Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee boycotting ‘White Oscars’ in February

Writer/director Spike Lee, who received an honorary Oscar in November, and actress Jada Pinkett Smith, whose husband was left off this year’s Oscar nominations list, announced Monday they will boycott next month’s Academy Awards due to the lack of diversity among the nominated performers.

For the second straight year, all 20 acting nominations for this year’s Oscars went to white performers.

Timing their comments to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Lee and Smith both took to social media to announce their plans to boycott the Feb. 28 ceremony.

“We cannot support it and mean no disrespect to my friends, host Chris Rock and producer Reggie Hudlin, (Academy) President (Cheryl Boone) Isaacs and the Academy,” Lee wrote on his Instagram page. “But how is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white? and let’s not even get into the other branches. Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all. We can’t act?!”

In his post, Lee quoted King as saying, “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.”

“As I see it, the Academy Awards is not where the ‘real’ battle is,” Lee wrote. “It’s in the executive office of the Hollywood studios and TV and cable networks. This is where the gate-keepers decide what gets made and what gets jettisoned to ‘turnaround’ or scrap heap.”

Smith posted a video on Facebook announcing her plans to avoid the Oscar telecast and ceremony. Smith’s husband, Will Smith, was not nominated for an Oscar this year despite being critically acclaimed for his role in “Concussion.” Will Smith was nominated for a Golden Globe for best drama actor, but lost to Leonardo DiCaprio.

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

There was no immediate response from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. When nominations were announced last week, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said the organization is working to improve diversity.

“Stick with us,” Isaacs, who is black, told NBC4. “We’re still working very hard and will continue to work hard to bring in more inclusion into the Academy, into Hollywood.”

With some small exceptions, this year’s nominations for acting Oscars are largely the same as those for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are usually a strong indicator of winners on Oscar night.

SAG, however, nominated black actor Idris Elba for his supporting role in “Beasts of No Nation,” which was also nominated for outstanding ensemble cast. SAG also gave an ensemble nomination to “Straight Outta Compton.”

The Golden Globe Award acting nominations this year were also mostly white, with Elba and Will Smith the only black nominees.

—City News Service