Pop Culture

People commenting in this post please follow rule 8: when engaging with your fellow users please take the most charitable interpretation and assume good faith. Comments breaking this rule will be removed and the post locked like the last two on this topic in the event multiple people break the rule repeatedly.

The BBC ragebaited everyone by not censoring this and it worked. All publicity is good publicity, and everyone is talking about BAFTA at the cost of humiliating both disabled people and POC’s alike. And now the conversation has pitted the two demographics against each other.

Just remember who the real enemy is folks.

I have trouble speaking on this because being white and neurodivergent lends me an inherent bias on this that I can only really be conscious of and actively disclaim when discussing it.

There are three issues that alarm me in this debate from that perspective, and after that I want to self-crit regarding where I may be myopic.

First, the conflation of tics and Freudian slips. I don't have Tourette’s myself, but I am informed enough about it to try to capture the problems I have with people taking issue of him 'meaning it' or 'having it in his vocabulary.' Tics are essentially involuntarily-actualized intrusive thoughts. Have you ever been behind the wheel of a car on a bridge and your brain flashbangs you with "I could swerve off it right now," or held a knife and immediately thought of the harm you could inflict with it? I would describe it as your brain anchoring you against the thing you least want to do so you're cognizant of it as something to be vigilant about. One of the symptoms that can present with Tourette's is Coprolalia which, to relay my simplistic understanding of it, vocalizes that thing that you least want to do in a social situation. The reason people tic slurs is because people are educated about slurs and then internalize that they shouldn't say them to people, which backfires if you suffer from Coprolalia. It does not inherently mean you "say it behind closed doors" or "have internal animus," that is a Freudian slip, which is incomparable in all-but-presentation.

Second, the idea that Davidson has not apologized. Per Variety, he either has or is attempting to apologize to the individuals in question.

Since the fallout, Davidson’s team shares that he’s reached out to the studio handling “Sinners” in order to directly apologize to Jordan, Lindo and production designer Hannah Beachler.

I am conflicted on the meta-discourse surrounding apologies. I understand the perspective offered by some that says he should not have to—or cannot in good faith—apologize for something he cannot control or prevent from happening in the future, and I also understand the perspective that ticking a slur is nonetheless dehumanizing for the subjects of it, and when it happens in a public setting it creates a fetid dynamic in the room that exponentiates the harm and humiliation suffered beyond personal offense. If someone called me the R-slur and then everyone in a room turned to look at me, I'd feel deeply humiliated and I'd probably have a fucking panic attack.

I think that ultimately it's between Davidson and the affected parties to decide if a personal apology is constructive/reparatory here, but Davidson should not have to apologize to the public. The malfeasance there is on the BBC, which selectively scrubbed speeches that brought up Palestine to not air those bits, but specifically and actively chose despite prior pushback from film execs to broadcast the Disability-Induced Public Humiliation Incident to the world, which is disgusting malpractice on their part and reveals their ability-based contempt for Davidson and racial contempt for the Sinners team.

Third, the alarming discussions about "solutions" to Davidson's Tourette's. I have seen at this point dozens of accounts on social media attempt to propose "solutions" or "responses" to this situation that range from disinviting Davidson (who was there because a film about him was nominated for and won BAFTAs) because of his Coprolalia to physical violence and abuse, including assault and muzzling. I am unhappy that the latter category has examples that I don't want to go back into X: The Everything App to dig up and make myself feel more harrowed by. The ability-based animus towards Davidson is already foul in its character, but there is also a class concern here, because Davidson does janitorial work for a living. Davidson is a proletarian that was elevated into the public sphere due to a high-profile documentary on his Tourette's at 16. As such, I do not expect him to have the capital to hire a security team to stave off anyone who would actually follow up on that threat, which actualizes the physical safety concerns I have with that rhetoric being brought to the table. Speaking of, Davidson has also been assaulted prior after ticking an insult:

I have been physically beaten to within an inch of my life with an iron bar after ticking a comment to a young woman whose boyfriend and accomplice ambushed me one evening.

Per Variety, again. I have to spotlight this because I see the frustrations with the humiliation of the incident boiling over into people suggesting what would amount to ability segregation at best and hate crimes at worst as 'appropriate responses.' It disgusts me and makes me deeply uncomfortable personally, because I have severe ADHD and as soon as we start assaulting or "physically correcting" things that people cannot control, I see myself on the end of that baton.

To self-critique here, I cannot offer much else besides the things I articulate here, rooted in the spheres and perspectives I have more personal familiarity with, of which I have enough confidence in my ability to fairly represent. Therefore, I cannot communicate the other side of the issue as well and I'm choosing not to because I don’t want to speak for or over my black comrades on here. I'm sorry if I didn't offer a counter-perspective in places where I could have, but I just do not feel equipped enough to do so with the nuance and grace it deserves, as I'm trying to do here now presenting the issues from the perspective of being neurodivergent. I don’t want to go on the Elon Musk Torture App any more today to immerse myself further in the arguments being made by both flanks there.

It makes me sad to see a public tension between two historically-oppressed communities be stoked by the fuckers at the BBC and the rest of the capitalist media. This discourse is a cesspit and I think at this point there's nothing productive to be gained from furthering it, as I believe it’s already in a territory that has stepped well-beyond the incident itself.

I thought this was interesting. I think the BBC made this happen on purpose: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2026/02/25/bbc-davidson/

Haven't watched the vid but just in general, apologizing for something is just polite even if you had no control over it, heck in some cases even if it's the other person's fault. If I hit someone with my car because they suddenly try to cross the road without looking, I'm still gonna apologize for the harm I caused even if I'm not to blame for the accident.

If someone with Tourettes said something to me that genuinely hurt me, I wouldn't demand or expect an apology, but I'd appreciate one nonetheless.

Mods stop beating around the bush and make a mega sticky. Cause I can't be in community with people who think saying Fuck is the same as saying Ni***R.

This is a (very short, < 5 minutes) video from a black elected official with Tourette's. He takes the position that an acknowledgement or apology is necessary. I think this was before the subsequent statement mentioned in the video linked in the post title was made (the following day), so I don't know if that statement would meet the standard this person had in mind for addressing the harm caused.

As I said in my other comments, I don't have the energy right now to really engage with this discussion further, and I don't want to accidentally cause harm by doing so. I just thought this video also belonged in this thread. Also as I said, if you have other such videos please do post them in this thread or in their own post.

Edit: this video, similar to the one linked in the post title, I got from a comment by another user in the previous thread. Adding this info for posterity.