On January 14th, the twenty major Academy Awards nominees were announced and many noticed there were no African American nominated.

Jada Pinkett Smith took matters into her own hands and started that she would not attend nor watch the Oscars.

This ignited a boycott against the Oscars. Many other African American actors have promised they also wouldn’t be attending the Oscars.

The Oscar’s nomination process is very complex. To be one of the 6028 voting members there is a very long process. The voters are either actors, writers, directors, composers, etc, but each of these voters have won an oscar of their own.

The voters later may nominate up to five actors in order of personal preference. Then the numbers are crunched and it takes about 100 ballots to be an official nominee.

Since you can nominate whoever, it doesn’t matter on the performance, as long as that person has the most votes.

Since the boycott started on Martin Luther King Jr. day there has been a growing number of supporters but there has also been a growing number of people who think it shouldn’t matter how many actors of color are nominated but instead the performance of those who did make it.

There has been many rumors surrounding Chris Rock hosting the show. “Chris is hard at work, he and his writing staff locked themselves into a room. As things got a little provocative and exciting, he said ‘I’m throwing out the show I wrote and writing a new one.’” Reginald Hudlin a producer of the Academy Awards had to say during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

So instead of dropping the show altogether, Chris Rock is rewriting the entire show. “He’s that brilliant and I have 1000 percent confidence that he will deliver something that people will be talking about for weeks.” Instead of ignoring the topic Rock will joke about the diversity backlash.

Since this was announced about the show there hasn’t been any change on the boycott.

Boycotters include:Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee, Will Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Tyrese Gibson, and Snoopdogg

Will Smith,  when he heard about the boycott his wife Jada Pinkett Smith had started, commented  “She’s deeply passionate, and when she’s moved, she has to go. I heard her words, and I was knocked over. I was happy to be married to that woman. I appreciated the push. There’s a position that we hold in this community, and if we’re not a part of the solution, we’re a part of the problem. It was her call to action for herself, for me and for our family to be a part of the solution.”