{"id":612261,"date":"2026-02-24T07:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/612261\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:31:19","slug":"jonte-richardson-steps-down-as-bafta-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/612261\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonte Richardson Steps Down as BAFTA Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/627a287bc9bf18f9e8c8b90666b498c9e2-bafta.rsquare.w330.jpg\" class=\"lede-image\" data-content-img=\"\" alt=\"EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 - Build Up\" width=\"330\" height=\"330\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>\n                  Photo: BAFTA via Getty Images\n              <\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmlzv7ltr000x0iehfvu2ahw8@published\" data-word-count=\"101\">Jonte Richardson says he will no longer serve as a judge in the BAFTAs\u2019 emerging talent category after how they handled the airing of racial slurs at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/bbc-apology-baftas-sinners-slur-tourettes.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last night\u2019s ceremony<\/a>. \u201cAfter considerable soul-searching, I feel compelled to withdraw from the BAFTA emerging talent judging panel. The organisation\u2019s handling of the unfortunate Tourette\u2019s N-Word incident last night at the awards was utterly unforgivable,\u201d he wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/jonte-4ab52197_after-considerable-soul-searching-i-feel-activity-7431620985956737024-axz_?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABu_LHgBv-HNM2usCtbSUnixBopSZw95hWM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn<\/a> on February 22. \u201cI cannot and will not contribute my time energy and expertise to an organisation that has repeatedly failed to safeguard the dignity of its Black guests, members and the Black creative community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmlzx1azz001v3b7cjnhazz8m@published\" data-word-count=\"134\">When Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting on stage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/john-davidson-apology-bafta.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Davidson<\/a>, the inspiration for the movie\u00a0I Swear,\u00a0about his life with Tourette\u2019s, shouted the N-word, and that moment was included in the broadcast. During the show, host Alan Cumming explained what happened. \u201cYou may have heard some strong and offensive language tonight,\u201d he shared. \u201cIf you have seen the film\u00a0I Swear, you will know that film is about the experience of a person with Tourette\u2019s syndrome. Tourette\u2019s syndrome is a disability, and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette\u2019s syndrome has no control over their language. We apologize if you were offended.\u201d The wording of the initial apology during the broadcast did not feel appropriate, especially because other parts of the show were edited out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmlzw698y001e3b7c9nlsrmuk@published\" data-word-count=\"77\">\u201cHowever, when an organisation like BAFTA, with its own long history of systemic racism, refuses to acknowledge the harm inflicted on both the Black and disabled communities and offer an appropriate apology, remaining involved would be tantamount to condoning its behaviour,\u201d Richardson continued. \u201cI hope BAFTA leadership comprehend the damage they and the BBC have caused and take the necessary steps to ensure their production staff are inclusive enough to prevent such an issue in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: BAFTA via Getty Images Jonte Richardson says he will no longer serve as a judge in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":612262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[240455,261804,51,262648,53,50,52],"class_list":["post-612261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-baftas","tag-baftas-2026","tag-headlines","tag-jonte-richardson","tag-movies","tag-news","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116124443314424135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}