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This weekend, Jada Pinkett Smith took to Twitter to express her disappointment with this year’s White-washed Academy Award nominations.

Critically-acclaimed films like Concussion, Straight Outta Compton, Beasts of No Nation, Creed and other Black-helmed bodies of work were overlooked for a second year in a row, urging Jada and Spike Lee to call for a boycott while taking back our dignity.

“Maybe it’s time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called mainstream,” she says in a poignant video posted on her Facebook page. “We can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgement or respect of any group.”

Spike Lee joined in on the boycott, declaring he won’t be in attendance, with this powerful Instagram post.

Chris Rock, who is set to host this year’s ceremony, called it “the White BET Awards.” Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy President, also expressed disappointment in the “lack of diversity.”

Isaacs told Deadline, “This is not to take away the greatness [of the films nominated]. This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board.” But that’s exactly the issue — despite the wide range of excellent films released this year, those that were ultimately selected as nominees for the highest honor in the industry shared one thing in common — whiteness.”

Jada and Lee make incredibly valid points. Who else will join them in their stance?

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Jada Pinkett’s Powerful Plea To Boycott The Oscars: No More Begging  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com