In news that can only be described as too incredulous to believe, the 2026 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards went down on Sunday. But instead of talking about the big winners—one of them being Ryan Coogler who made history for being the first Black person to win for Best Original Screenplay—all people can talk about is the shocking moment that transpired for two of Coogler’s collaborators, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo. Buckle up, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
Suggested Reading
Things all started when Jordan and Lindo took the stage at the BAFTAs to present the first awards of the night. After the “Black Panther” star read his line off the teleprompter, there was a brief pause before the veteran “Crooklyn” star read his. In that moment, the word “nigger” was shouted by a person in the audience loud enough for everyone to hear. Both Jordan and Lindo could be seen pausing for a microscopic moment and seemingly registering what happened before they continued on doing their job.
However, that moment has since sparked an litany of responses from folks online because it’s not as cut and dry as you might expect. Why is that, you ask? Well, it’s because the slur was yelled out by a white Tourette activist named John Davidson. His life served as the inspiration for the 2025 film, “I Swear,” which was nominated for six awards on Sunday night.
For context, Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition that causes people to suffer from involuntary movements and vocal tics, the latter of which can sometimes manifest into outbursts of obscene or inappropriate language, per the Tourette Association of America. Specifically, for about 10% of people with Tourette, the condition also causes them to suffer from corprolalia, which is described as “the involuntary outburst of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks. Other examples may include references to genitals, excrement and sexual acts.”
Yet and still, as you might expect, for folks watching at home who had no background knowledge on any of that—hearing a loaded racial slur most known to be hurled at Black people on a global stage while two Black actors are up presenting made for a myriad of discussions to take place on social media.
For some people, they couldn’t get over the fact that Black folks were being asked to give grace in the situation given Davidson’s condition since he couldn’t control what he was saying. While that could be empathized with and understandable to a degree, the fact that two Black actors and by extension, Black viewers—were still subjected to an offensive remark, it would also be understandable for folks to feel some type of way about it. They also argued that an explanation of what happened doesn’t necessarily negate the impact of what took place.
“I understand tourette’s but I hate that I’m seeing white people basically saying Black people should get over being called the n word because of it. You can understand that it may be out of their control but still know the weight of that word and not be so trivial about it,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
“whyte people be having dementia, alzheimers, autism, tourettes but still know how to say a slur…” said another.
One other user wrote, “Correct me if I’m wrong but the BAFTA’s are NOT a live broadcast so why was that left in? Why wasn’t it edited with an explanation? Do people understand how triggering that was? What were the producers thinking? Y’all got me fucked up.”
Added another: “This tweet sent me reading about coprolalia (which occurs in roughly 10% of people with Tourette’s) and all I’m going to say is that neurology is messy and we should probably educate ourselves before making morally charged statements about things we don’t understand. Also, explanation ≠ excuse ≠ endorsement.
Others called out the fact that the ceremony was pre-recorded and questioned why the BAFTAs decided not to censor that moment like they did for winner Akinola Davies Jr., who said “Free Palestine” at the end of his acceptance speech.
“To record the ceremony and not cut that moment out or put a TRIGGER WARNING like they do everything else (hell we got a trigger warning on Twister!). To me, that’s so trash,” one user noted.
“The BAFTAs weren’t live, it was a delayed broadcast. That means anything inappropriate, including a racial slur, could’ve been edited out before we saw it. That was intentional,” said another.
One other user wrote, “Oh wait so BAFTA edited something else out but didn’t edit that out? Oh they set everyone up.”
And then you have people at the the intersection of the conversation and who, perhaps have some of the more nuanced take on the entire situation—Black people with Tourette syndrome and those psychologists and neurological professionals.
For user Shay, a Black girl with Tourette syndrome, she added a bit more insight into the conversation in a now-viral video on TikTok.
“I have been seeing a lot of outrage about it, people have been saying ‘oh well why would that even be in his vocabulary. He did that on purpose’ and all that stuff and that ‘racism is to excuse.’ It’s a very sad day for the Tourette syndrome community,” she said. “Especially for the ones who have coprolalia because when you come online and see thousands of people hating on your condition…I’m not going to say that people can’t be offended by the fact that somebody said the n-word as a tic. However, it’s not something that somebody can control, it’s not something that somebody wants to say.”
She went on to explain that outbursts from people with corprolalia most likely happen at the worst time possible whether in public or in complete silence and that it’s something that people need more understanding about.
It should also be noted here that while host Alan Cumming did apologize to audience members for Davidson’s outburst, it’s not known whether or not BAFTA has publicly apologized to Jordan or Lindo for what they experienced.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.