Oscar Nominations 2016: All White Nomination Oscar List Causes Controversy

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the nominations for the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Thursday, but the list did not include any black actors. For the second year in a row no black actor has been nominated for an Oscar. There are four acting categories with 20 slots each. No nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress or Best Director.

The Academy’s actions have led to a widespread boycott of the February 28 broadcast, and famous faces like this year’s honorary award winner Spike Lee, and Jada Pinkett Smith, have vowed to not watch the awards show.

Photo Credit: Black Nerd Problems

” How is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the acting category are white?” Spike Lee wrote on Instagram. Lee’s comments, which began with the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that made the rounds following the nomination, were published in a caption of a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is celebrated Monday. “Dr. King said, ‘There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it’s right,’” Lee continued. “For too many years, when the Oscar nominations are revealed, my office phone rings off the hook with the media asking me my opinion about the lack of African-Americans and this year was no different…I would like the media to ask all the white nominees and studio heads how they feel about another all-white ballot.”

Photo Credit: The Guardian

In a video post on Facebook, Jada Pinkett Smith said, “Is it time that people of color recognize how much power, influence, that we have amassed, that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere?” she continued saying: ” Maybe it’s time that we recognize that if we love and respect and acknowledge ourselves in the way in which we are asking others to do, that that is the place of true power.”

Photo Credit: AOL

Chris Rock on the other hand is facing incredible pressure to bow out as host of the 88th Annual Academy Awards over the fact that no actors of color were nominated for Oscars, for the second year in a row. Fans are calling for Chris to step down as host to stand with the people snubbed, and the comedian is stuck.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs said she is disappointed that no black actors were nominated for an Oscar this year. In a lengthy statement she issued after Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee announced they would boycott the awards show, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said she was frustrated by “the lack of inclusion.”

” I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees, while we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes.”

“The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond,” she added.

Lupita N’yongo said ” I am disappointed by the lack of inclusion in this year’s Academy Awards nominations. It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture. The Awards should not dictate the terms of art in our modern society, but rather be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has has to offer today.” “I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them,” Nyong’o concluded her address.

Others standing for the cause are George Clooney, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, David Oyelowo, Idris Elba, Al Sharpton.

Last year the movie Selma rose hope for diversity in the award categories and this year movies like “Creed” was written and directed by Ryan Coogler, Straight Outta Compton had a great acting ensemble of mostly young, black unknowns, and was directed by F. Gary Gray. But the film’s only nomination was for its screenplay, written by whites. Idris Elba for Beast Of No Nations, Will Smith for Concussion and Chi-raq with director Spike Lee. These movies had the Oscar buzz about them and yet were not included.

Social media is going haywire and the conflict we hope would be resolved as soon as possible.