So get this. It’s nearly 5pm Thursday afternoon and I, Academy Award winner Travon Free, am sitting in front of my TV with the Academy Screening Room app open, browsing this year’s nominees. I’ve seen pretty much everything nominated at least once, but there’s a documentary or two I still need to check off my list.
Then, a text appears from my buddy Jason.
“So, are you guys going to have to make a statement about this?”
Oh no. Statements are only required when someone does something bad, and I’ve yet to make a film with Blake Lively or Justin Baldoni, so I can’t imagine why I’d need to make one. After nervously asking “What for?,” he sends me one of the many screenshots of Karla Sofía Gascón’s old, resurfaced tweets, currently in circulation. In this particular Twitter-bullet to the Emilia Pérez Oscars campaign, Mama Gascón is not pleased with the 2021 Oscars ceremony, aka “the COVID Oscars.”
Specifically, she called the ceremony an “Afro-Korean festival” and a “Black Lives Matter demonstration,” and noted, “They forgot to give an award to my cousin’s short film.” Personally, I would love to attend an Afro-Korean festival — I bet the food would be incredible. But also, I was a complete unknown who was not only nominated for a short film called Two Distant Strangers that was thematically aligned with Black Lives Matter sentiments, I also won her alleged cousin’s award that night and partied like a wild robot (I am not a robot). Oopsie!
Look, I’m from Compton, so my first reaction to seeing this was to channel my inner Kendrick Lamar and go full “Not Like Us.” Me and my nickel boys even held a little conclave in our group chat and I emerged with a whole list of ideas on how I was going to flex on Karla with my Oscar or pose it next to her picture with a snarky caption like “This is the closest you’ll get to one this year.” But then I took a breather, and during that time, I noticed social media was full of brutalists giving Mama Gascón the business for her racism and Islamophobia.
Did I need to be even more of a real pain and pile on? Sure, her words felt wicked, but as a man who couldn’t remain silent, I knew the most important part of how I responded would be the substance. And as a different man than I used to be, a better man even, I knew there was a smarter way to respond to the incident than just some snarky clap back.
If you asked me for a million 2025 predictions, discovering you were not-so-subtweeted by the first openly trans woman to be nominated for an acting Oscar because she doesn’t seem to be a fan of what you represent would not have made the list. You might’ve seen something like, a second Brat Summer, the continued world domination of Timothée Chalamet or mass deportations, but not this.
To be honest, it’s not even disappointing to see someone be anti-BLM or any of the accompanying sentiments and beliefs. It’s disappointing when that resentment is being voiced by someone who I imagine knows the pains of marginalization and what it’s like to be in and of a community regularly targeted for violence. As a Black, queer Oscar winner, to quote the great poet laureate Tyra Banks, I was rooting for you, I was all rooting for you. I know, I know — Tyra says “we” the second time, but I can only speak for me.
Last week I was happy to see an openly trans woman be nominated for the most prestigious award in acting for the first time, especially at a time when the trans community is, and has been, under very targeted attacks. I was equally excited by the possibility of a trans woman winning that award and redefining possibility for her community. And I still am. Because I have no idea how Mama Gascón feels about Koreans and Black activism today. But as Zoe Saldaña says to Karla in their film with everyone doing the sing sing, “I know human beings,” and human beings can change. And if she hasn’t, well, it’s never too late. And the next time you want to throw shade, just @ me, ok Karla? I’ll respond, I promise.
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