I finally got it to work to repost killk1yoshi's video on the BAFTA controversy, coming from the perspective of a Black woman with Tourrette's syndrome. Again, I'm not here to spread my opinion because as a white person who doesn't have Tourrette's or tics, my perspective will add nothing to the conversation. I'm just sharing what Shay had to say on another platform.
Under the cut is screenshots of a video she uploaded clarifying things after people misinterpreted and weaponized what she said as well as a video description and transcription
Here's my transcription of the video, I apologize for any mistakes. I'll only be mentioning tics if they interrupt what she's saying significantly or if it causes her to have to repeat something.
Video description: A video of Shay/killk1yoshi on Instagram, a black girl with long curly brown hair, a pink satin bonnet, and a green hoodie sitting on her bed. There is text reading "my opinion on the BAFTA situation as a black person with Tourrette's".
Transcription:
"Ignore how I look right now, I am not feeling too great. However there is something I have been asked to talk about. And that is going to be the BAFTA situation. I- [tic] I have been seeing a bunch of outrage about it, people saying 'Oh, well why would that even be in his vocabulary?', 'he did that on purpose' and all this stuff and that [with air quotes] 'racism is too excused'. It's a sad day for the Tourrette's Syndrome Community, especially those that have coprolalia because when you come online and you see thousands of people hating on your condition - specifically coprolalia because that's something that is already very embarrassing for all of us. I'm not going to say that people can't be offended by [tic] um 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. And 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 tic 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.
So we must understand what coprolalia is. Coprolalia causes involuntary swearing and inappropriate tics. This can include the n-word, slurs, et cetera. I am a black person and even I have the n-word tic and slurs as tics. This is something I don't see many talk about because of situations like this. Is it a disappointing thing that it happened in public, in front of that entire crowd? Specifically to Michael B. Jordan and the other presenter - I'm so sorry I do not know his name, I wish I did but no disrespect to him, I am just not aware - um, yes, it is a very unfortunate situation.
Seeing so so so so many people saying that they would invoke violence against people with coprolalia if they [with air quotes] 'can't control their tics' - that's ableism. Is it a fucked up thing that this happens? Yes, but we can't control it. Aggression and a brain [tic] brain being triggered and ultimately causing inappropriate tics. Michael B. Jordan and the other presenter have the right to be upset, especially if they were not aware, however, however, we need to understand and educate ourselves.
Then, on my videos, I constantly see people saying 'Oh my god! So funny! If I had cursing tics I'd be laughing all the time' but when people actually have cursing tics, then it's offensive and they're a bad person and this and that, the third. We need to do better. We need to educate ourselves better. This is not me saying that people don't have the right to be offended, however you can't be offended when a disabled person... is disabled. I might make a part two to this, there's a lot that I need to say."
Text on the screen reads: part two; my opinion on the BAFTA situation as a black person with Tourrette's.
Transcription:
"this is part two to my last post about the entire BAFTA situation. I am seeing a ton of people saying 'Oh my god! During Black History Month?!' Tourrette's Syndrome is not based on a month. Offensive tics are gonna happen no matter what [tic] a person does. I'm black [tic] and I also have the n-word as a tic and I have other slurs as tics. Does this mean that I use them regularly? Does this mean that I mean them? Does this mean that I can control what I say? No it does not. That is not how coprolalia works, that is not how Tourrette's Syndrome works.
Quite literally the Sweet Anita situation all over again [tic] where she ended up saying the n-word on stream, she got cancelled for it, for called racist for it, et cetera. We need to do better. I've seen so many people say that we can control our tics, that's not- if you can control a tic, that's not a tic.
Let me explain what a tic is in detail [tic]. Um, a tic is when your neurons misfire. You think that you can seriously fucking control a neuron misfiring? I don't- I've never seen a human possibly do that. We have got to stop thinking with our feelings and start thinking with logic. It is okay to be offended [tic] but what it is not okay to do is be ableist and try to make people with Tourrette's, specifically those with coprolalia, say their tics on purpose.
That's my whole think piece on this. If you are offended, I do deeply apologize but I am just being logical here. I see a lot of people giving their think pieces and they are specifically talking about racism when tics don't correlate with racism. But that's not what causes offensive or obscene tics. What causes those kinds of tics is coprolalia. Coprolalia is completely involuntary and does not involve your vocabulary"
End of transcription and video description]
