‘Tis the 2023 Oscars! Happy Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal day to all who celebrate! And a big “shut the fuck up” to everyone getting their knickers in a knot because Angela Bassett didn’t appear to celebrate Jamie Lee Curtis taking out the Best Supporting Actress gong!

Curtis won the little gold man for her sausage-fingered role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, while Bassett was nominated for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

When it was announced that Curtis had won, Bassett didn’t appear to react to the news with the same level of excitement as fellow nominees Hong Chau (The Whale) and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin).

Folks online were quick to pooh-pooh Bassett for her reaction and accused her of being a “sore loser” which, in my humble opinion, is nothing short of infuriating and is seeped in racism.

First things first — if you had a camera jammed up your nose capturing your every facial expression and you found out you hadn’t won an Oscar, would you not look salty for two seconds? Because I would be a tad disappointed.

Bassett is allowed to be human. People are acting like she pelted Miss Activia with rotten tomatoes and started screaming, crying and throwing up onstage when, in reality, all she did was look a bit miffed. Does she really deserve to be chastised because she didn’t start doing cartwheels when another actor won an Oscar over her?

It’s also beyond abysmal to police a Black woman’s behaviour for not being “nice” enough when the Academy Awards have historically snubbed Black actors. In its 94-year history, only 22 Oscars have been awarded to performances given by Black actors; Halle Berry remains the only Black woman to win Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball back in 2001.

Jordan Peele‘s Nope failed to clock any 2023 Oscar nominations, despite receiving arduous praise from critics and audiences alike and delivering a stellar list of award-worthy performances. Chadwick Boseman, whose memorable career was cut devastatingly short when he passed away in 2020, was nominated for a posthumous Best Actor gong at the 2021 Oscars for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and lost to Anthony Hopkins.

No one is hating on Jamie Lee Curtis, but Angela Bassett — who has given myriad phenomenal performances throughout her career which have gone unrecognised, no less — doesn’t have to constantly perform to appease the unrealistic expectations of randoms sitting at home on the couch watching the Academy Awards.

Also, would people be getting so worked up if it were Cate Blanchett and not Bassett? Because something tells me they wouldn’t.

Other people were just pissed off that Miss Activia won over Bassett. Was doing The Thing not enough?!

The treatment of Bassett reminds me of when Grace Tame was slammed ‘cos she should have “smiled” and “been polite to” former Prime Minister Scott Morrison at *that* Australian of The Year ceremony.

Can we stop the narrative that women — especially Black women — have to constantly indulge other people?

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Image: Getty Images / Mike Coppola