Jada Pinkett has revealed she will not be attending the Oscars, or watching it on television, in response to the lack of nominations for people of color. The star posted a video on Monday – Martin Luther King Day in the U.S, voicing her thoughts on the lack of diversity in this years nominations at the Academy Awards. Delivering a powerful speech, she said:
‘I can’t help ask the question: is it time that people of color, recognise how much power and influence we have amassed that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere.’That maybe it is time that we recognise of we love, respect and acknowledge ourselves in the way we are asking others to do, then that that is the place of true power. I’m simply asking the question.’
Airing her thoughts on the Academy’s neglect to nominate any people of color in the top categories she said: ‘Here is what I believe, the Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose and now, I think that it is our responsibility now, to make the change.