Oscars 2016: Jada Pinkett, Spike Lee to boycott awards

Two of America’s leading movie personalities, in the persons of filmmaker, Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, have both informed via separate messages posted on social media that they both will not be attending the forthcoming Grammy Awards over a lack of diversity among nominees.

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Lee said the ” ‘real’ battle” over racism in Hollywood is not with the Academy Awards but in “the executive offices of the Hollywood studios and TV and cable networks,” where gatekeepers decide which projects get made and which don’t.

“People, the truth is we ain’t in those rooms, and until minorities are, the Oscar nominees will remain lilly white,” he wrote on Twitter.

Jada Pinkett-Smith, whose husband, Will Smith, was an Oscar nominee contender for his role in NFL football drama “Concussion,” said in a Facebook video she was disappointed by the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations.

“Begging for acknowledgement or even asking [to be nominated] diminishes dignity,” she said in the video. “It diminishes power and we are a dignified people and we are powerful. And let’s not forget it. So let’s let the Academy do them with all grace and love and let’s do us differently.”

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