Sinners Actress Jayme Lawson has spoken out about the incident at the BAFTA Awards in which Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were shouted racist slurs at each other during their on-stage presentation.
She called this a failure of real inclusion and direct targeting of both BAFTA and the BBC.
Talk to The Hollywood Reporter On the NAACP Image Awards red carpet, Lawson began by congratulating the two men at the center of the incident.
“I’m going to first salute Mike and Delroy; let’s continue to honor them for how they handled this in real time,” she said.
“The grace and dignity they showed and the whole home team, everyone who was there, they did really well.”
The insult was shouted by guest John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome.
But Lawson made it clear she was not placing the blame on Davidson himself.
“This man’s disability was exploited that night, leading to multiple offences,” she said. “It’s BAFTA’s fault.”
His argument was that inviting someone into a space without putting adequate safeguards in place does not constitute true inclusion.
“Just because you invite someone into a space but don’t provide the resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe doesn’t mean it’s inclusive. It’s exploitative.”
She reserved her sharpest words for BBCThe decision to broadcast the moment.
“THE BBC broadcasting what they broadcast is reckless, and not as a coincidental accident, a real lack of care was exercised for these two black men.
Lawson highlighted what she described as a telling contrast: the BBC had censored other content during the same broadcast, including, according to her, a speech by Akinola Davies Jr., director of My father’s shadow.
“You censored one black man. You failed to protect two others, and our production designer, Hannah [Beachler]. You don’t care about our dignity, our humanity. You want to celebrate our art, but you won’t protect it [us]”.
She ended on a note about the importance of spaces where black artists truly feel safe and valued.
“This is why we celebrate Sinners. This is why we celebrate Ryan [Coogler]. That’s why we show up at the NAACP because those are spaces where we feel safe, where we feel safe.”
At the NAACP Image Awards themselves, the evening included its own moment of solidarity.
Regina Hall asked the audience to pause and show their appreciation for Jordan and Lindo, who received a round of applause.
Lindo also addressed the incident publicly for the first time when he took the stage to present alongside Ryan Coogler, saying the support shown to him and Jordan meant a lot.
He described the episode as “a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive.”
