Jada Pinkett Smith And Spike Lee Are Not Attending The Oscars Due To "No Black Actors Being Nominated"

Spike Lee And Jada Pinkett Smith are not Attending The Oscars 

BHR Hollywood Reports.........Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee are not planning to go to the 2016 Oscars awards. In an Instagram post, Mr. Lee, who accepted an honorary Oscar in November and received no nominations for his latest film, “Chiraq,” asked how it was possible that there were no nominations of black actors for the second year running.

Spike Lee 

After announcing that neither he nor his wife would attend the awards, Mr. Lee wrote, “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.’”

Saying he was tired of being asked for his opinion about all-white or majority-white Oscar races year after year, Mr. Lee also urged the news media to “ask all the white nominees and studio heads how they feel about another all-white ballot.”

Jada Pinkett Smith 

Over the weekend, Ms. Pinkett wondered out loud on social media whether any blacks or members of other minorities should attend the Oscars.

In a video posted Monday, she said she would not be attending the event or watching it. Her husband, Will Smith, was a contender for a best actor nomination for his lead role in “Concussion,” but did not make the final list of five nominees.

“We can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgment or respect of any group,” Ms. Pinkett Smith said.

Ms. Pinkett Smith stopped short of suggesting that the comedian Chris Rock back out of hosting the show.

Spike Lee Instagram Post 

“I can’t think of a better man to do the job at hand this year than you my friend, and good luck,” she said in the video.

Mr. Rock, along with the Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer and the “Creed” star Michael B. Jordan, are scheduled to appear at a Martin Luther King’s Birthday event on Monday afternoon in Manhattan.

The academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose...it's our responsibility now to make the change.

Maybe it's time that we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, into our programs and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledges us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so called mainstream ones.