When this year's Oscars nominees were announced, many noted the absence of black nominees among the actor and actress categories and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite gathered pace.
Now in response to the lack of diversity, Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee have announced that they won't attend the Academy Awards on 28 February.
Many have commented that actors in Straight Out of Compton and Idris Elba's lauded role in Netflix original _Beasts Of No Natio_n were overlooked by the board, as well as Will Smith's role in NFL film Concussion, and Michael B Jordan's breakout performance in Creed.
Jada raised her dissatisfaction with Academy on Martin Luther King Day on Monday, via Facebook. She announced that she will miss the Oscars in a video message, entitled 'We Must Stand In Our Power'. Speaking frankly to the camera she raised questions about love and self-respect.
She says “I can’t help but ask the question, is it time that people of colour recognise how much power, influence that we have amassed that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere? The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose. And now I think that it’s our responsibility now to make the change.
"Maybe it is time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, into our programs and we make programs for ourselves…that acknowledge us in ways we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called mainstream ones…begging for acknowledgment or even asking diminishes dignity and diminishes power.”
She concludes with a message for host Chris Rock: “Hey, Chris, I will not be at the Academy Awards and I will not be watching, but I can’t think of a better man to do the job this year than you, my friend.”