This will send a message!
Spike Lee announced Monday morning on his Instagram page that he is not going to be attending the Oscars in February, due to the lack of racial diversity among nominees in the acting categories at the awards show.
Related: Chris Rock Calls Out J.Law Over Discrimination!
Of course, Lee isn’t the only one to comment about #OscarsSoWhite — actress Jada Pinkett Smith has recently pondered a boycott, and even the show’s host, Chris Rock, has called out the Academy Awards for its whiteness.
But Lee’s post went even further, writing specifically he was going to avoid the show due to the lack of diversity:
“We cannot support it and [I] mean no disrespect to my friends, host Chris Rock and producer Reggie Hudlin, president [Cheryl Boone] Isaacs and the Academy. 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. Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all. We can’t act?! WTF!!”
After revealing that he wouldn’t be attending the show, Lee continued:
“People, the truth is we ain’t in those rooms, and until minorities are, the Oscar nominees will remain lilly white. It’s easier for an African-American to be President Of The United States than be president of a Hollywood studio.”
Ch-ch-check out Lee’s entire post — not coincidentally on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — below:
Wow. Strong words…
What do YOU think of the boycott?
[Image via PNP/WENN.]