https://variety.com/2026/film/awards/alan-cumming-john-davidson-i-swear-outbursts-1236669691/
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Now I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is as bad as being shoved to your death. It's not. Not even close.
But a big part of the problem, is that white folk and Black folk have completely different ideas about how much harm was caused by having the n-word shouted, and who was harmed.
In the cliff example, people would expect any apology to be directed to the woman that was shoved off of the cliff, or her family.
But if the shover left, and his friend only addressed the crowd in general? "Some of you may have witnessed some shoving. He can't help it. Thanks for understanding."
That would feel off.
If the shoved woman's surviving family said, "If he knew he had a shoving tic, why was he up there? Are there ways we could have protected our loved one?"
It would feel weird to see people attack the family, "HE HAS A DISABILITY! ARE YOU SAYING HE CANT BE IN PUBLIC ANYMORE?!"
Again, I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is the same as being shoved off a cliff. It's not.
But I am saying that white folk discoursing about this are treating it like just a rude word, and Black folk definitely are not.
And we're talking as if there aren't Black folk with Tourettes.
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Now I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is as bad as being shoved to your death. It's not. Not even close.
But a big part of the problem, is that white folk and Black folk have completely different ideas about how much harm was caused by having the n-word shouted, and who was harmed.
In the cliff example, people would expect any apology to be directed to the woman that was shoved off of the cliff, or her family.
But if the shover left, and his friend only addressed the crowd in general? "Some of you may have witnessed some shoving. He can't help it. Thanks for understanding."
That would feel off.
@mekkaokereke Tourette’s is not making up words, it’s people who are using words they use or those around them use.
This reminds me of the people using the “I was drunk” or “I took Ambien” to explain racist comments. You only use those words if they are in your vocabulary.
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If the shoved woman's surviving family said, "If he knew he had a shoving tic, why was he up there? Are there ways we could have protected our loved one?"
It would feel weird to see people attack the family, "HE HAS A DISABILITY! ARE YOU SAYING HE CANT BE IN PUBLIC ANYMORE?!"
Again, I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is the same as being shoved off a cliff. It's not.
But I am saying that white folk discoursing about this are treating it like just a rude word, and Black folk definitely are not.
And we're talking as if there aren't Black folk with Tourettes.
@mekkaokereke Considering how often that slur is used in the lead-up to assault, I think it's reasonable to treat it at the same level as threatening to push someone off a cliff...
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If the shoved woman's surviving family said, "If he knew he had a shoving tic, why was he up there? Are there ways we could have protected our loved one?"
It would feel weird to see people attack the family, "HE HAS A DISABILITY! ARE YOU SAYING HE CANT BE IN PUBLIC ANYMORE?!"
Again, I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is the same as being shoved off a cliff. It's not.
But I am saying that white folk discoursing about this are treating it like just a rude word, and Black folk definitely are not.
And we're talking as if there aren't Black folk with Tourettes.
To wit, a vocal tic reflects, in some part, the cultural context in which the tic manifests.
The vocal tic at issue isn't non-linguistic throat clearing, coughing, sniffing or grunting. Nor is it repetition of voluntary speech of others (echolalia) or oneself (palilalia), but rather words emitted rather than repeated.
This makes it either words coming out of the obscene speech center of the brain (because, yes, humans specialize for that), i.e. coprolalia, or else disinhibited speech, where here disinhibition entails a failure to avoid behaviors otherwise understood to be inappropriate.
Which is to say, white discourse may pretend it's not a rude word, but the Tourette's syndrome, itself, most certainly makes no such pretense. The tic is the voicing of obscenities or at the very least rudeness.
The inability to not do so is the disability. The rudeness of the word, however, that's established by the culture. That's established by whiteness, by white supremacy. The tic is just working within the rules of what counts as obscene, tactless, offensive or rude.
Which is all to say, when white folk make an issue about folk being harmed by a vocal tic, they're not defending the disabled person.
They're using that person as a human shield to protect white society, to defend white history.
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If the shoved woman's surviving family said, "If he knew he had a shoving tic, why was he up there? Are there ways we could have protected our loved one?"
It would feel weird to see people attack the family, "HE HAS A DISABILITY! ARE YOU SAYING HE CANT BE IN PUBLIC ANYMORE?!"
Again, I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is the same as being shoved off a cliff. It's not.
But I am saying that white folk discoursing about this are treating it like just a rude word, and Black folk definitely are not.
And we're talking as if there aren't Black folk with Tourettes.
@mekkaokereke Was there medication the shoving guy could take to reduce the probability he would shove someone? Did he take it before going to a scheduled event on a cliff top? If not, why not?
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If the shoved woman's surviving family said, "If he knew he had a shoving tic, why was he up there? Are there ways we could have protected our loved one?"
It would feel weird to see people attack the family, "HE HAS A DISABILITY! ARE YOU SAYING HE CANT BE IN PUBLIC ANYMORE?!"
Again, I'm not saying having the n-word shouted at you is the same as being shoved off a cliff. It's not.
But I am saying that white folk discoursing about this are treating it like just a rude word, and Black folk definitely are not.
And we're talking as if there aren't Black folk with Tourettes.
Can I just recognize that this is really hard? Like really hard?
As you know, I don’t have your experience, but there are words about me and my people that I think come close and I can understand what you’re saying.
But there’s also a difference between a person uttering a word and a person saying it when they mean it. Both hurt, but the latter is so much worse.
I remember when I was in high school a Black friend asked me what a certain slur about me meant. Hearing them utter it was hurtful, but knowing they just didn’t know was mitigating and gave me an educable moment.
Tourette’s is obviously different and it isn’t an educable moment about the word, but it’s also a situation where the intent to be hurtful isn’t present.
So, yeah. You’re right. But also this is just really hard.
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@mekkaokereke Was there medication the shoving guy could take to reduce the probability he would shove someone? Did he take it before going to a scheduled event on a cliff top? If not, why not?
No medication possible. No cure. And he knew he had uncontrollable intrusive thoughts whenever he saw a vulnerable person on a ledge.
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BAFTAs Host Alan Cumming Asks for ‘Understanding’ as Tourette Syndrome Campaigner John Davidson Shouts ‘Strong Language’ and Slurs at Winners and Presenters
BAFTAs host Alan Cumming addresses outbursts from Tourette's campaigner John Davidson, who is the inspiration for nominated film 'I Swear.'
Variety (variety.com)
With this Tourettes discourse, I'm seeing a common pattern of conversations where Black and white people see the world very differently:
* Lack of empathy for Black people
* Lack of differentiation between malicious intent and harmThere's lots of empathy from white folks for people with Tourettes. Ironically, the little empathy that I am seeing for Black folk, is coming from white folks with Tourettes.
If someone had a physical tic that led them to shove people, they might shove someone off of a cliff, killing them.
If they shoved an old white lady off of a cliff, they would immediately apologize for the harm they'd caused.
They wouldn't say "Oh it's a tic. I have a disability. Not on purpose."
@mekkaokereke I agree with you. I think people are getting hung up on the "can't help it" part. Maybe it'd help to analogize it into something they do.
Sneezing on someone might be involuntary, but you'd apologize if you sneezed on someone even when they know you didn't intend to do it. How different would that be from apologizing for a slur--or also having Alan Cumming acknowledge the harm even as he explain the absence of intent?
I hope Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo got an apology from him at the very least, because shouting the n-word at someone is FAR worse than merely sneezing on them.
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BAFTAs Host Alan Cumming Asks for ‘Understanding’ as Tourette Syndrome Campaigner John Davidson Shouts ‘Strong Language’ and Slurs at Winners and Presenters
BAFTAs host Alan Cumming addresses outbursts from Tourette's campaigner John Davidson, who is the inspiration for nominated film 'I Swear.'
Variety (variety.com)
With this Tourettes discourse, I'm seeing a common pattern of conversations where Black and white people see the world very differently:
* Lack of empathy for Black people
* Lack of differentiation between malicious intent and harmThere's lots of empathy from white folks for people with Tourettes. Ironically, the little empathy that I am seeing for Black folk, is coming from white folks with Tourettes.
If someone had a physical tic that led them to shove people, they might shove someone off of a cliff, killing them.
If they shoved an old white lady off of a cliff, they would immediately apologize for the harm they'd caused.
They wouldn't say "Oh it's a tic. I have a disability. Not on purpose."
What the actual....
I have a brain injury. I don't have tourette's
The uncontrollable thing I do is forgetting. I forget very important things that happen to my friends. I forget that their parents die and things like that
I am constantly apologizing for it. And I am constantly telling people ahead of time, I will forget that you told me this, and it doesn't mean that I don't care. It just means that my brain doesn't work
I am proactive, and also retroactive
If I had tourette's, I would do the same thing that I do with my own brain injury. I would try different strategies, and see what worked for people, and what worked for me
Maybe I would sit there with my hand over my mouth. Maybe I would carry a little auction paddle type thing that says sorry tourette's, that I could hold up when I accidentally said something hurtful
I don't presume to dictate what should work for people who have a disability different from mine. They've thought about it a lot more than I have, and presumably tried things, and are on the 100th iteration
But just doing something that can hurt people and acting like people have to deal with it... Surely there's a better solution than that one?
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BAFTAs Host Alan Cumming Asks for ‘Understanding’ as Tourette Syndrome Campaigner John Davidson Shouts ‘Strong Language’ and Slurs at Winners and Presenters
BAFTAs host Alan Cumming addresses outbursts from Tourette's campaigner John Davidson, who is the inspiration for nominated film 'I Swear.'
Variety (variety.com)
With this Tourettes discourse, I'm seeing a common pattern of conversations where Black and white people see the world very differently:
* Lack of empathy for Black people
* Lack of differentiation between malicious intent and harmThere's lots of empathy from white folks for people with Tourettes. Ironically, the little empathy that I am seeing for Black folk, is coming from white folks with Tourettes.
If someone had a physical tic that led them to shove people, they might shove someone off of a cliff, killing them.
If they shoved an old white lady off of a cliff, they would immediately apologize for the harm they'd caused.
They wouldn't say "Oh it's a tic. I have a disability. Not on purpose."
@mekkaokereke there is an entitlement feeling here -- knowing you're almost definitely going to shout the most offensive racial slur at people and deciding it's worth that cost to all of them in exchange for your agenda. It's horrifying to think about these guys winning awards for Sinners and that's what happens. Jesus.
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Can I just recognize that this is really hard? Like really hard?
As you know, I don’t have your experience, but there are words about me and my people that I think come close and I can understand what you’re saying.
But there’s also a difference between a person uttering a word and a person saying it when they mean it. Both hurt, but the latter is so much worse.
I remember when I was in high school a Black friend asked me what a certain slur about me meant. Hearing them utter it was hurtful, but knowing they just didn’t know was mitigating and gave me an educable moment.
Tourette’s is obviously different and it isn’t an educable moment about the word, but it’s also a situation where the intent to be hurtful isn’t present.
So, yeah. You’re right. But also this is just really hard.
@Bam @mekkaokereke I just want to politely point out that we don't know this man or what is or isn't in his heart. We have no way to know his intent.
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What the actual....
I have a brain injury. I don't have tourette's
The uncontrollable thing I do is forgetting. I forget very important things that happen to my friends. I forget that their parents die and things like that
I am constantly apologizing for it. And I am constantly telling people ahead of time, I will forget that you told me this, and it doesn't mean that I don't care. It just means that my brain doesn't work
I am proactive, and also retroactive
If I had tourette's, I would do the same thing that I do with my own brain injury. I would try different strategies, and see what worked for people, and what worked for me
Maybe I would sit there with my hand over my mouth. Maybe I would carry a little auction paddle type thing that says sorry tourette's, that I could hold up when I accidentally said something hurtful
I don't presume to dictate what should work for people who have a disability different from mine. They've thought about it a lot more than I have, and presumably tried things, and are on the 100th iteration
But just doing something that can hurt people and acting like people have to deal with it... Surely there's a better solution than that one?
I'm also angry when I think about how only a well-off white man could get away with that
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@Bam @mekkaokereke I just want to politely point out that we don't know this man or what is or isn't in his heart. We have no way to know his intent.
@aetataureate @mekkaokereke That’s fair. As I understand it (admittedly as someone who was waiting for AKOTSK to air rather than watching the BAFTAs), the substance of the film about him is exactly this. So based on that context and mekka’s post, I was operating under the assumption that it was a symptom, not an excuse. Of course, if that assumption is faulty, then it’s not hard at all.
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@aetataureate @mekkaokereke That’s fair. As I understand it (admittedly as someone who was waiting for AKOTSK to air rather than watching the BAFTAs), the substance of the film about him is exactly this. So based on that context and mekka’s post, I was operating under the assumption that it was a symptom, not an excuse. Of course, if that assumption is faulty, then it’s not hard at all.
@Bam @mekkaokereke you're sort of missing the point. he has symptoms, but that doesn't mean he would not say the word in cruelty to someone, because we don't know him and have no idea. assuming that a disabled person is a saint is also ableism. he is a stranger who we don't know.
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@mekkaokereke there is an entitlement feeling here -- knowing you're almost definitely going to shout the most offensive racial slur at people and deciding it's worth that cost to all of them in exchange for your agenda. It's horrifying to think about these guys winning awards for Sinners and that's what happens. Jesus.
@mekkaokereke i've been reading more about this and saw people blaming the event producers for having a mic near him. i guess in pure harm reduction terms it's better if just 200 diverse audience members surrounding him hear it but . . . that cannot be the best accommodation here for anyone involved, including him.
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@Bam @mekkaokereke you're sort of missing the point. he has symptoms, but that doesn't mean he would not say the word in cruelty to someone, because we don't know him and have no idea. assuming that a disabled person is a saint is also ableism. he is a stranger who we don't know.
If that’s the point I’m “missing,” it seems like a rather false dichotomy to go from mekka’s initial post that assumed lack of intent and discussed even lack of intent causing harm and having a discussion based on that premise to “assuming that a disabled person is a saint is ableism,” but if that’s what you want to go with, go ahead.
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If that’s the point I’m “missing,” it seems like a rather false dichotomy to go from mekka’s initial post that assumed lack of intent and discussed even lack of intent causing harm and having a discussion based on that premise to “assuming that a disabled person is a saint is ableism,” but if that’s what you want to go with, go ahead.
@Bam @mekkaokereke uhhh his name is mekka, and he did not mention intent at all. you are being weird about it though, and my point is still a fair one. see ya
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@Bam @mekkaokereke uhhh his name is mekka, and he did not mention intent at all. you are being weird about it though, and my point is still a fair one. see ya
Right. The shoving tic example was clearly a demonstration of someone who intentionally pushed someone off a height or into traffic.
See ya.
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@Bam @mekkaokereke uhhh his name is mekka, and he did not mention intent at all. you are being weird about it though, and my point is still a fair one. see ya
@Bam @mekkaokereke lol this guy is a zionist of course. i admit i had not heard "zionophobic" before looking, that would have been a clue about taking the wrong side in things overall
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BAFTAs Host Alan Cumming Asks for ‘Understanding’ as Tourette Syndrome Campaigner John Davidson Shouts ‘Strong Language’ and Slurs at Winners and Presenters
BAFTAs host Alan Cumming addresses outbursts from Tourette's campaigner John Davidson, who is the inspiration for nominated film 'I Swear.'
Variety (variety.com)
With this Tourettes discourse, I'm seeing a common pattern of conversations where Black and white people see the world very differently:
* Lack of empathy for Black people
* Lack of differentiation between malicious intent and harmThere's lots of empathy from white folks for people with Tourettes. Ironically, the little empathy that I am seeing for Black folk, is coming from white folks with Tourettes.
If someone had a physical tic that led them to shove people, they might shove someone off of a cliff, killing them.
If they shoved an old white lady off of a cliff, they would immediately apologize for the harm they'd caused.
They wouldn't say "Oh it's a tic. I have a disability. Not on purpose."
@mekkaokereke doesn’t seem like this is really about the disability, rather that it’s about self preservation. Build an excuse into the public discourse and now you have a safety net for when you inevitably push someone off a cliff. But the safety net is for the pusher.
Sadly, not enough folks are going to give this honest thorough analysis and I’m not sure how that changes.
