At the BAFTAs two Sundays ago, Alan Cumming served as host/MC. Cumming came in for criticism of how he handled the fiasco in real time, during the actual show. Shortly after John Davidson, a man with Tourette’s, loudly ticced the n-word at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, Cumming came out on stage and reminded the audience that a guest has Tourette’s and people needed to have compassion and understanding for him alone. Cumming also apologized “IF people are offended.” Since the BAFTAs, Cumming escaped a lot of the criticism because everyone was so focused on BAFTA and the BBC’s many f–kups. Cumming didn’t even issue his own public apology… until now. On Monday, he posted a statement on his Instagram:
Alan Cumming has issued an apology after hosting the Feb. 22 BAFTA Film Awards, during which John Davidson, who has Tourette’s syndrome, yelled the n-word while Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage.
“It’s now a week since I hosted the BAFTAs. What should have been an evening celebrating creativity as well as diversity and inclusion turned into a trauma triggering s—show,” he said.
“I’m so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt at hearing that word echoed round the world. I’m so sorry the Tourettes community has been reminded of the lack of understanding and tolerance that abounds regarding their condition.”
He continued: “The only possible good that could come of this is a reminder that words matter, that rushing to judgment about things of which we are not fully cognisant is folly, that all trauma must be recognised and honoured.”
Cumming concluded his statement by alluding to the mistakes made by BAFTA and the BBC.
“We were all let down by decisions made to both broadcast slurs and censor free speech,” he wrote. “Congratulations to all the artists whose work was overshadowed by the night’s events.”
I can easily nitpick Cumming’s statement, especially “I’m so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt at hearing that word echoed round the world…” Once again, centering the argument on why the BBC didn’t edit out the slur rather than the fact that the racist slur was shouted in the first place and why NO ONE from Bafta even spoke to Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan and Hannah Beachler during or after the show. No one showed them any care or concern. There’s still a lack of care in how these people keep centering the argument on “well the BBC should have edited it out.” Still, at least Cumming is capable of writing the words “I’m sorry” and acknowledging the impact of the slurs. It literally took him a week.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, screencap courtesy of ABC.
