This year’s Academy Awards has a lack of diversity in the award nominations. The 88th Oscars will be taking place on Feb. 28, 2016. The first Academy Awards took place in 1929 because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wanted to celebrate the best movies of the previous two years. They created a private event at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and presented awards to people in 12 different categories. The number of categories has now expanded to 24. Within the categories reserved for actors and actresses, not a single person of color has been nominated for the 88th Academy Awards.

This has created an uprising and boycotting of this year’s Academy Awards. Some Hollywood stars and directors boycotting the ceremony include Jada Smith, Spike Lee, Will Smith and possibly Mark Ruffalo. They believe that there should be people of color represented in the Oscar nomination list.

The Oscar nomination list is determined by over 6,000 members of the Academy who work in the business. A ballot is sent by mail, filled out and sent back to Pricewaterhousecoopers, a business firm, and each vote is counted by hand. This process starts long before the ceremony. Also, this is not the first year with an all white nomination list. Last year, there were 20 white actors and actresses on the record.

Many films created in Hollywood have a specific approach they must follow. This could be dependent on the director and the idea in their head. Their specific vision could lead to a lack of roles for non-white actors. That being said, many prominent movies with people of color in leading roles came out this past year. Movies such as “Creed,” “The Hateful Eight” and “Straight Outta Compton” could have been nominated for awards. These films starred many non-white actors, with worthy performances by Samuel L. Jackson, Michael B. Jordan and Jason Mitchell.

Ninety-four percent of the Academy that determines the nominees is white. That means that only around 2% of the academy are non-white people. This lack of diversity could lead to prejudice of a certain race. The Academy has been working to expand the variety of individuals. For much of the time it has been around, the Academy has been composed of older white men, and last year they invited over 300 women and non-whites to join. This new invitation should help balance out the different groups of people in the Academy.

The boycotting of the Oscars this year by several actors and actresses can be traced back all the way to the Academy. A lot goes into putting the ceremony together, but it all begins with who is selected as a member of the Academy, and this can often lead to prejudices against certain races.