The reaction to this has been disappointing all around, and MANY people on the interweebs are accusing Davidson of being an evil racist because they don’t know shit about Tourette’s and they’re intolerant idiots.
On the other hand
The BBC’s failure here is epic and their excuse is bullshit, and
If Davidson has not reached out to Jordan and Lindo personally, he absolutely should. The fact he meant no harm and cannot help such things doesn’t mean he can’t apologize.
Of course I realize people with Tourette’s cannot spent their lives apologizing and hiding and the folks who said he shouldn’t go to awards events (and many have said that) are nitwits.
He has indirectly, although the people who insist that he should apologize to them in person have still not quite grasped why this would be a bad idea.
There are a couple of people with Tourette’s, including some young black girls, who have made videos to explain why someone with coprolalia shouting the N-word isn’t expressing their actual views on black people. The result seems to have been the intolerant idiots piling on them for “putting ableism ahead of racism”. Le sigh.
You are thinking of this solely in terms of the disabled man, and if that was the only party that was affected, you’d be right.
But there are also millions of Black people who suffered significant harm from this being broadcast, and they need to be part of the equation. It’s a balance, and neither party should be ignored or told to “suck it up.”
The proper response would have been editing it out of the broadcast, and a better apology from BAFTA than “sorry if you were offended.” A true apology needed to acknowledge the harm that was caused and do what was possible to address it. Editing the broadcast would have been the bare minimum.
This could have been a powerful teaching moment about Tourette’s and understanding of people who suffer from it. BAFTA and the BBC completely fumbled that.
