Let us consider the scene again:
Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan present an award at the BAFTA ceremony. As they read from the teleprompter, they hear John Davidson involuntarily scream out the n-word. They and the rest of the audience have been warned that Davidson has Tourette syndrome, and they should be respectful of his involuntary tics which may manifest in different ways. So, these two seasoned actors act with composure to finish their presentation of the award. We can see their jaws clench and gazes intensify. We can see them figuring out what to do, with no support from the award show staff. They are on their own, forced to endure in front of millions.
There is much happening within all of their bodies that we cannot see as they experience this word. We know that black bodies experience the microaggressions of so-called integrated spaces as an assault on the body. We experience trauma and other psychological effects that go unnoticed as well as increased stress responses that can have further debilitating effects on the body. All of this is potentially happening as they choose to center the humanity of another with humility.
Sinners’ production designer Hannah Beachler would later say they were called the n-word three different times including on the way to dinner. Even in her response she focuses on understanding and empathy, calling for a handling of the situation with “grace.”
What was the response to these incredible acts of grace?
There was no acknowledgement by both Alan Cummings nor BAFTA either at the event or afterwards. Alan Cummings’ only acknowledgement was to simply say, “We apologize if anyone was offended." Anyone that knows how to apologize knows that this not an apology. Lindo would state later he was not looking for an apology as much as an acknowledgement or discussion from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They would receive nothing that night. Later BBC would apologize for their failure to censor the slur on their 2-hour tape-delayed presentation. There has been no direct reference to the nature of the racial slur by either BAFTA or BBC.
Since then, John Davidson and Emma McNally, CEO of Tourettes Action have released statements. Davidson would leave the awards of his own volition, though I do have empathy that this was a sad turn of events for him. The isolation that neurodivergence can cause is well-documented and should not be encouraged. Yet his statement gives no acknowledgement to those affected by a racial slur. In fact, both Davidson and McNally’s statement, the racial slur is reduced to being the same as any act of inflammatory language that is performed involuntary. The issue here is not with the intentionality so much as the effect. To not acknowledge the unique effect of a racial slur is a form of indifference to the suffering of others. The problem of being indifferent to the suffering of black folk while also imploring folks to have empathy for Davidson cannot be understated.
Yet so much of the critique of Davidson has repeated the false trope that this involuntary tic reveals some fundamental truth in his psyche. Jamie Foxx responded under a post by claiming “Nah he meant that shit.” The response comes from a place of understandable grief and rage, although the target is incorrect. Black folks’ collective response has been to the complete indifference to the public humiliation and assault on the Sinners’ crew that had to simply endure without any support or acknowledgement. Because this event was broadcasted freely to an international audience, this has also become a triggering event for many of us experiencing this secondhand.
Yet the mistake is to conflate this structural indifference to black suffering with a projection of intentionality on the part of Davidson. I cannot say whether he believes in that word or not. Disability does not make it impossible for folks to be racist or sexist. Yet, we cannot simply say that we know for a fact this reveals some inner truth. This projection is an ableist lie, one that puts neurodivergent folks in danger. We cannot afford to make these kinds of assumptions either. Even if one focuses on blackness, we cannot forget the neurodivergent black folk who are disproportionately killed by the police and abused in other structural conditions because their neurodivergence is confused for intentionality. The anxious black girls accused of being angry and suspended at higher rates or the autistic kids like Elijah McClain who was murdered by paramedics after police unfairly stopped him for what they deemed was dangerous behavior. Antiblackness and ableism oftentimes combine in very deadly ways for black folk, so we should resist the kind of ableist projection that can be weaponized against us.
The reason we are having difficulty with this conversation is because antiblackness tends to be reduced to antiblack racism — a psychological or social problem of individual animus. This understanding of racism focuses on the prejudice and hatred of individuals, focusing in on either conscious intentionality or unconscious implicit bias. Whether conscious or unconscious, the focus is on the individual and their fault. This individual focus is disturbed by Tourette sydrome, a condition that throws intentionality and culpability into crisis. Despite what some say, the condition does not reveal the “truth” of the person’s psyche. Yet we do not even need to consider the specificity of the condition to understand that our psyches are never really about truth. Our desires are intersubjective and exist beyond the frame of the individual anyway. The conversation fails at many levels then.
Everyone wants to make the conversation center Davidson, the individual, but I have smoke for the institutions involved instead. The nature of the explanation and non-apology was the problem. Instead of naming the harm, they placed the blame at the feet of the black folk affected. Harm can have explanation, but effects cannot be debated. That harm deserves to be acknowledged. Alan Cummings’ “If anyone was offended…” treats the feelings of black folk as something of no consequence. “If…” signifies a lack of consideration on how racial aggressions cause black nervous systems may be moving without our control. Antiblackness causes debilitating effects that shortens lifespans as our bodies pump cortisol in active warfare against itself. Medical research shows Black people are more stressed by being in antiblack and so-called integrated spaces. Stress leads to hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune conditions. Antiblackness is a mass disabling form of violence that receives no recognition. Antiblackness operates primarily from indifference, not hatred.
Therefore, the problem is with the reactions to black suffering rather than Davidson’s actions themselves. BBC, Davidson, and McNally have absolutely no acknowledgement of the pain caused by those who were called nigger. They all seem to have no understanding that a lack of intention does not mean a lack of impact. For statements heavily focused on spreading awareness and empathy, they seem to have no understanding of the complete lack of empathy and awareness they are displaying.
I actually do not expect an apology given the lack of intention. I do expect an acknowledgment of the pain caused by those hearing a slur screamed at them on international television and a stage meant to celebrate their skills. Both of their statements repeat the mistake of believing that empathy is a limited resource and must be selectively given out. They center their call for empathy for Davidson and do not seem to acknowledge the possibility that we could have an abundance of empathy: empathy for Davidson and empathy for the black folk affected. They -- as well as Alan Cummings and BBC -- have made a choice to limit empathy and make empathy into a competitive game of whose suffering matters most. Their framing of empathy -- not the tic -- is what is fundamentally antiblack.
Each statement emphasizes that those with Tourette syndrome do not intend the meaning of the word because it is performed involuntarily. Yet, they do not seem to understand the enunciation of the word has a material impact that exceeds the frame of intention. A lack of intention cannot shield one’s body from the effect of language.
The body registers the effect of the word and not the intention. McNally’s statement focuses on the lack of intention of Davidson but has no understanding that the way black people’s bodies registers racial aggressions is also not intentional. She can call for understanding but cannot seem to understand that black people are not in control of how our bodies react to words dripping in the blood and death of the world’s antiblack violence.
They cannot call for mutual understanding if they do not care how words affect the bodies of others. Ultimately, this was a missed opportunity for solidarity, and this has always been the critique of antiblackness. The issue is not that solidarity is impossible, it is that solidarity is refused by nonblacks in order to center their own suffering at the expense of furthering black suffering. Nonblack groups pay for collective empathy with the currency of black pain. In the face of this complete indifference to black suffering, the grace we show others causes us nothing more than silence that becomes the kinds of debilitating and life-shortening conditions that folks will blame on our genetics. Eugenics in motion. We must refuse the call for black people to suffer and die with grace so others may live more comfortably. Just as they began the show asking for the audience to endure discomfort, I call on those listening to black people to endure the discomfort of hearing how your words — intentional or not — cause harm.
The only pathway to solidarity is if empathy can be experienced abundantly instead of competitively by demanding black folk to endure suffering for the comfort of others. I await the time of this possibility.
Nicholas Brady is a black writer from Baltimore and an Assistant Professor of Critical Black Studies at Bucknell University. His scholarly work investigates the ways that blackness conceptually disturbs the politics of technology, sound, ecology, and culture. He is currently at work on a monograph exploring the relationship between blackness, sound, and the libidinal economy of artificial intelligence. You can find more of his work: https://lnk.bio/nicholasbrady