John Davidson shouting the N word during the BAFTAS

[Crawse]

John Davidson has Tourettes and is a campaigner for the condition. Whist Michale B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting he shouted out the racial slur. It’s extremely uncomfortable to watch. I feel terrible for the two presenters. I’m really conflicted on this one.

What are your thoughts?

No one should be subjected to abuse. That is my bottom line. Maybe the fact I was called P*** (I’m half Indian) growing up has influenced my views. I obviously recognise Tourette’s is involuntary.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/22/entertainment/baftas-2026-tourettes-racist-slur

So which slur against white people is used as much as the n word and p word?

It's not about a hierarchy, those are the two most common racial slurs I've heard. One is not worse than the other.

No one is blaming John, but there are people on this thread who have a sort of gleeful 'deal with it' attitude about them. I think those people do need to do some introspection.

I hadn't even heard of that term.

And someone with tourettes is not using any of them intentionally.

Glad we've got that sorted.

I'd say that no one gets to tell the actress how to feel having been on the receiving end of misogynistic comments. I'd also say that the intent of the man does not negate impact to the woman.

Pointing out that someone is white or black is not a slur whereas saying n*er is.

So what would you like to happen? Would you like him to be fined? For people with Tourette’s to be banned from awards ceremonies from now on?

I was kinda curious so looked this up. We obviously can’t objectively assess the prevalence of what people say in person but I found two studies looking at slurs / derogatory language used online.

One looks at 4Chan one at Twitter. 4Chan one doesn’t break the racist language down into slurs / groups but notes on religiously discriminatory language the main targets are Muslims and Jews. The Twitter one says the main used slurs were “whiteboy” “p*ki” and “pikey” but that without context it was very hard to understand what percentage of these slurs were being used negatively or by people reclaiming words or talking about their own communities. Context is key.

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/news/disturbing-findings-in-new-study-reveal-unregulated-internet-platforms-are-a-breeding-ground-for-racism-misogyny-and-religious-hate/

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/10-000-racist-slurs-posted-on-twitter-each-day-study-finds-9127754.html

There are plenty of offensive words used against disabled people, I won't write them here. And John could have just as easily said them if a disabled person was on the stage, similarly there are offensive words for women, overweight people, short people, etc etc and any of those words could have been called out
They are all deeply offensive just as racist slurs are.
But the difference is intent. John did not consciously say those words
If you think someone with Tourettes should remove themselves if someone of colour is in earshot just in case he says something offensive should he also remove himself from disabled people, women, all people? Should he be locked away so noone heard him or isn't defended by him?

I think you’re one of the gleeful people I talked about.

Otherwise why would you keep telling saying it’s not intentional to people who know that? You get off on it.

I keep saying it because it's patently fucking obvious you don't get the point, and as someone who is very close to a disabled person who suffers the kind of "just don't go outside" bigotry you are displaying, I feel the need to attempt to correct you.

And I've not once said that targets of abuse should "get over it". In fact, I think you will find I said the exact opposite of that.

Pikey is exclusively used against gypsies, travellers or Romanies. It's not an offensive term used against white people.

Im surprised there were no slurs against women

Yes, he had a tic and it was involuntary. But it is a racial slur whether he meant to say it or not. If his tic involved hitting people on the head and he hit the person next to him on the head you wouldn't say 'you weren't assaulted, it was a tic' . . . both are true, someone was assaulted and someone had a tic and cannot be held responsible. If a survivor of sexual violence was stood on stage and someone shouted a rape threat as a tic i imagine it would affect them terribly in terms of a somatic response even if they knew it was a tic. I think we need not tell two black men that having the 'n' word shouted 'isn't a racial slur' whilst understanding that the person who shouted it had no ill intent and no control over saying it.

These conversations did happen openly and shamelessly about disabled people very very recently. My mum (a teacher) taught many many kids with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, facial differences, learning disabilities etc. over the years in a mainstream school with an inclusive ethos and remembers it being very common for parents of “normal” kids to ask the teachers if the disabled kids could be removed or taken away or concealed somehow, because their presence or faces or ways of speaking might scare the other kids, or make them uncomfortable or make them ask difficult questions.

It was also totally common for many teachers to do this and leave those kid out of the school play, not be in pictures, shame them, make them sit separately, not challenge awful slurs, exclude them, punish them, expel them, institutionalise them, abuse them

John was probably one of those kids.

I am close to disabled people who don’t leave the house for fear of judgement but I don’t have the luxury of only seeing one point of view as you seem to do.

If you’re going to swear at me, don’t bother posting to me again and expecting a response, I am not your whipping boy,

found you, but hftft yet

what would happen if this man’s ticks were: grabbing women’s breasts?? would people be told to accept it? 🥺

I didn’t say it was, I just quoted the study

I think we need not tell two black men that having the 'n' word shouted 'isn't a racial slur' whilst understanding that the person who shouted it had no ill intent and no control over saying it.

This with bells on @wingsandstrings

Why would you think that, it's the same basic issue?

People always make this claim, that it would be different for another word, with great confidence. My conclusion is that they are incapable of understanding that many people don't take things like this personally because they themselves take everything personally.

I wouldn't take any more "offence" or notice or care about anything that someone with a condition like this might say directed toward me. I am not foolish enough to imagine that he wouldn't see me for what I am, or that he would know lots of rude terms that could be used - after all, I know those terms as well. Having words I know said out loud, no matter how outwardly rude they are, makes zero difference to me if the individual isn't using them intentionally. Whether that is because the person is a child, insane, has a condition like tourettes, or is a language learner that has his wires crossed.

It is not ok to highlight John's issues over and above the harm the word causes to black people! The BBC choosing to highlight John's issues at the expense of the black people in that room is disgusting and racist.

Ask any black person how many people they know who have heard this word before, during or after a physical attack. Intent does not negate impact.

John had a right to be there imo. However, no one has the right to tell people how to feel about the impact of his words regardless of his intent.

A vicar can be a man or woman of any race and "kiddie fiddler" is applied to the vocation not the person. It is not the same.

People with disabilities don't owe you their absence in favour of your comfort.

Well said.

And something that Nomas and some other people should note but obviously will not.

@AntiqueBabyLoanSmurf

Do you know about intrusive thoughts, such as many people with OCD experience? I imagine it wasn't a coincidence that he shouted that out when two black actors were on stage as it is the most controversial thing that he could have said. With intrusive thoughts you are so filled with anxiety about not saying the worst thing thay you could possibly say, that's it's all you can think about! Try saying to yourself "don't think of a pink elephant" and you will soon see that it is incredibly difficult NOT to think of it.

Now, I don't know whether having tourette's is similar to this in that the intrusive thought is projected outwards or not. I'm sure it's more complicated neurologicallyand may have nothing to do with intrusive thoughts. But, my point is, there are conditions where high levels of anxiety, for example, can produce the worst possible thoughts, things that you sre most scared of thinking. And, actually, it speaks to your true moral character as the condition forces you to think about the worst possible thing you could ever imagine. That is why the thought is intrusive, because it is so abhorrent and awful for you to think about. If it wasn't the intrusive thoughts would have no power and wouldn't be intrusive.

I feel so sorry for this man and think everyone reacting with offence should do the gracious thing and show compassion and understanding.

If that's true, then I would hope that you would have some sort of understanding of how harmful your sort of attitude is.

Ho hum.

There might have been. But while people recognise those being rude and offensive, they don't seem to treat them as words with magical powers as they do with race related words.

Hearing a word ≠ having to live with a debilitating neurological disease day in, day out.