Analysis: The fallout from the racial slur at the BAFTA Awards continues, with big-name celebrities like Jamie Foxx labelling the incident “unacceptable”.
The uproar began when a racial slur was heard in the audience after Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo walked out on stage to present the first award on Sunday night (Monday morning AEDT).
An attendee inside the main auditorium told nine.com.au there was “a stunned silence” across the audience in the moment, “but you could see their face change”.
As someone who was at Royal Festival Hall during the ceremony, sitting in the media centre next door to the main auditorium, I believe there was one distinct error in this whole saga.
While there’s a lot of history behind both the slur and why it went to air, the situation could have quite easily been minimised if the BBC had, at a minimum, bleeped it from the final broadcast which aired two whole hours later, if not cut it altogether.
The British broadcaster did cut other parts of the show, including part of a political turn in a winner’s speech – when My Father’s Shadow filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr made a “free Palestine” comment – all in the name of shortening a three-hour live show into a two hour TV slot.
The incident not only had A-listers firing off, but also reportedly angered studio heads who specifically asked for the slur to be cut.
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Warner Bros. executives raised a complaint within minutes of the live incident and asked BBC to cut it from the broadcast, Deadline Hollywood reported on Tuesday.
The BBC’s producers say they didn’t get this message and later apologised for the fact that it not only went to air but stayed on its streaming service iPlayer until about 11.30am on Monday (10.30pm AEDT) – more than 12 hours after it was first broadcast.
Also on Tuesday, as the fallout continued for a third day, filmmaker and BAFTA jury member Jonte Richardson quit over the organisation’s “utterly unforgivable” handling of “the unfortunate Tourette’s N-Word incident”.
Richardson isn’t the only one placing blame on how the situation was handled, rather than the incident itself.
John Davidson is also said to have made unintentional comments throughout the evening to Sinners actress Wunmi Mosaku and production designer Hannah Beachler.
Beachler took to social media after the event to say the “impossible situation” was made “worse” by what she labelled as a “throw-away apology” at the end of the show.
Before the BAFTAs kicked off, there were some housekeeping details mentioned on stage. This included that a member of the audience – Davidson – has Tourette syndrome and the audience may hear strong language as a result of involuntary tics.
Throughout the show, host Alan Cumming reminded the audience and viewers where the language was coming from, as it could be heard in the background, and asked for understanding.
“Tourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language,” Cumming said.
“We apologise if you were offended.”
While I could hear Cumming’s apology, in the media centre I couldn’t hear the exact words being said.
However, I was shocked to later find out not only what was said but that a two-hour delay on the telecast wasn’t used to do some damage control, preventing millions outside the auditorium from being similarly offended.
There seemed to be such an easy fix to such an unfortunate situation.
Especially since the BBC faced a not entirely unsimilar incident at last year’s Glastonbury after they aired anti-Semitic comments by performer Bob Vylan.
Despite what some have said, Davidson – a Tourette syndrome sufferer, activist and an executive producer on the award-winning film I Swear about his life story – had every right to be sitting in that auditorium.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) rightly included warnings to the audience and to raise awareness of the condition, which impacts about one-in-100 school-aged children in Australian and about 50,000 Aussies live with the condition.
BAFTA has focused on diversity and inclusion heavily following a review into the organisation after the #BAFTAssowhite controversy of 2020, when there was an outcry for the lack of diversity among nominees.
The uproar at the time forced Prince William, BAFTA president, to address the issue during that year’s ceremony and he vowed to make changes from within.
While BAFTA tried its best to get ahead of the situation with numerous announcements on Sunday, the BBC failed to similarly protect Davidson, with BAFTA later taking “full responsibility” over the “very difficult situation”.
“Our guests heard very offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many,” BAFTA said in a statement.
“We want to acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.
“We will learn from this and keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy.”
Addressing actors Jordan and Lindo, BAFTA added, “We apologise unreservedly to them” before thanking them “for their incredible dignity and professionalism”.
A “deeply mortified” Davidson – who voluntarily left the auditorium on Sunday for some time after – also issued an apology for the “involuntary” comments.
“It started as one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” Davidson told Variety in his first interview on Tuesday.
He added that he “had an expectation that the BBC would physically control the sound at the awards” and after realising his tics could be heard he said “my stomach just dropped”.
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“I felt a wave of shame and embarrassment hit me all at once,” he said on shouting the slur as he got more nervous across the evening.
Davidson pointed out that he made several other unintentional offensive remarks before this but left the auditorium after realising the presenters on stage could hear him.
“Tourette’s can make my body or voice do things I don’t mean, and sometimes those tics land on the worst possible words,” he said.
“I want to be really clear that the intent behind them is zero. What you’re hearing is a symptom — not my character, not my thought, not my belief.”
Online, Davidson was very quickly turned into the villain of the piece by some, including actor Jamie Foxx, who later changed his stance on social media after backlash to his harsh comments about the Tourette’s sufferer.
The CEO of charity Tourette’s Action asked for understanding around the “extremely saddening” situation.
“We deeply understand that these words can cause hurt but at the same time, it is vital that the public understands a fundamental truth about Tourette syndrome: tics are involuntary,” Emma McNally said in a statement.
“They are not a reflection of a person’s beliefs, intentions, or character.”
McNally also praised Davidson – who received an MBE in 2019 for his advocacy work and helping families – for how he navigated the difficult situation.
“We are incredibly proud of John and everyone involved in I Swear following last night’s BAFTA Awards. The film has already raised so much awareness about Tourette syndrome and the daily reality faced by those living with the condition.”
“What should have been a night of celebration for him became overwhelming, and he made the difficult decision to leave the ceremony.
“This moment reflects exactly what I Swear shows so openly: the isolation, misunderstanding, and emotional weight that so often accompany this condition.”
UK MPs are now demanding answers from the BBC, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying “there’s no reason for it to have been broadcast”.
BBC boss Tim Davie received a “please explain” from Labour politician Dawn Butler.
Butler said the “painful & unforgivable” error showed the BBC had “a failure of duty of care on all parties concerned”.
“You could see the physical intake of breath from Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo as they composed themselves to continue, like the professionals they are,” Butler wrote in the letter to Davie, posted on social media.
“That pain was repeated to millions of people, who were forced to witness this on TV.
“The BBC could have prevented this, given that the program was aired on a two-hour delay. It is disappointing that this language was not removed prior to transmission, particularly when other content was edited out. Now we need to understand why.”
On Tuesday, those answers came.
Chief content officer Kate Phillips reportedly told BBC staff in an email the slur went to air “in error”, according to Sky News.
“The edit team removed another racial slur from the broadcast,” the memo said.
“This one was aired in error and we would never have knowingly allowed this to be broadcast. We take full responsibility for what happened.”
While human error has completely overshadowed what should have been a night of celebration, hopefully the incident can be used as a learning exercise around the globe – surely that’s the exact reason live telecasts operate on a delay of some description, to avoid messes like this.
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