In its 87-year history, the Academy has only given 32 Oscars to black actors/actresses. You may be thinking: “Well, that’s a pretty substantial amount,” but that is 32 out of 2,900 winners. Yeah, it does not even compare. However, this is not the first time people are speaking out and expressing their disgust with the award show. Just last year people were outraged that the talented director Ava DuVernay was not nominated for Best Director for “Selma,” which many concluded was the biggest letdown. If she would have been nominated she would have been the first African American woman to receive that honor.

Fast-forward to 2016 and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite is still relevant. Many have vowed to protest and not watch the Oscars this year due to the lack of diversity. The highlight of this protest was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee separately made posts expressing that they would not be attending the annual award show on Feb. 28. Spike Lee took to Instagram, where he posted a picture of MLK on his graduation day with a lengthy caption that included: “Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all. We can’t act?! WTF!!” In a video which she posted on her Facebook, Jada Pinkett Smith said that she would not be watching the Oscars on TV this year. She then went on to say that her husband, Will Smith, was an Oscar contender for his role in “Concussion” but ended up not being nominated. Towards the end of her video, Pinkett Smith presented a challenge to people of color asking them: “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?” She then went on to say: “Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminished dignity and diminishes power. And we are 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.”

Their statements then led to the realization that great movies of 2015 like “Beasts of No Nation," "Creed," and "Straight Outta Compton" received not one nomination by the academy voters. President Cheryl Boon Issacs, who is black, spoke out about the nominations and said that she was disappointed in them. Issacs claims that the academy has made efforts in increasing its diversity among membership, but that it’s moving too slow and that they’ve got to “speed it up.” Just last June the Academy invited 322 new members with many reflecting the academy’s need for diversity. But even with the new members the academy is still mostly made up of caucasians.

Many are choosing to partake in the boycott of not watching the Oscars and patiently waiting for this year’s host Chris Rock to join too, but I boldly disagree. People of color choosing to not watch or go to the ceremony really isn’t doing anything. It’s just keeping us quiet. If I were a person of color I would band a group together and go to the ceremony dressed in all black. This way we are making a protest and making the Academy uncomfortable. Celebrities should use the Oscars this year as a platform to voice more of their opinions on the lack of diversity. Eddie Murphy did it in 1988.

I also agree with Ice Cube’s recent comment about the controversy saying: “We don’t do movies for the industry. We do movies for the fans, for the trophy.” He then went on to say: “If the industry give you a trophy or not, or pats you on the back or not, it’s nice, but it’s not something you should dwell on.” While the Oscars may be the highlight of one’s entertainment career, it does not validate them. They were great, before they even received the award. We then begin to question the intention of the directors and actors: “Are you doing movies for the fans who want something to relate to or for validation from the Academy?”