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Md. Woman Drawing Attention To Lack Of Oscars Diversity

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Two people with ties to Baltimore are drawing international attention to the lack of diversity in the list of this year's Oscar nominees.

Marcus Washington talks with one of the two from our area, who has created a lot of buzz on the issue.

April Reign from Howard County started the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite after last year's announcement of nominees, and this year, people are using it again.

Baltimore native Jada Pinkett Smith says she is boycotting the award show this year, and she's not alone.

It's the biggest night in Hollywood film, and this year, some people say enough is enough. Out of all 20 nominees in the acting categories, there is not one person of color.

"I will not be at the Academy Awards and I won't be watching," said actress Jada Pinkett Smith.

In response, Baltimore native Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of actor Will Smith, is boycotting against the award show. Other entertainers, like actor and director Spike Lee, have followed.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made of a 6,200 member voting body, where 94 percent are white, 77 percent are male and the median age is 62.

"And those numbers do not reflect the community, the American community as a whole, and they definitely don't reflect the moviegoers who want to see people like themselves up on the screen," said April Reign, BroadwayBlack.com.

April Reign created the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite from her home in Howard County last year out of frustration of the lack of diversity in nominees. A year later, the hashtag is in heavy use again.

In response to the lack of diversity with the year's acting nominees, the Academy's president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, says in part: "I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes."

"It's going to be an incremental change, and unfortunately, when you're dealing with a body that is as large as the Academy of over 6,000 members, sometimes there isn't the impetuous to change. And so that's why I think the OscarsSoWhite hashtag is important in putting pressure on the Academy to be more self-reflective with respect to how they currently operate," said Reign.

The Academy's president says 2016 is about inclusion across all facets, including gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Within the past four years, the Academy's president says they have made changes to diversify membership, but agrees the changes are not coming fast enough.

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