The Oscars will air for the 88th time this February. The nominations were released last week, leaving movie fanatics with a disturbing realization. Again.

This is the second year that there have been no minorities nominated for any of the acting categories. The 2015 Oscars ignored several performances by actors of color, and they are doing it again this year. Over these two years, that is 40 nominations given strictly to white actors.

After the 2015 Oscar announcements, April Reign launched the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, sparking outcry from moviegoers across the nation.

“It’s actually worse than last year. Best Documentary and Best Original Screenplay. That’s it,” tweeted Reign.

There are several performances that were expected to be nominated, but were ignored. Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, WIll Smith in Concussion and Michael B. Jordan in Creed all gave noteworthy performances, but were ignored.

Reign mentioned Straight Outta Compton being one of the only diverse movies nominated, it is up for Best Original Screenplay and the writers nominated are both white.

There has also been past criticisms toward the Academy for its 7,000 member committee for containing mainly older, white men. Many question how a board lacking diversity can nominate anything other than all-white movies. Though these criticisms have quieted after
The Help, The Butler, and 12 Years a Slave won awards over the past years. Comments sparked up again last year when actors of Selma were snubbed, though the movie was nominated for Best Picture.

Almost half of America’s moviegoers are minorities and yet ¾ of all characters in the top movies of 2014 were white.

“I think that this isn’t just annoying. It’s also really harmful. You think about all of the people of color going to the movies and you realize that they aren’t being represented. As a little girl I didn’t have any princesses that even slightly looked like me until Tiana, and that was 2009,” said Tara Brookins, ‘16.

Some have noted that the Academy has nothing to do with the casting, or lack thereof, of minorities. Though an accurate point, it does not explain why certain actors are being ignored for the performances they have managed to obtain.

“I don’t know how we can fix it truthfully. Hollywood doesn’t hire actors of color, so people of color never aspire to be actors, it’s somewhat of a vicious cycle. I just hope something changes soon,” said Brooke Smith, ‘17.