On January 14, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its predominantly white nominations for the 2016 Oscars, most notably in the four acting categories. Despite impassioned backlash on social media and the emergence of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, this is the Academy’s second year in a row of failing to include minorities in their selection.

“Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest. Sorry, brightest,” host Neil Patrick Harris said during last year’s telecast of the Oscars.

Last year’s protests were mainly caused by the Academy’s blatant disregard of David Oyelowo’s fan-favorite portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in “Selma.” However, Hollywood’s actions this year are much less forgivable due to a wider range of popular films featuring performers of color to choose from.

“I think it’s unfair and misrepresentative of the diversity in our country. Talented people of color are too often overlooked, especially in media,” sophomore Lin Li Oechsle said. “Despite the fact that there are so many different types of people, particularly in film and television, the only people shown are white. This creates a sense of disconnection between the groups shown on the big screen and the groups who are actually here.”

Researchers at the University of Southern California found that in 2014, only about 26.9 percent of actors in the 100 top grossing films represented minorities.

The Academy this year bypassed Idris Elba’s performance in “Beasts of No Nation,” “Concussion,” star Will Smith, Michael B. Jordan in “Creed,” and the cast of well liked N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” Instead, the co-writers of “Straight Outta Compton,” both white, received the best original screenplay nomination.

“We cannot support it and [I] mean no disrespect to my friends, host Chris Rock and producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs and the Academy,” filmmaker Spike Lee said on an Instagram post. “But, how is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white?…We can’t act?”

In great contrast, both the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild nominated “Straight Outta Compton,” and the Screen Actors Guild nominated “Beasts of No Nation” for its cast, as well as Idris Elba for supporting actor. Additionally, the Academy nominated Sylvester Stallone for supporting actor in “Creed,” but the movie’s black lead, Michael B. Jordan, and black writer-director, Ryan Coogler, did not receive any nominations.

“The issue with the Oscars is that it is an overwhelmingly white older membership, so unfortunately they are choosing stories that represent themselves and that do not represent the best performances of the year,” English teacher Mrs. Lauren Tocci said.

According to a 2015 study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center of African American Studies, film studio heads in Hollywood were 94 percent white and 100 percent male, and television network and studio heads were 96 percent white and 71 percent male.

President of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, issued a statement on January 18 expressing her frustration and voicing her devotion to expand their membership.

“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,” she said. “We need to do more, better, and more quickly…the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.”

Despite seemingly genuine strides and apologies made by the Academy, many people have finalized their decision to boycott the upcoming Oscars on February 28.

“I understand the sentiment behind [the boycott]; however, for those who are nominated, it seems to put the blame on them, and I truly believe that Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs is trying to fix a system which she does not completely control,” Mrs. Tocci said. “What I do support about the boycott, though, is that I think it is making people think more deeply about the fact that this is the second year in a row in which only white actors have been nominated.”

The creator of #OscarsSoWhite, April Reign, has virtually expressed her disappointment with this year’s nominations.

“#OscarsSoWhite can only be rectified by those in power,” Reign said on Twitter. “We will continue the pressure until we see concrete examples of change.”