John Davidson’s unfortunately-timed tic at the BAFTAs has reignited the culture war on identity politics, after Hollywood luvvies such as Jamie Foxx branded the Tourette Syndrome sufferer a racist for blurting out the N-word against his own will. An online commentator who’s done the same is lawyer and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu - who is challenged on it by Piers Morgan in this fiery episode of Uncensored. Dr Marc Siegel also joins to explain what having the disability really means - plus Piers speaks to former press secretary to Bernie Sanders and host of the Bad Faith podcast, Briahna Joy Gray, Prager U commentator Xaviaer DuRousseau and Gary Buechler AKA Nerdrotic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
|
Time
Text
Erasing Lived Experiences00:14:41
This movie was about acceptance.
There is no intent behind the word.
And that's what gives the word power outside of people, other people giving the word power.
And I long for a day where it has no power.
What's been gotten wrong here is you're not secretly thinking those words, but you lose the lid off of them.
That's not what's happening.
It's that you don't think that.
Those aren't your words.
Those aren't your thoughts.
And that's why Jamie Foxx and Wendell Pierce, maybe they should be ashamed.
Me giving an apology because I made an incorrect statement, which is not going to erase or invalidate my legitimate reaction to how the public reacts, you know, to the public trying to erase our lived experiences because he has tourists.
Nobody's trying to erase your lived experience.
What a load of people.
It's not enough.
Earlier this week, a well-known activist and campaigner shocked crowds with an outburst which has been furiously derided as racially offensive.
I'm not trying to impress you.
I'm just trying to impress upon you, I'm like you.
I'm no better than you.
You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy.
And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940.
But literally a 960 SAT guy.
I cannot, you've never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech.
Well, that was California governor and presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom, who's accused of telling a primarily black audience that he's relatable because he too can't read.
Well, more on him later.
But I was, of course, really talking about this.
Dara and I are delighted to be presenting the first BAFTA of the night for a vital part of movie making.
Well, John Davidson was at the BAFTAs in honor of the exceptional movie, I Swear, which is a dramatization of his life with Tourette's syndrome.
Most people know by now, also I thought, that Tourette's causes involuntary tics.
This often involves belting out the most inappropriate words and insults imaginable.
And John Davidson duly shouted out the N-word while black actors Michael B. Jordan and Del Roy Lindo were on stage.
Somehow, one of those N-words made it into the airwaves on the BBC despite a two-hour delay, which was successfully used to censor a director who said free Palestine.
The resulting uproar has been staggering.
Davidson was instantly branded a racist, as were the people attempting to defend him.
Jamie Foxx called it unacceptable and said, nah, he meant that shit.
Director Johnty Richards has resigned as a BAFTA judge, calling the incident unforgivable and condemning the failure to safeguard the black creative community.
Journalist Jamil Hill said that Davidson's inclusion shouldn't be prioritized over the well-being of the other guests.
Really?
So they should have excluded the man with an actual disability who was invited to receive an award for a movie which raises awareness about his disability from an industry which supposedly cares very deeply about things like disability because your feelings matter more than his.
This is precisely the problem with identity politics.
When it's finished eating everybody else, it has no choice but to eat itself.
Davidson's been forced to issue a humbling and heartfelt mere culpa in Variety magazine.
But in my view, he shouldn't have had to.
Well joining me to debate this is a lawyer and activist Dr. Shola Moss Shogbamamu, Brianna Joy Gray, former press secretary to Bernie Sanders, host of the Bad Faith podcast from the Nadrotic YouTube channel Gary Abukla and Javier DeRusso, the commentator with Prey You.
Well welcome to all of you.
Dr. Sola, let me start by just playing something that you did as a video post on your ex account, which has been viewed so far by 1.4 million people.
Some of you are getting on my last blood-giving nerves.
The fact that I have to come up here to break down for you the ABC's 123 door emis of racism, because some of you have the bombastic aucity to want to litigate the racial intent of a white man and absolve him of racism because of his disability.
Now, I'm going to make time for you today.
Let me say this in plain English because I'm not speaking Latin or Swahili.
John Davidson is a racist white man with Tourette syndrome.
And let me break this down for you.
Tourette syndrome is a disability.
Disability is not racism.
And it does not make you racist.
The Tourette syndrome simply brings out what is already in the heart, mind, and soul of the person speaking.
Because as a man thinketh, so is he.
Now, I've got to be honest, Dr. Shora, that's one of the most disgraceful and shameful attacks on somebody with a medically diagnosed disability that I've ever had to endure and witness.
Would you like to start by offering a profound apology to John Davidson, who, as anybody who understands Tourette syndrome knows, has absolutely no control over what he says, including any racial insults or slurs he may utter, because people with Tourette have no control.
Not just to, I noticed that you don't, you didn't play the whole video that actually addresses many other points, but not just to John Davidson, because I spoke about this in my live stream.
I made an incorrect statement in that, in my video.
And by basically by saying that having a bank of words or of vocabulary in your heart, mind, and soul is, it implies that anybody with a Taurus syndrome subscribe to what has come out of their mouth.
So that in itself is harmful to that community.
And that community is not just John Davidson.
It also includes black people with Taurus syndrome.
So I most definitely, and I'll say that now, even though I apologize to my live stream yesterday, I unequivocally and apologetically am sorry for the, you know, for that incorrect statement, because that is incorrect.
What I also said in my video, which you haven't played, is to address the impact on black people.
And actually, my video was addressing those who are trying to weaponize his disability.
So in my attempt to bridge the gap to address them, weaponize his disability to erase the lived experiences of black people, I ended up creating a gap.
And by creating that gap, I am responsible for closing it by acknowledging that it's an incorrect statement, apologizing because it's wrong, and then taking myself back to school to educate myself on Tourette's.
Well, it might have been helpful if you'd actually watched the movie or educated yourself about Tourette's before you launched this attack on John Davidson.
You doubled down, actually, before the public, well, hang on, before the public furori that came your way, which forced you into then backing down, you followed up not because of that.
Let me finish my point.
After John Davidson issued a statement explaining that he has no control over this, you refused to accept it.
You said this has to be the whitest non-apology from John Davidson.
It's exactly how racist white people don't take responsibility.
Can we talk about it?
Or is that ableist?
He shouldn't be apologizing for his disability.
Why is sorry?
The hardest thing to say for his impact of his words.
So, you carried on calling him a racist, even when he explained to you and to everyone who was calling them that that actually he has no control over what he says.
You continued to call this man who has suffered his entire life from people stereotyping him in this continued racist.
I appreciate you advocating for him.
But if you take the time to listen and watch my videos and everything else I've said, I've explained quite frankly that I understand that Taurus syndrome, how Taurus syndrome works in terms of the fact that the words come out involuntarily.
But as I explained in my videos, racism does not require intent to be racist.
That is why I said it was racist.
That does not change.
My apology does not change that.
It is a racist statement that does not require intent.
Taurus syndrome, what it does is it explains how it happens, doesn't justify why it happens because impact is what defines it.
So when I talked about what was being paraded as his apology, I don't think he called it an apology, but the newspapers and those with big platforms were calling it an apology.
And I said, no, it's that is not an apology.
When you say, I am mortified that you think this was intentional, I don't understand why people are calling this apology.
And when I was speaking, I'm speaking to those again who are weaponizing his disability.
That was what that was about.
And let me just say, Piers, I'm not holding him to a different standard or BAFTA or BBC, because as you rightly pointed out, some words were being blipped out.
And we just understood that BBC also bleeped out a homophobic slur that he had uttered, but they deliberately left this N-word in.
That's not what this is about.
I am explaining and trying to address the fact that we are being told, we are being called ableists.
We are being told to be silent.
We are being told that this, we should not have the right to react.
And I'm trying to be, and I'm also being concerned, not even trying.
I understand the harm that that statement will make to the entire Torrets community.
So that is why I offer my apology unreservedly.
But the same way I said he has made a racist statement is the same way I called Kanye West out as an anti-Semitic black man when he was uttering anti-Semitic words.
I did not hold him to a separate standard.
I didn't say as a black woman, you know what?
I'm going to use your bipolar disorder to excuse or wipe away what you've done.
I didn't go to the Jewish community and say to them, you know, take it on the chin.
He's got bipolar.
I am simply holding a white man with disability to the same standard I held a black man.
And again, my points were not directed at him or those who are trying to weaponize.
However, I understand the impact on him and the people who are experienced who suffer from the tourist community.
So my apology for making that incorrect statement is not because anybody forced me to.
And it's not because public fear.
It is because I understand the impact and I give it unreservedly to the tourist community.
Yeah, and yet coincidentally, your groveling apologies only came after the public furore.
Again, I'm not governing.
I don't sound like I'm outstanding center.
Before that, before that happened, Dr. Shola, before that happened, you had kicked a guy when he was down.
You took a guy who suffers from an appalling syndrome.
There was a movie being celebrated.
John Davidson's the man you kicked when he was John Davidson.
And I intend to go and watch his movie.
I will watch his movie.
But you are not.
Listen, me giving an apology because I made an incorrect statement, which I rightly say causes harm, is not going to erase or invalidate my legitimate reaction to how the public reacts, you know, to the public trying to erase our lived experiences because he has tourists.
Nobody's trying to erase your lived experience.
What a load of baloney.
A load of baloney.
This is nonsense.
No here, nobody was erasing anyone's lived experience.
I'll tell you what you were doing, what you were doing, if I may, if I may, if I may, respond.
That's what you're saying okay yes, if I may respond, the person who was trying to erase someone's lived experience was you.
You were trying to erase John Davidson's lived experience as a man suffering from Torett's syndrome.
Please don't talk over me.
Please don't talk over me and I respond.
Let me finish my point.
Let me finish my point and you can respond.
If you talk over me, no one can hear either of us, right?
Okay, you talk about living.
You have the brass neck.
You have the brass neck to talk about lived experience.
When you take a man's lived experience please let me finish my point you take a man who has suffered from tourette his entire life.
If you watch the movie, as I did last night, you will see the hell that man has endured.
They were celebrating that film on the night.
The actor that plays him won an award.
John Davidson was being celebrated and everybody knows.
Everybody knows that anyone with tourettes who says these kind of outbursts doesn't have any control or any bank of language or mean them, but you, rather than try to find that out, you kicked him when he was down.
That's what you erased.
Nobody kicked him while he was down.
I was addressing the fact that, when it happened, people as you know, as you heard in my video I said people with a bombastic capacity to try to erase our lived experiences, without them wanting to balance both, that yes, he has a disability that's caused this, but that the impact is real.
I mean, when Michael B Jordan and Deroy Lindo heard that word, that they froze in that moment and we all I don't know about you, but every black person knew exactly what they're thinking, exactly how they're feeling.
Now, I mean, you're doing exactly what I am saying all these other people are doing.
All you're doing is focusing on on one side of the story.
You're only focusing on wanting to weaponize his disability, to say you know what, nothing else matters, because the tourist no no no, to be clear, let me respond, let me respond, let me respond.
It is, let me respond.
It is you that is weaponizing and I don't find any of this funny.
It is you're laughing like you're weaponizing.
It's you that weapon.
It is you that weaponized John Davidson's disability.
It was you that was shamefully ableist towards him.
No yes, you can call me ableist, and it was you.
It was you who was so ill-informed about what Tourettes is that you branded him repeatedly a racist.
You can call it a racist and you can call me ableist, but I think it's a bit rich coming from the man who diminished, undermined the suicidal um experiences of Meghan Markle and rather than, okay, all right, you're gonna try and distract, we'll move on.
Weaponizing Disability00:09:03
Yeah, we'll move on.
Yeah, we'll move on.
Just just so viewers understand, the last time Dr Shower and I had any contact on the airways was when I expressed doubt about a lot of the claims made by Meghan Markle and prince Harry in the Oprah Winfrey interview, none of which of the more serious ones the racism and the mental health claims ever then were followed up in his book or in television interviews or anything.
It was like they never happened.
But we're not going to get into that, because we're not actually here to talk about Meghan and Harry and actually i'm bored of talking about those two.
What we're going to do is go to the rest of the.
We're going to go to the rest of the panel rather than let you distract from what you did, um, and you have apologized way too late, but you okay, stop shouting.
Stop shouting.
You've said your piece.
The panel's been waiting.
Please show some.
Please show some consideration for your fellow panel members.
Let me bring in Nadrotic, Sir Gary Brukelet.
Nadrotic, you know, I was appalled by what Jamie Foxx said about this.
And look, there are other strands to this story, like the BBC's culpability in inexplicably not cutting this from what they put out on the air two hours later when they were cutting out people comments like Free Palestine.
It's unbelievable to me they didn't cut out somebody using the N-word, albeit completely inadvertently, because they have no control.
But that is a BBC cockup of epic proportions.
But in relation to people like Jamie Fox, for example, in Hollywood and the general attempt to try and bully John Davidson into this apology to the people of Hollywood who were so hurt and offended, I just found the whole thing so distasteful.
It showed a chronic misunderstanding of what Tourette's syndrome is, a failure to have any knowledge of his story or the movie about his life or any of it.
I just watched the movie this morning, Piers, and it's really good, by the way.
And I recommend everybody watch it to understand this.
And as I posted on X today, the entertainment industry loves to say that they are the champions of acceptance and empathy.
And they just had the best test to prove that.
And they all failed miserably and completely.
And saying that that was his intent is a complete misunderstanding of Tourette's.
And we keep on focusing on the N-word.
What about all the other things he said that nobody else is talking about?
He said, F the queen, who the queen's face, you know, and they show that in the movie.
And this is a part of this condition that he has to live in.
There's no intent behind the word.
This is the one time where people can say, you know what?
We're going to laugh about this, blow it off, or show some empathy.
You know, what that the word that they love to use in the entertainment industry, but they have no understanding of.
And after listening to that from the doctor, I don't know how you're a doctor.
That's the medical doctor.
That's the biggest mystery in life.
And I've been kicked out of three high schools, but I don't know how the hell you became a doctor.
But what a great country.
What a great country you live in to hand out doctorates to people who are woefully unqualified because that whole argument was a roller coaster.
Nadrotsky, it's interesting you referenced the incident with the queen.
It's when John Davidson got his MBE specifically for his work for raising awareness about Tourette's syndrome.
And when he was introduced to the queen, he yelled, and I'll say it, he yelled, fuck the queen in front of her, right?
But rather than be offended, the queen brushed it off, responded straight away, congratulations, Mr. Davidson, because she had done a bit of prior research.
She understood the person that she was giving this honor to suffered from a condition where he would say things like this without any ability to stop himself saying it and without any intent to cause any offense.
And when he was asked about it later, John Davidson said, I started to relax then because she said, I believe you've done lots of television appearances trying to improve people's knowledge of Tourette's.
And I said, I have, ma'am.
I've done five documentaries.
And she said, gee whiz, I'll have to get the boys to show me some of those one day.
In other words, she showed empathy and compassion.
She made no big deal of what he said.
And it was a very special moment, actually, given how some people would have viewed what he said in front of her, right?
Easy to take the easy route with that and just say, well, he's just offended the queen in the most disgusting manner.
No, he hadn't.
She understood he hadn't.
She understood that the whole point of why he was getting the award and the honor from her and from his country was because he had raised awareness for a condition which is crippling for people that have it.
You know, when you watch that movie, and I watched it last night, I swear, I urge all my viewers to watch it.
It's incredibly powerful.
It's very inspiring.
And if you think that anybody, anybody with Tourette's syndrome would in their, well, I would say in their right mind, but they're not really in their right mind in the moment they have the ticks.
But if you think that anyone would deliberately do that if they didn't have a condition which made them do it, you are completely delusional.
I want to play a clip before I come to the other two panelists.
This is a really interesting clip from a young American black woman who has Tourette's.
She's called Kilk One Yoshi.
She's big on YouTube.
And she explains that she too has the same problem as John Davidson, including saying the N-word, albeit, as I say, she's a young American black woman.
But she articulates, I think, it's about just over a minute, but really worth watching this to get a sense of what it's like if you have Tourette's.
And let's listen to this.
I've been seeing a lot of people be like, well, he said it like when the crowd went silent.
That is most likely when a tick is going to happen when you're in public, when you're in complete silence or when you're trying not to say or do something.
We must understand what coprolalia is.
Coprolalia causes involuntary swearing and inappropriate ticks.
This can include the N-words, slurs, etc.
I am a black person and even I have the N-word tick and slurs as ticks.
This is something I don't see many talk about because of situations like this.
Is it a disappointing thing?
Shut up.
Well, the actual clip goes on for a lot longer and is really fascinating.
But the point she's making, and I want to bring in, we're being joined now by Dr. Mark Siegel, who's a physician, professor, and medical analyst for Fox News.
Dr. Siegel, great to have you back.
You are a doctor, a real one.
This whole issue of Tourette syndrome, it can manifest in various different ways.
You can have simple ticks, which is brief repetitive movements or sounds involving a few muscle groups, eye blinking, throat clearing.
Then you can have complex ticks, distinct coordinated patterns of movement, jumping, twisting, or sounds, repeating words or phrases.
And then you can get into these rarer forms, which include coprolalia, which is the involuntary swearing, and copropraxia, which is obscene gestures.
These affect about 10 to 15% of people with Tourette's.
And that's what John Davidson has.
But just to clear this up for people who may still be under any sort of delusions about this, somebody that has that has the condition John Davidson has.
They have zero control over what they say, right?
Yes, and I want to really explain that because it should embarrass your first panelist there who's not a medical doctor.
Here's the deal.
It's a spectrum disease, meaning there's all types from very mild to very severe.
John Davidson has very severe.
He was licking lampposts when he was nine years old.
You mean he loved lampposts and was secretly wanting and desiring to lick those lampposts or spit food at his family that caused his father to leave the family?
It's not that.
It's that severe form of Tourette's.
And hooray for John Davidson, raising awareness for 300,000 kids or adults in the UK that have this condition, the overall Tourette's mild to severe, because they get ostracized, because they get stigmatized.
The copralalia that you're talking about, Piers, that's the key here.
And that's why Jamie Foxx and Wendell Pierce, maybe they should be ashamed because what copralalia means, it involves the limbic system of the brain, which yes, I studied.
It involves dopamine, which I studied, and serotonin, which I studied.
And it's a neurological condition when you have copralalia, where it's not only that you lose control.
What's been gotten wrong here is you're not secretly thinking those words, but you lose the lid off of them.
That's not what's happening.
It's that you don't think that.
Those aren't your words.
Those aren't your thoughts.
Those aren't what's behind it.
You're not secretly wanting to curse someone and they took the lid off of the pot so the curse spews out.
Understanding Tourette's Science00:02:57
It's that the thoughts have nothing to do with what actually is behind it.
And the idea that people would say that shows that they're misinformed.
And the fact that that gets propagated is what causes the stigma that he's doing this movie about in the first place.
He has no control, A, and he's not thinking those things.
They're socially inappropriate terms and expressions and curses that are not what his thoughts are thinking.
It's what his brain is spewing out.
Yeah, that's absolutely crucial to this debate because people like Jamie Fox seem to have got it into their heads that he must be a closet racist, otherwise, he would never say these things.
It's such a stupid failure to understand what the condition is.
And it comes from people in Hollywood who never stop preaching about the need to, you know, they constantly preach identity politics.
They're constantly telling us we've got to be more empathetic, more compassionate.
They virtue signal about everything left, right, and center.
But here you have somebody who is the subject of a big new movie, specifically about a condition which makes it crystal clear about what the issues are.
And yet none of them appear to have watched it.
None of them appear to care.
And they're quite happy to go public and spray gun this guy in a really dark moment for him where he knows how big a deal this was.
He'll have been really, as we know from his statements, really suffering since about what's happened here.
And rather than calm things down and show him empathy and compassion, Holly was lined up to kick him.
Isn't it ironic that his very first film in 1989 with BBC was called John's Not Mad?
That's the point.
Yes.
He's sounding mad, but he's not really mad.
We all have those words in our vocabulary.
His brain is choosing one that he doesn't intend to say or is not even thinking.
We need to have compassion and empathy for this man because you know what?
Four times more likely for people to commit suicide with Tourette's.
You should be ashamed on the panel for not knowing that.
50% of Tourette's adults are thinking of suicide.
And that's why they need our compassion, our empathy, and our understanding and not spewing pseudoscience.
Yeah, well, you referenced this John's Not Mad documentary.
It was from 1988.
So we're talking 38 years ago.
So this guy's been in the public eye ever since.
The cameras followed him around when he was young.
Let's take a look at a little clip from that BBC documentary.
But if you didn't know about John, what would you think as he passed through in the street?
The 1988 Documentary Context00:15:56
Yeah, oh, thanks.
It feels like I think it's hard to explain.
And I feel I'm going to see it.
I try and stop myself, but it just feels as if I have to see it.
It's like somebody's forced out of me.
So, Brianna Joy Gray, let me come to you on this.
I mean, what is your view now that we know all the facts about this?
What is your view of it?
Well, for one, I think the reason that this movie came out and why it's important is because a lot of people don't know exactly what Tourette is all about and why people are making the exclamations that they're actually making.
So I appreciate the gracious apology of the guest that got the facts wrong.
And I expect that a lot of the other folks in Hollywood who might have rushed to the judgment that this man had some control over the epithets that he used was wrong.
But in some respects, I think that the bigger story and the focus here shouldn't be about random people who don't really know very much about Tourette's, which again is why this movie is valuable in the first place, to help people to understand the ailment better, the disability better.
But the response of BAFTA and how they selectively chose which kinds of remarks were appropriate to edit out of the delayed broadcasts and which were appropriate to include.
The fellow panelist here, Nerdrotik, mentioned earlier that why aren't we talking about the other exclamations?
Why aren't we talking about the homophobic exclamations, et cetera?
I think that's a good question.
And part of the answer to that is because those were edited out.
BAFTA decided that those were offensive to people, that the viewing audience should not be privy to those.
And moreover, edited out not just exhortations from the audience, but the intentional reference to freeing Palestine in a speech by someone who was being rewarded for their work and honored and respected that night, because that was too sensitive, ostensibly, I presume, to certain viewers, not because they're in a protected class or have an identity, but because they support Zionism as an ideology.
So BAFTA is an organization with a great deal of power here, as opposed to Jamie Foxx or random people who I agree obviously don't know very much about Tourette's or they wouldn't have said what they said.
But why is it that the same care that was given to the LGBT community or any others that might have been offended that night was not extended to Michael B. Jordan and Del Roy Lindo?
And specifically, to go to Dr. Shola's point, at what point are we going to take any time in this conversation to ask what BAFTA owed to the presenters, including the two black presenters, to protect them and to honor their dignity as they stood there at the podium that night and tried to do their jobs?
So that's an interesting, look, that's an interesting point.
I know Michael B. Jordan a bit, and he's a really good guy.
I think he's a great actor.
I've got a lot of admiration for him.
And I think the way they conducted themselves in the moment was exemplary.
They didn't get thrown off by it.
They didn't say anything about it.
They just let it ride.
My question would be for BAFTA, did all the presenters and hosts that night on stage, were they told that John Davidson would be in the audience and may say stuff which would be very inflammatory, very abusive, very offensive, because he couldn't help himself.
It's baffling to me if that conversation didn't take place.
And then if they were told, then there's no reason why any of them should have been offended.
The point you make about the BBC is entirely correct.
It is inexplicable to me the BBC allowed that to be broadcast.
I watched the broadcast knowing it was two hours after it had happened.
And for that to still be in there when they clearly had had the ability to remove things, because they removed the stuff that you referenced earlier, is just inexplicable.
And frankly, heads should roll at the BBC, who've been having a terrible run as it is, but heads should roll about that decision-making because it was crass and stupid.
But, you know, when it comes to apologies, I do not understand.
And let me bring Javier de Russo in here.
I don't understand why John Davison has been bullied into making apologies when it seems to me the people that should be making apologies, Dr. Shola, who has, to her credit, made an apology, a fulsome one now, but Jamie Foxx hasn't yet.
And he's a massive movie star.
Again, someone I rate as an actor, rate as a person.
I was appalled by what he said.
And to date, no pressure on him to apologize.
I think he owes it to John Davidson to say, I'm sorry, I didn't know what Tourette's syndrome is.
I now understand that it doesn't mean you have racist intent if you blurt out racist epithets and insults and slurs.
And he should apologize.
In other words, the bullying that's going on against John Davidson should be transferred to those who simply didn't understand his condition.
You know, I feel like BBC really should be taking a lot of this responsibility for the fact that they did not edit this out.
And like you guys said, they had two hours to address that.
And I got to say, watching progressives debate whether they're going to defend ableism or racism has been one of the highlights of my year.
And when it comes to John Davidson, I don't think he's racist.
And obviously, knowing and understanding Tourette's syndrome, it is unfortunate that he has to deal with this condition and that this is something that is regular for him.
I respect the fact that he is out there raising awareness for Tourette's syndrome, but he also needs to have some self-awareness.
If your impulses are to the point that you cannot stop yourself from screaming the hard RN word out on live television, then you might not be meant for the room, sis, because not everybody needs to be uncomfortable and have to sit there and be subject to these outbursts, these racist outbursts, or some racist, racist sounding outbursts, I should say, just because we are trying to support that he is putting this documentary out.
So I think it's a stretch to sit here and condemn John Davidson, but I do think that John Davidson should not have been in the room in the first place if we were going to segregate situations and if he was not going to do any kind of saying they shouldn't segregate outside screaming racist outbursts in the room.
You're literally saying remove the disabled guy about whom the movie was made because you because people cannot get their heads around what Tourette's syndrome is.
It's ridiculous.
Was it possible to simply see that?
Well, I don't think that everybody in the room should have to sit there and listen to that.
I think safeguards should have been.
Actually, you know what?
Actually, people, please don't talk.
Please, I'm talking to Javier at the moment.
Javier, surely the whole point is they should to understand the hell of Tourette's syndrome.
Actually, sometimes you have to listen to uncomfortable things.
When I watch the movie, it's very uncomfortable in parts.
He says very uncomfortable, very offensive things repeatedly, right?
But then you begin to realize quite quickly he has no control over any of this and nothing to do with it indicates his real state of mind.
And to judge him accordingly and to say, right, yeah, we've got this movie and we're going to give an actor an award for playing you, but you're not allowed in the room because some oversensitive actors might be upset by stuff, even when they're told you have no control over it and it's not your real thinking.
My message to those actors is grow the fuck up.
No offense.
Now you're just being given or taken.
Now you're just being outrightly respectful.
I think Xavier was explaining what he was thinking.
I don't agree that John Davidson shouldn't be in the room.
I think that there should have been appropriate safeguards put in place, including blipping out the words when it comes out.
But for you to say that black actors should grow the F up, for you to use those dismissive words, that's exactly why I came out so angry when I saw all the comments to address the bombastic orchestra of people like you that would say it is okay for black people to just deal with it because he has Tourette syndrome, which only explains how it happens.
It doesn't justify why it happens.
And racism does not require intent to be racist.
So while I accept that my ignorance in that moment harmed the community, both, you know, black, brown, and white, who have Taurus, and that is not my intention.
And my intention is irrelevant because the impact is real.
So I take responsibility for that.
But on top of that, Piers, on top of that, you just said that when he said F to the queen, that, you know, she waved it off, she was gracious.
But what you don't say is that he said sorry.
And that sorry closes, it closes the cycle.
And the sorry just goes that big long way.
It helps with the education.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I don't understand how everybody's saying, go watch the movie, which I actually encourage everybody to go.
I intend to.
And you want to educate everyone about the movie.
Then you're saying, when you experience any impact from anyone with Taurus, don't expect that, you know, you would not expect even, you know, sorry.
You're acting as though it is too much for black people.
There's a moment in the movie.
All right, let me educate you.
Let me educate you about the movie.
Let me educate you about the movie, which you haven't watched.
And I wish you had watched it before you rushed to judgment and kept calling him a racist.
In the movie, one of the most powerful moments comes when he's with his adoptive family.
And the mother, who is a qualified therapist, says to him when he apologizes for being abusive at a small family event, she says, one thing you need to be absolutely clear.
You never have to apologize again for when you say these things because she knew he didn't mean it and he didn't intend to offend.
And therefore, an apology is pointless because he's apologizing for something he doesn't mean to do.
He can't stop himself from doing.
And that's the whole point, actually, of the movie, which you haven't, which you failed to understand.
And the point I was making about grow the fuck up, that's directed at anybody, anybody who rushed to anybody else.
Wait a minute, Let me finish my point.
Anybody who knew about Tourette's syndrome, who then professes to be hurt or offended or upset by anything that a Tourette syndrome sufferer says, they need to grow the fuck up.
I've not seen statements from Michael B. Jordan or the other actor on stage where they express fury about what happened, right?
So I'm not directing it at them.
I'm saying anybody who is aware of Tourette's syndrome, aware of the reality, as Dr. Siegel pointed out earlier, about the fact there's no brain tank here of thought processes which spill out because finally you get to get the real thing.
It's not that.
They have no control.
So to me, Nadrotic, I don't understand why anyone's forcing him to apologize.
They should watch the bloody movie and understand the whole point is he was told, stop apologizing for this.
You can't help it.
And that's what you do, by the way.
That's what you do with people who are disabled.
But before we let you go, Dr. Mark, you know, it's depressing to me that in a world like the acting community and the Hollywood community, and we touched on this a little earlier, that people that literally preach to us all day long about the need to be more empathetic and compassionate when it came to this guy just failed so singularly to show him that.
And it was through ignorance.
I think that's a really profound point.
I agree with several points that were made recently, by the way.
I think BBC needs to be held to test.
They told Davidson they were going to edit out this in advance.
I think the point that was made that the audience should have been and the actors should have been informed in advance about it.
But let me tell you what it's like inside an emergency room.
People are screaming in pain.
Can you imagine somebody coming up to them, Piers, and saying, no pain screaming allowed here?
I mean, this is a manifestation of the man's disease.
And the movie is about that.
And as you said, you know, actors pride themselves on trying to get into what real life is.
Well, this is real life.
And I work in real life as a physician.
And physicians would be very sensitive to the idea that these were his symptoms coming out.
And to your point, Jamie Foxx should say, I didn't know that.
Now that I know that, I take it all back.
That would be a reflection.
100%.
Breath of fresh air here.
Can I just say that you are.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
I will come back to you.
I will come back to you.
Dr. Mark, thank you very much indeed for joining me.
You've had a very busy day and I really appreciate it.
Always great to have you on Uncensored with your expert view.
So thank you very much.
Let me ask Nadrotic this, because Nadrotic has been involved in a, you've been involved in a social media war with one of YouTube's biggest movie reviewers, Grace Randolph.
Let's take a clip here.
Let's take a look at this.
Sure.
Not everybody, but there are certainly a lot of people online who are defending Mr. Davidson's right to say this word because they want to say it.
And that's really the problem.
You know, I mean, really take a hard look at anyone who's defending Mr. Davidson and ask why.
I'm sure some of them are genuine, but some of them are not.
And that is the issue.
Nadrotic, I mean, your response to Grace Randolph, who just sounded so dumb in that clip, just dumb, ignorant, ill-informed, dumb, and then decided to single you out.
Oh, yeah, she did.
And my response is probably going to offend a lot of people here.
My response was, you are fucking retarded because that's what she is.
She didn't understand.
She shared out my video, and my video was basically calling her out for misunderstanding this, not watching the movie like I did, and making it a thousand times worse for John Davidson.
And then she responds in future live streams by blaming John Davidson for the heat that she's getting that she brought on herself.
Not new for Grace Randolph, but the whole point about this is, you know, it's not a word I say, but it's a word that has a lot of power because people give it power.
And we're only talking about this one word and we're not talking about the others.
And we can certainly talk about the BBC and BAFTA screwing this up and they totally should have edited out.
I completely agree there.
But cat's out of the bag now.
And what we're seeing is a basic intelligence test that a lot of people are failing because this movie was about acceptance.
This movie was about there is no intent behind the word.
And that's what gives the word power outside of people, other people giving the word power.
And I long for a day where it has no power, where people can laugh it off and we can get past all this crap.
But we are so far away from that because we have people who will just clutch their pearls when they hear a word.
You know, when it's when, you know what?
It's just a word.
And again, it's not one I say or ever will, you know, but it's still the intent behind it was this man has a disease.
He doesn't mean it.
He's going to say everything offensive.
The woman who was taking care of him in the movie was dying of cancer and he kept on saying, you're going to die of cancer.
He said, fuck the queen.
He was having his car searched for and he said, I have a bomb.
You know, he's been arrested.
Sincere Apology vs Intent00:04:26
He's been beaten.
He's had this brutal life and he came out on top.
And the whole point was we want to have people with Tourette's syndrome and the, I can't pronounce the word, but the one that's 10% that where you have these ticks so they can live somewhat of a normal life.
And he's done that.
He's made the best of it.
He's a hero for Christ's sake.
And we're just terrible.
He's a hero.
And you know, and yeah, he's a hero.
And yet in his moment of what should have been glory, where the actor who plays him got a top award at the best premiere event in the British theatrical movie world, the guy got completely humiliated and deliberately by various people who were just ignorant about his condition.
You know, he said this.
It wasn't deliberate if they were ignorant, Piers.
One second, Brianna.
Well, let me come to you for your response to this.
He said this, when socially unacceptable words come out, the guilt and shame on the part of the person with the condition is often unbearable and causes enormous distress.
I can't begin to explain how upset and distraught I've been as the impact from Sunday sinks in.
And that is heartbreaking to me that he has been made to say that and then gets bullied into then having to say sorry for a condition he has no control over.
Where is the compassion and empathy from the compassion and empathy demanders?
Brianna, you wanted to say something?
Yeah, well, I think there's been a lot of characterization of people's apologies as being forced.
It feels to me like Dr. Shola voluntarily gave a very gracious apology.
Yeah, I'm not following what's been going on with you, but from what I've seen today, it seems like you got necessary pushback about the nature of the disease.
You responded now that you were no longer ignorant of what Tourette is all about, and it seemed very sincere, and I really appreciate what you've said today.
Similarly, I think it's reasonable that a person with Tourette who knows that they've offended people and who feels the shame that you just described, Piers, will want to apologize and make that known.
I don't haven't seen any evidence that he was forced or that his apology wasn't also sincere and that we shouldn't.
So you would like everybody, just to be clear, Brianna, just to be clear, you would like John Davidson to go around.
Sorry, Shola, your name is not Brianna.
Brianna, you would like John Davidson to go around and make 50 to 100 public apologies every single day of his life, would you?
To everyone he offends with his.
But if I, look, this is not a question.
So who do you exclude?
Okay, so just to be clear.
Just to be clear.
Just to be clear, Brianna, you said no.
So just to be clear, who should he not be apologizing to?
If I went to a wedding with a crying baby or had a horrible cold and interrupted the ceremony, even though it was not my intention, I would make an apology, not because I did anything wrong purposefully, but because I know I negatively impacted somebody's special day.
And that comes from me because I want to show grace to the people that I care about.
And if Davidson similarly wants to make amends to people that he thinks he wants because of the grace in his own heart to make amends to, I think that's a beautiful thing that we should honor in the same way that we should.
She's not what I love.
I just think that's such a crock.
Sorry.
That is such a...
Sorry, Brianna, that is such a crocker crap.
The idea that you're still continuing, because you're still continuing to go after this guy.
You want more pounds of flesh from this guy.
It was lovely for him to choose to apologize.
I'm giving him apologies.
What about people apologizing?
What about Jamie?
Okay, but Brianna, Brianna, do you think, hang on, hang on, have you?
Brianna, do you think Jamie Fox should apologize?
I think that he was clearly wrong about Tourette's and the intent behind Tourette.
And if I were him, I would.
I'd say, sorry, just like Dr. Shola did.
Sorry, I didn't realize that the nature of the disease is that it makes you want to say exactly what you shouldn't say and that it wasn't some exaltation of like deeply repressed racism.
I would, but I also think it's really interesting that there's this focus on cherry-picked celebrities who didn't know anything about Tourette's or didn't know enough about Tourette's and said the wrong thing and not on the institution of BAFTA and the BBC who chose to broadcast the N-word and not broadcast Free Palestine.
That says a lot more about the power in our society and who should keep beginning to be able to do that.
Litigating Racial Intent00:10:16
Well, on that, I think we all agree.
On that, I think we all agree.
Can I ask you a question?
Can I ask you a question?
Do you know what caucasity is?
Yeah, I do.
So caucasity.
Yeah, I've got it.
No, I can explain to viewers.
No, don't worry.
I will help you out.
I will help you out.
I'm just saying.
I know what it is.
You ask me if I know what it is.
It's okay.
Yeah, you don't need to read it.
I can tell you.
Caucasity is a reference to the bold, shameless, entitled arrogance of white people displaying white privilege and racism to black or brown people.
You know what, Pierce?
You've just been entirely caucastic to three black people on this stage.
You've had the caucasity to not only.
Oh, wow, here we go.
I've been caucastic, have I?
You might learn something.
You've also had the caucasity to say what we are saying is a crock of this.
Say that we have no right to expect an apology.
None of you, you people.
You know, you have, and I've got a right to say it's bullshit.
You people did not say that to Kanye West when he was being anti-Semitic to Jewish people.
None of you held him to the different standard that you're.
Actually, I did.
I literally did.
Let me finish.
I literally did.
No, you did not.
Why are you lying?
Why are you lying?
My point is, I literally did that to Kanye West.
You're being dismissive and you're being disrespectful to what we explained to you.
You're saying you shouldn't expect any apology.
Why?
Because you wish to center.
Let me just explain to you.
Let me just remind people.
Yeah, okay.
I've had my lecture story.
We do.
Fine.
You had no idea.
The truth is.
Okay, stop talking.
The truth is you had no idea about his story and you cared even less to remind people.
To remind people, you mentioned Caucasity.
Let's remind viewers what you said when you used that word.
I'll play the video post you posted again, which is what triggered this.
Let's watch this again.
Let's watch it again.
Let's watch it again.
Some of you are getting on my last god-giving nerves.
The fact that I have to come up here to break down for you the ABC's 123 door amends of racism because some of you have the bombastic aucassity to want to litigate the racial intent of a white man and absolve him of racism because of his disability.
Now, I'm going to make time for you today.
Let me say this in plain English because I'm not speaking Latin or Swahili.
John Davidson is a racist white man with Torrance syndrome.
And let me break this down for you.
Torrent syndrome is a disability.
Disability is not racism.
And it does not make you racist.
The Torret syndrome simply brings out what is already in the heart, mind, and soul of the person speaking.
Because as a man thinketh, so is he.
And I've apologized.
Yeah, much as I'm going to, much as I'm...
No, don't start talking, Dr. Shola.
Much as I will take lectures from you, I'd rather shoot myself, frankly, because what you did to John Davidson, as I said at the start, was one of the most disgusting, one of the most disgusting attacks on a disabled person I have ever seen.
I have ever seen.
You branded the poor man a racist because you're a race-baiting clown.
Anyway, we weren't going to.
Okay, whatever.
Whatever.
I'm not listening to you.
You've exposed yourself for what you are.
You're a vile, race-baiting clown.
It doesn't change the fact that the statement is racist.
It doesn't change the fact that black people are impacted by the N-word being said by a white person who are being impacted.
Yeah, and you know what?
You know what?
Tourette's people.
And Tourette's people are impacted when you call them racists.
Tourette's people are impacted.
But you want to move that on to call everybody else a racist because that's always what you do.
I want to say it is disgusting.
It's disgusting.
I want to go to Javier before we finish.
Okay, can we mute her, please?
Just mute her.
Thanks.
Javier, I want to talk to you just very briefly about the Gavin Newsom thing, because it seems to me that whichever way you look at it, what Newsom said, and let's take another look at what he said, was just so belittling and patronizing to his predominantly black audience.
Let's take a listen again.
I'm not trying to impress you.
I'm just trying to impress upon you, I'm like you.
I'm no better than you.
You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy.
And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940.
But literally a 960 SAT guy.
I cannot, you've never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech.
Now, Javier, what did you make of that?
So much to impact there.
This is yet another example of Democrats completely just degrading and dehumanizing and belittling black people in order to try to relate to us.
But before we even unpack the racial side of it, I just want to acknowledge the fact that Gavin Newsom is bragging about the fact that he can't read.
But last year, in 2025, he signed 794 bills into effect in California, which total to almost 10,000 pages.
So that means that he is not reading through the terrible legislation that he's putting into our state.
And that's probably why our entire state is in shambles.
So then you go to the racial element of this.
He's talking to a group of mostly black people talking about how they cannot read.
It's like, okay, well, then let's look at the literacy rates over in California at these schools.
Almost 70% of black students in California are aggressively below literacy standards.
And that's largely because of these horrible Democrat policies and our education system.
So instead of bragging about the fact that he can't read and trying to brag about the fact that he believes that black people can't read, he should be taking accountability for how failed our system is here.
And then black people, I don't understand how any black person is continuing to vote Democrat when this is how they try to relate to us.
Kamala Harris had an alcoholic come twerk in order to try to win our votes over.
You have Hillary Clinton pulling hot sauce out of bags.
It's like they're constantly playing into stereotypes and playing into the lowest common denominator.
And for some reason, black people have not woken up to that yet.
Brianna, I noticed that you posted he really is Biden 2.0.
And I've seen quite a few on the left equally angry about what Newsom said.
So what was your feeling when you saw that clip?
Yeah, I mean, it's very reminiscent of Biden and his gaffe-prone time in front of the public sphere.
But I think the point is a couple of things are important to establish here.
One, it's not in fact true that he was speaking to a predominantly black audience.
If you look at pictures of the crowd, that is a little bit of spin.
Look, there's no love loss between me and Gavin Newsom.
I'm politically independent.
I think Gavin Newsom is a corporatist who is very attached to the big billionaire families in California that rig our economic system for elites at the expense of everybody else.
I think he's a Zionist and if he is a presidential candidate, will be a warmonger like the rest.
That being said, that is what has been represented as what happened here is not in fact what happened here.
I do think, however, even though Gavin Newsom wasn't trying to say, I can't read because black people can't read, I don't think that's what happened.
I do think that he deserves criticism and this is why.
He fundamentally was doing what Democrats do, which is pander to identity politics.
In this case, the idea that he is a working class, regular person who's not an elite, who went to fancy schools.
He got a regular average SAT scores.
Hey, guys, I'm just like you.
But at the end of the day, that is a card game.
He is connected to some of the biggest, wealthiest, most powerful families in California, the Gettys and the Pelosis.
It's why he's being set up to be a presidential candidate.
This is a man who's saying, I'm just like you, as he's actively lobbying against a billionaire tax that would tax 5% of wealth of people in California that earn over a billion dollars.
There are only 200 of those people, yet he's making it his entire personality to obstruct that because one of those billionaires happens to be the godfather of one of his children, his eldest child.
That's who Gavin Newsom is.
And all of this pandering that he's doing is an effort to make that obscure to the public, and including by relating to folks or thinking that it's going to relate to folks to disclose the fact that he has dyslexia and had a very low SAT score as a consequence.
Okay, Nadrolli, just finally, I mean, Polymarket, have a presidential election winner 2028 thing running with a lot of money being put into it.
Newsom is 17% probability of being the next president of the United States.
What do you make of that?
I think you fled California to avoid him.
I did.
I wish I could say it's surprising, but it's not, because he should be the easiest candidate to defeat.
He was my mayor.
He was my lieutenant governor.
He was my governor.
He survived a recall and magically with mail-in ballots, he survived that recall.
It's just a total coincidence.
It was during COVID.
He destroyed my wife's business along with hundreds of thousands of other businesses with his COVID policy while he was at the French laundry.
He spent billion dollars on a train that has gone to absolutely nowhere.
Train robberies came back under his administration in Los Angeles.
They were robbing trains.
It was like the 1800s again.
All you have to do is break out his policy, the homeless industrial complex that he helped create in San Francisco and exacerbated throughout the state.
My home city of San Diego, one of the most beautiful cities in America, is now just South LA.
And this is all under Gavin Newsom.
He should be the easiest person to beat.
But the saddest part is, is people are just going to vote for him because he's pretty and we have a lot of low information voters out there and because he's not the other side.
Gavin Newsom's California Failures00:00:37
And they're not going to think about, well, do you want the rest of the country to become California?
Because that's exactly what will happen.
Yeah.
All right, guys.
I've got to leave it there.
Thank you all very much.
I appreciate it.
Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent.
The only boss around here is me.
To enjoy our show, we ask for only one simple thing.
Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Piers Morgan Uncensored on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate, and entertain.
And we'll do it all for free.
independent on censored media has never been more critical and we couldn't do it Without you.