Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett has had it with the academy Awards’ continued snub toward black actors

Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of actor Will Smith, has had it with the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars.
An actress herself, Mrs. Smith has joined a number of Black Hollywood artists voicing their concern over the Oscars’ total lack of diversity when it comes to Black actors.

This year, out of four categories related to actors (and actresses), there is not one African American nomination. That includes her husband, Will Smith, who stars in the film “Concussion,” which has been critically acclaimed since its release in December.

Mrs. Smith joins filmmaker Spike Lee in calling for a boycott of the Oscars, according to CNN.

“We cannot support it and [I] mean no disrespect … But, how is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the acting category are white? And let’s not even get into the other branches,” Lee wrote on Instagram. “Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all. We can’t act?! WTF!!”

Smith said she won’t even watch the Oscars on TV in her social media statement.

“We must stand in our power,” she wrote.

She also said, “Today is Martin Luther King’s birthday, and I can’t help but ask the question: Is it time that people of color recognize how much power, influence, that we have amassed, that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere?”

“Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power. And we are a dignified people, and we are powerful. So let’s let the Academy do them, with all grace and love. And let’s do us, differently.”

By the way, the Academy’s president is Black – Cheryl Boone Isaacs. She also said over the weekend that she was “disappointed” by the Oscar nominations.