April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite, is not satisfied with attempts by the Academy to diversify.
Reign began using the hashtag in the wake of the announcement of 2015 nominees from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.
The Oscars 2015 did not contain any “person of color” in major acting categories, precipitating the hashtag. Following the Twitter campaign by Reign, notable African American entertainers such as Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith boycotted the 2015 ceremony.
A major problem, as pointed out by Reign and others, was the fact that most of the people voting for the Academy Awards are older white males.
As a reaction to the public outcry, the Academy announced that it had committed to diversifying its voters, attempting to double its number of women and people of color by 2020.
The Academy released its newest voter invitee list on Wednesday.
“It seems impressive on first glance. I am encouraged by the inclusion of additional women and people of color and those from marginalized communities,” said Reign in an interview with the L.A. Times.
“As I read the list, there are definitely some names that were shocking to me from the standpoint of why some of these people aren’t already members of the academy,” continued Reign. “The academy is righting a wrong here.”
“Yes, a lot of work still must be done. For women, if the academy is supposed to be representative of the population, it should be a lot closer to 50%. And the 11% [people of color]… is not representative of all people of color in this country,” concluded Reign.