalia \u2013 that is, involuntarily saying obscene, taboo and socially-thermonuclear things, often at the worst possible moments. The audience had been warned in advance about Davidson\u2019s tics. After the incident, host\u00a0Alan Cumming<\/a>\u00a0apologised if any offence was caused, while stressing Davidson had \u2018no control\u2019 over his language. That really should have been the end of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n But of course it wasn\u2019t. The BBC has come under fire for failing to cut the slur from the broadcast, which went out two hours after the show. Labour MP\u00a0Dawn Butler<\/a>\u00a0has demanded an explanation. Executives from Warner Bros, distributor of\u00a0Sinners, reportedly\u00a0confronted<\/a>\u00a0Bafta CEO Jane Millichip and chair Sara Putt at the after-show dinner. A\u00a0Bafta judge has resigned<\/a> over the \u2018utterly unforgivable\u2019 handling of the situation, accusing Bafta of a \u2018long history of systemic racism\u2019. This is now an international media scandal, which Davidson has said has left him\u00a0\u2018deeply mortified\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n You would have thought that after the Bob Vylan debacle last summer \u2013 in which the punk-rap duo\u2019s Jew-baiting performance at Glastonbury was beamed out on the Beeb pre-watershed \u2013 Bafta and the BBC would have been more on their toes. Someone should have clocked the slur and made sure it wasn\u2019t broadcast.<\/p>\n That said, while Davidson\u2019s shouting was audible on the tape, \u2018many viewers would have struggled to make out the word\u2019, notes\u00a0BBC News<\/a>. The producers were also, according to the corporation,\u00a0\u2018working from a truck\u2019<\/a>\u00a0outside the venue and \u2018failed to hear\u2019 the slur themselves.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also struggling to understand what more Bafta could have conceivably done to make amends. Even Cumming\u2019s on-stage apology was rebuffed by some of the\u00a0Sinners\u00a0crew. Production designer\u00a0Hannah Beachler<\/a>\u00a0dubbed it a \u2018throw-away apology\u2019.\u00a0What\u00a0should\u00a0he have done? Booked Davidson into a white-privilege workshop? Taken the knee? Promised never to let another Tourette\u2019s sufferer in again?\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure even the critics know. Few of them have been horrid enough to have a pop at Davidson directly, or flat-out say he should never have been allowed to the attend the ceremony \u2013 with the ignoble exceptions of Hollywood star\u00a0Jamie Foxx<\/a>, who said Davidson \u2018meant that shit\u2019, and identitarian academic\u00a0Allison Wiltz<\/a>, who suggested he should have been locked away in a \u2018VIP side room\u2019.<\/p>\n But the upshot of all this outrage is that a man who has had to struggle his entire life with humiliation due to his condition has been humiliated due to his condition, all in the glare of the world\u2019s media, and on what should have been a night of celebration for him.\u00a0I Swear\u00a0went on to win a string of awards, including\u00a0best actor and best casting<\/a>.<\/p>\n