We have backslidden so far. Barely a day goes by now without some major media platform devoting an equal amount of time to Jim Crow-era ideals (because there are always two sides), a member of Congress talking down their leader’s stunningly bigoted Truth Social post, or a major cultural institution normalizing a word that should never be normalized because they didn’t consider it offensive.
This week, the N-word was shouted at “Sinners” actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo as they presented visual effects honors at the BAFTA Awards ceremony in London. The slur was inadvertently thrown out by John Davidson, whose life experience with Tourette syndrome inspired the film “I Swear.” The situation was painful and humiliating, but given the circumstances, the offensive nature of the incident could have been handled with common sense and empathy. Yet the British Broadcast Co. none of that was used.
Instead, the BBC failed to remove or bleeep the slur from the initial broadcast, even though there was a two-hour delay before the show aired on BBC One in Britain. Even after the outcry over the inclusion of the N-word in the initial broadcast, the network waited almost 15 hours before removing the slur from BBC’s iPlayer streaming service.
In a statement, the BBC said the slur was “broadcast in error” and that it “would never have knowingly allowed it to be broadcast.” Still, the BBC has a comment from My Father’s Shadow director Akinola Davies Jr. noted and removed that she found offensive. His call to “liberate Palestine” was edited out of the recording before the show aired. #BBCPriorities.
And because everything has to be adopted, co-opted and expanded by AI, the repetition of the offensive word wasn’t just limited to the BBC’s broadcast of the awards show. Google apologized Tuesday after a computer-generated news alert about BAFTA’s racist incident included the word. The notification alert, linked to an article from the Hollywood Reporter, invited readers to “see more,” directing them to additional context that included the slur.
In a statement, Davidson said he was “deeply shocked that anyone believed my involuntary tics were intentional or had any meaning.” He removed himself from the audience during Sunday’s show to avoid another possible incident.
There’s no reason why we can’t acknowledge Davidson’s disability while also acknowledging the damage the word has done. Of course he sees it. The aforementioned film inspired by his life shows what it’s like to live with involuntary vocal tics that contradict your own beliefs or intentions.
Lindo and Jordan’s Oscar-nominated film, “Sinners,” depicts a different kind of struggle: black people trying to survive and dare to thrive in the Mississippi era of Jim Crow. White people have the N-word slung at them every day, accompanied by varying degrees of hatred, disgust, and violence. The film underlines a fundamental truth: that the word is not just a word. It is a relic of the antebellum South, used to humiliate and dehumanize, to restrict self-determination, to hold back black people. How anyone in the BBC editing room, or otherwise, could miss such a hateful, loaded slur is frankly beyond belief.
BAFTA apologized for putting guests in a “very difficult situation” and thanked Jordan and Lindo for their “incredible dignity and professionalism.” It wasn’t a great response. The actors were humiliated on a public stage, in front of their peers, and then thanked for remaining calm, as if it was up to them to save the day – while they were the target of the slur. As a colleague of mine said, “It’s always ‘be professional’ and ‘act with dignity and grace’ when you just want to turn the table.”
The BAFTA slur heard around the world, or at least on both sides of the Atlantic, was not a deliberately placed hate bomb. But it still stings, especially here in the United States, as racist rhetoric from on high has reached a fever pitch.
Trump posted a video to Truth Social earlier this month depicting former President Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as monkeys. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post, claiming it was part of a longer video that depicted Trump as “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from “The Lion King.” She told critics to “stop the fake outrage.” The video was removed 12 hours after it was posted, and the White House blamed an aide for “incorrectly” making the post. Trump never apologized, claiming he “didn’t see” the racist imagery part of the video. “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
MAGA’s response to Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny performing the Super Bowl LX halftime show added to the xenophobic pile, from Trump calling the Spanish-language rapper and singer’s selection a “terrible choice” for the show and saying “all it does is spread hate,” to counter-programming for conservatives by Turning Point USA, pointedly dubbed the “All-American Halftime Show.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson backed the Bad Bunny alternative.
The current onslaught of racist ideology is not just limited to rhetoric. ICE’s immigration sweep of America’s streets has focused on people who Look so do immigrants, and the government is looking for ways to whitewash the horrors of slavery by changing the way black history is presented in public venues and museums. (Trump says historical sites focus too much on slavery rather than the country’s “success.”)
There is a lot of pushback, but there is also a lot of capitulation from the media who are afraid of being sued (or worse) by a weaponized FCC.
Davidson now says he plans to apologize directly to Jordan and Lindo for his BAFTA Awards outburst. But he carries a burden that all involved entities should shoulder. There is no scapegoat here, just the daily erosion of civility and the undermining of hard-won freedoms.
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