Native Lampard is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Uh yeah, and I are delighted to be presenting the first BAFT of the night for a vital part of movie making.
We're here to some.
So uh we are beginning our mini pod today.
After watching the BAFT Awards last week, we saw where a gentleman with Tourette syndrome yelled out nigger is the word that he yelled out while del Roy Lindo and Michael B.
Jordan were on presenting.
And what we wanted to do was ensure that we didn't have this conversation in isolation, in a vacuum, and so we wanted to bring on our friend New York Public Advocate Jimani Williams, who is the only elected at the time he was elected, the only elected official in the country Tourette syndrome, and he's talked about this online, but we also wanted to make sure that we bring his thoughts to you. He told us he hadn't watched the video, so he just showed him the video and
I'd love to get your initial reaction to that. Jimiani also happy Black History month, So it sucks to be called the N word Black History Month, but I do want to hear your.
Thoughts, appreciate you Happy American History Month with the black lands on it like it's a painful situation all the way around. As you mentioned, I happened. You know, I've been black a pretty long time. I've had to rest syndrome for a long time, diagnosed in the ninth grade, So the intersection there is interesting. I also have corpulia, so and actually one of my tics is the N word. Many people who may not know they're augmented, which we
can also talk about for a while. And what's frustrating is I noticed a lot of anger and outrage, which there should be. What I've been trying to do with my post is make sure we put the anger in the right spaces and the empathy in the right spaces, and empathy has to go both ways. What was frustrating to me is that black folks always seem to be the ones that have to have the brunt of showing
grace and showing empathy. And there's a lot of things that could have been done to make sure that people weren't as harm as they were, and so it's important for folks to understand that, you know, thered syndrome is intrusive. It has intrusive sounds, It has intrusive thoughts, vocal sounds. I have a tick on my shoulder. I actually will tick where my body hurts the most, which is really painful. So imagine that is not something I want to do.
So what happens is not about the lack of a filter corporrella is about the most socially unacceptable words that you're going to have a loss of control over. But one thing that could have been done was more education about what was going on before and after and very simply after. And BBC could have censored it like they centered Free Palestine. They censored some other words that you didn't hear because there were square words. Why they didn't
censor those, I don't know. So what could have been turned into a moment to teach people about to red syndrome turned into a moment where everyone was harmed, including the black folks and Daryl Lindo and Michael because and shout out to them, they've dealt with Black people unfortunately are forced to do, which is show poison grace in situations where they're feeling harmed.
Can you and thank you for just telling your truth to us and helping us understand because I come from this place of just sheer ignorance. I mean, this is kind of a new This is new for me, and so I hope that I know that you will, but I hope that others give me the grace of learning about tourets as we go. REESI talked about creating space for having empathy. What are some of the other things
you want our listeners to know. You talk about the involuntary tics, You talk about the words that are used, but how is it treated? What happens? Is it a speech there? Like tell me what happens when you're diagnosed and what happens after that some of the things that individuals with Tourett's go through.
So interestingly, I was diagnosed in the ninth grade, and right before that, you know I would get in trouble a lot still do. It's another story, but you know I would get in trouble. My mother saw a twenty twenty special and there was actually coincidentally a white male who had the tick of the N word. And what he did in that twenty journey special. First of my mother said, I think you have this. I said, no,
I don't. Of course she was correct, but he would augment the word and go nickels, pennies and dimes, and so he was able to augment in a way that couldnot have that word come out. So when I got diagnosed, I actually did the same. And I hope I can say here, but one of my first loud ticks vocally
was the word asshole, and I would say act. So people heard it they would think my tick was just the act, but it was actually a whole word that I would kind of just say the enquire when I say the in word, only a few people know I actually say the word either very quickly, very softly, or I try to get to a space where I'm by myself so I can do that. Now, I want to be careful because I don't want young people with tourets in school having principles tell them they can do stuff
that they can't. So one, it's very individualized. You may not be able to do what I just said. You may need some behavioral therapy to be able to do what I said. There is a cost also for suppressing your tics. That cost can be mental, It can be physical because it is going to come out and when it comes out later, if you've held it in, it can be very harmful. So we have to think about that as well. That doesn't change the impact of the word nigga, like it just doesn't. And so you can't.
What we have been trained to do is not hold two things in our space at the same time, and so both of those things can be true. And so it's about how do you mitigate the harm of hearing that word. And that's where I think there was a job. Now. John Davidson attempted suicide when he was younger because of things like this. He had to get psychiatric care. He's been beat up severely because of something like this, and so this is not something I'm sure he wants to do.
There's also spaces where you can remove yourself, which he did to his credit. But also this was abafter was about a movie about his life about this very issue, and so there's a lot of complications there. So in my head and also speaking to a woman who was there with a bunch of black women who had that hurl at them, they had to do their own math to figure out what was going on. They shouldn't have had to do their own math. They should have been told what was going on and everybody should have an
understanding of what was happening. And quite frankly, again the most control they had was after the thing, and they dropped the ball. And lastly, I'll say Justin Farmer, who I'm so honored he ran and won a seat in Connecticut inspired by me. He saw me and then thought that he can do it as well. That's just an amazing It gets me emotional, but that's just awesome. He's when he said about his sticks is he didn't have the luxuries of black man to be able to say
certain things. So he had to be able to figure out a way how to get through life. And so there's so many intersections that are there. I just want to make sure that every single time those things happen, black folks don't have the brunt of having to deal with all of it. And so we have to create spaces where that home can be mitigated. And we tremendously
dropped the ball. Whether it's bath to a BBC, I think that's where a lot of the outrage should go, because they didn't curate a space that was helpful to anyone involved.
You know, the thing that's really frustrating too is as a result of bath does or really BBC's failure to even bleep out the word as you mentioned, which they did for Free Palestine and somebody's acceptance speech and some of the other choices they made, we were made aware and we can put up this headline of Google having a search result right after.
The inWORD was used at BAFTA.
Now they have a headline Google apologizes after news Alert used the inWORD, says it wasn't related to AI. I don't know what it was related to, but it's not okay. And this is again goes to your point. We're responsible for carrying the full weight of this when the inWORD is used in a space like this. Now people began to justify their use of it. Well, I wasn't really saying it. I was reading this headline, I was reading
this Google search result. I was trying to emulate what this man with Turett's had And I think the other thing.
That I will acknowledge, I was initially.
Really upset because I was frustrated by the apology.
So the apology was we're sorry.
There were some words used we're sorry if this offended you. I didn't realize that John had gone on and called Warner Brothers to reach out to Michael Coogler and Delroy Lindo Lindo himself to apologize. But I thought that was really frustrating, because even the type of apology we receive on the other side of harm is watered down and meaningless.
So I want to hold space for the condition, but I also want him to be responsible for the impact, as you just said, and I was glad to see that he did reach out to Warner Brothers.
Yeah, I think that's a fact. Initially, the part I heard, also, I think was that kind of if you were harmed. But when I saw the full apology, I think he did the best that he could at that moment in time to try to see if he can get to the harm. And he has unfortunately a lot of negative experience when it comes to this, beaten within the ench of his life, for other words, said to a woman who whose boyfriend didn't appreciate it. And so this is not the first time, which is why we have to
be careful when we'retributing the spaces. But that Google apology, I don't know if that means much like an apology doesn't erase to harm. So you have to figure out how you best not a race to harm, but mitigate it. And I don't know that Google has done that every point in time with this whole thing. What has been dropped is trying to figure out how to mitigate the harm to black folks, to two star warts in the acting industry. We have to have poison grace under harm
with no information. That's a problem, and that's the part where I think people should continue to be angry about, because this is not the first, second, third, and sadly won't be the last time where that happens unless we have intentionality. What I'm hoping at minimum is there's some education about to rest syndrome and to figure out, you know, how you have empathy both ways, because it cannot be
just that I say the N word. That's it now that there has to be and everybody's responsible for, you know, the spaces we create. So it's about educating and it's about mitigating as much as possible. From what I heard, I think John did his best and try and do that. I think the folks around him did not, and that's a.
Problem, advocate.
I know we're coming up on time for you, but I'm curious how you respond when you see how would you respond? I've seen this a bit or the comments I say, well, how did the in word getting his vocabulary in the first place. He didn't choose this slur, he chose that one. And I know you can't speak for all forms of well, you're not the only one.
I think every I think that's I think people have defaulted to that, like, well, this guy has got to have greater culpability than just it's a byproduct of a diagnosis.
How do you.
Respond to that? The choice words that are used that are offensive, So.
I would just remove I would ask the same question the point, and I would have moved the word choice a little bit.
But I might say, I am I meant to say choice whereas as in like derogatory.
Yeah, but that's a good question, and John has to answer that, and I have to answer that those are real things. To answer. What I would say that what I want to get away from is the word is not intent. The harm is still real, but the word is not intent. These words are in our lexicon, whether we like it or not. It's in our subconscious, it's just there. What corporrela does is it makes it so
that it's going to come out. That if I go to a library and it says be quiet, no whistling, my ticket is going to be whistling, is going to be making noise. And that's just the way the intrusive nature of to RESD syndrome works. And so that business his brain, whether you like it or not. Justin farmer who's taking women's studies courses starts ticking the B word. That's not something he wants to do in that space.
But he mitigates the harm by having conversations, by talking, by stepping away when it's getting a little bit too much. And so the two things are true. At the same time. These words exist, we don't want them to exist, and they're stuff in your subconscious right now that is not going to come out. And when you have the red syndrome, it's a rap. And so the best we can do
is mitigate some of that. And I'm just hoping people can understand that the word in and of itself, I don't notice man, So I don't know anything else, but I know that the word in and of itself is not the intent that we would usually assigned to it, and there's real harm that's going to come with it, and we can't ignore that and just say that's the end of the story.
I appreciate that.
Thank you, thank you, thank.
You so much for being with us. We are so grateful to have you.
Taught me a lot, my gous. I appreciate you. I appreciate you all.
Thanks your money. We'll see you soon.
Welcome Peak, Thank you, thank welcome home.
That was that was good.
I'm gonna tell you just because I know this brother and I trust him.
He shifted me a little bit from where I was.
At on our team call yesterday because I was like, listen, I feel like you can put your hand over your mouth.
You can do something.
And it was even really refreshing to hear some of the things that he's done to actively work on mitigating these harms. Again, he said that everybody's condition isn't exactly the same, so maybe that wouldn't work for someone else, but I just appreciate the effort because some folks could have a condition and be so upset about being having a disability or a challenge that they are bitter with the world and are like, you just gonna get whatever I give, so resp yes.
Yeah, yeah, mean the fact that he said what is absolutely true and it's hard to recognize again when you're under assault or you feel like you're under a soult and that is godly. If the recesses of my mind, uh, the worst recesses of my mind were to come out without my permission, I would be upset, terribly embarrassed, and a lot worse. Right, I think we should also be careful not to use our ignorance to enable further harm. And so for those of us who don't know, let's
seek to find out. I remember doing the the the apex of the Blacks Black Lives Matter movement, A lot of us sort of adopted this language that is not my job to teach you, like you have to do some of the work. You have to do some of the work. Well, I think the same might apply in some instance. Is here that it is not necessarily the folks with the diagnosis who need to do the teaching in the same moment that they are afflicted in that
it also is incumbent on us. But I just valued so much the realness of forgetting intent the word is still harmful and both harms have to be dealt with. And I think that that's where the British media really failed, big big, big big leie, is that they they a couple of times throughout the ceremony said you know, terretis da da da da da, but they never ever went to address the harm that the words still caught, like as if okay, well we're just going to take that
in the that that that's it. No, you got a greater responsibility there, that's it.
That's and I think that's the part too, Like I was so disturbed to realize that it wasn't like an actual live like with the fifteen second delay broadcast.
It was a two hour delay.
They made a and I think that that really is it just like normal normally, especially here on these shores. Oppression, systemic oppression, institutionalized racism and anti blackness is a thing global. It's a global issue and we have to continue to work through that. I think that also is the part for me.
Yeah, and I think that you know, people always want to teach a lesson on the backs of black people, and that's why, let me tell you something, this is the best activism and advocacy and awareness that I've ever seen for Tourett's and I do not mean that to be facetious in any kind of way, because when a black person is on the receiving end, you can bet your ass that the other side is gonna be like, oh wait a minute, Oh wait a second, let's let's
let's talk about this. Why did this happen? Yeah, well, well maybe it wasn't what it looks. That's gonna happen one hundred percent of the time. And I'm not trying to draw equivalency to like when cops kill black people or whatever, but it's always, well, let's see what happened before the There's always more evidence that has to be gathered before anybody deals with the harm that's done to
black people. And I think that is what has generated so much anger, is that it is always us that is the guinea pig for how do we make people understand why this thing is happening over here? And I think that it is absolutely valid to understand treats. And I challenge black people, even in our anger, to, like I said in the main, to hold space for that
and to not be ablest. And I know that that word was thrown out a lot, and as a person who has said that, we can't talk about racism solely under the lens of intent.
We have to talk about impact. We have to talk about impact of.
Being ablest as well, even if that's not your intent, even if you are unaware of certain things. We all have a responsibility in this situation, and so we have to challenge ourselves even as we're being challenged. But it seems that society at large only wants to recognize how we should be the ones challenging ourselves and how we respond, and not that anybody else should be challenging themselves to recognize the harm that was done.
In my fear is that there will be backlash.
Because if we're not, you know, take it on the chin, if we even hint at discomfort and delaware.
Lindo and Michael b. Jordan have talked.
Well, I don't know so much Michael be Jordan if it's been public, but I did read reports that they were disappointed with how it was handled.
Then they become the bad guys.
Then the person who was harmed becomes the villain, and so there are so many layers to this. But what is unequivocal is that a choice was made to broadcast a humiliating moment. And I don't appreciate the idea that saying that that deserves an apology is saying, well, you wanted to apologize every time.
It's not every time I get on them. Call one time.
We're two black men, we're on stage at a word show and never called it, Edward. That's not an everyday current. And I and and people can drag me and try. I'm challenging myself. Tell me if that's ablest to say that a person should this one time at least apologize. And John Davidson himself, to his credit, you know, his first his first statement didn't sound like an apology and was like, oh, you know, I will be mortified if
you thought. And then maybe he's thought some more and reflected some more and he's come out and where he's privately reached out to apologize. But I think that trying to minimize what happened is not fair anymore than it's any more than it's unfair, or any more than you get what I'm saying. I don't think that that's fair to minimize him, just like it's unfair to say well, he shouldn't have even been in the room, or he shouldn't be able to do that. I don't think that's fair.
That was a big moment for him as well. But we got to get to a point where we're not the only ones being challenged, We're not the only ones being admonished, and we're not the only ones being diminished.
That's right.
I just want to just think Jamie again, because I've always said that sometimes it's not the message, but it's the messenger. There are a lot of rooms that the four of us cannot walk in and deliver a message to help cure some of our societal ills. Though we may have the right message at heart, but Jimani coming into our space able to educate us from personal experience is what we mean by growth. Because I am someone who immediately immediately thought that one, how do you just
get nigger in your head? Two? Why do you put somebody in the front who has the tendency to involuntarily blurt out nigga knowing that black folk are going to be on stage? And I recognize that both of those thoughts that I maintained in my head are rooted in ignorance because I simply did not know about tourettes or the type of tourettes this was. And so I think that the only way that I can cure my ignorance is by having people like Jimani continue to spread the
good word. And I think that that's a life lesson in itself. And so I think you have to be self aware to know. Sometimes it's best to be quiet. Sometimes it's best to shut up, particularly if you don't know. But it's also verally really good to have good people around you who can help educate you.
I love y'all, Nickels, Pennies and dimes. I love y'all so much. All right, Regin, can I just say that's how you tell a family business?
I was?
Can I just say one more thing, though? I challenge, because I know Natal Lampard is about called actions, I challenge all the people who found this bullivanmpathy, which is justified, to have empathy for John Davidson and for its res I challenge you to have that same energy of empathy and let's accommodate, which again I'm not saying this facetiously.
I challenge you to keep that energy towards other disabilities as well, because a lot of these people that were real quick to empathize and diminish the impact on Michael B. Jordan and dal Will Lindo, their president was up there at the State of the Union bragging about ending DEI. And you know what, the other part of DEI is
DEI A, which is accessibility. And so when this education department wants to get rid of learning accommodations for students, when this president wants to get rid of accessibility accommodations, that is another.
Thing that goes again, that's ablest.
And so part of I think to the frustration that we had in our reactions is seeing people who don't have any kind of a commody nation, any kind of empathy for our disabilities at large, all of a sudden become disability champions. So I welcome all of the disability champions that now that the N word has been hurled accidentally. I'm not arguing that accidentally. I welcome all these newfound disability champions to then champion disabilities in the d E I A part of d.
E I listen. And I also think that the fact that Michael B. Jordan is still walking around in shame at the Bakari and his name.
Oh my God, can we crack this out? You cannot be disupsessed. You gotta stop. God, Dog, I'm.
I love You'll welcome home next time.
Starcissism my God.
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