Oscar Nominations 2016: Jada Pinkett Smith Might Boycott Award Show Over #OscarsSoWhite [Twitter]
Jada Pinkett Smith aired her grievances on Facebook about how the Academy nominated only white actors.
Smith took to Facebook and Twitter to express her disappointment over the Oscars and its alleged exclusive nominations of white actors and actresses. She also added a thought about boycotting the event.
At the Oscars...people of color are always welcomed to give out awards...even entertain, but we are rarely recognized...
Posted by Jada Pinkett Smith on Saturday, January 16, 2016
"At the Oscars...people of color are always welcomed to give out awards...even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments," the 44-year-old actress wrote on her social media accounts. "Should people of color refrain from participating all together? People can only treat us in the way in which we allow. With much respect in the midst of deep disappointment, J."
Smith is the wife of actor Will Smith whose NFL movie "Concussion" was in the running for a best actor nomination. Other people of color including Idris Elba for "Beasts of No Nation," Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler for "Creed" and Samuel L. Jackson for "The Hateful Eight" also did not receive any nods this year.
According to the Huffington Post, all 20 nominees in the acting categories in the Oscars this year did not include any people of color such as Best Actor or Actress and Best Supporting Actor or Actress. The only films that cast people of color which is nominated are "Straight Outta Compton" for Best Screenplay, "What Happened, Miss Simone" for Best Documentary and "Creed" for Best Supporting Actor. However, only white people who worked in the films were nominated.
The announcement of the nominees for the Academy Awards was met with outrage especially on Twitter where the trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite from last year was used, Daily Mail reports. Other actresses including Emmy Rossum, Rashida Jones and Gillian Anderson were disappointed about the white nominations, reports USA Today.
The diversity issue has escalated and reached the ears of Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
"Of course I am disappointed, but Pete Hammond badgethis is not to take away the greatness (of the films nominated)," she said in a statement reported by Deadline. "This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board. You are never going to know what is going to appear on the sheet of paper until you see it."
Even Chris Rock, who is paid to the host of the upcoming 88th Academy Awards poked fun at the issue by captioning the latest teaser for the event with "The #Oscars. The White BET Awards."
Watch the promo below: