The president of the Academy Awards vowed Monday to take "dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership" after not a single person of color was nominated for an acting Oscar — for the second year in a row.
"I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion," Cheryl Boone Isaacs wrote on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' official Twitter page. "This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes."
The statement from Isaacs, who is black, came on the same day that Spike Lee announced that he was boycotting the Feb. 28 ceremony, which he called "lily white" in an Instagram post.
Actress and singer-songwriterJada Pinkett Smith said she too would not be attending or watching this year's ceremony.
All of the nominees in this year's acting categories are white, which has spawned a social media backlash fueled by the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
Related: Oscars May Have Black Host, But All White Nominees in Top Categories
"Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power, and we are a dignified people and we are powerful," Pinkett Smith said in a video posted to her Facebook page.
"The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose, and now I think that it's our responsibility now to make the change."
