For the second year in a row, only white actors and actresses have been nominated for the top four spots in their respective categories at the Academy Awards. 

The resulting outcry of #OscarsSoWhite is justified, and highlights an underlying problem in Hollywood that has gone largely unaddressed: simply, the emphasis on funding and producing movies with minority or ethnic roles has completely disappeared from Hollywood, if it was ever there in the first place. 

Countless celebrities have announced their shame in the academy since the nominations were released. 

Acclaimed director Spike Lee is boycotting the ceremonies. 2012 Best Supporting actress Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o said the awards should be a “diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today.” Will Packer, executive producer of “Straight Outta Compton,” said the lack of diversity at this year’s Oscars is “embarrassing.” 

“Straight Outta Compton” is perhaps the focal point on the lack of diversity at this year’s Academy Awards. The N.W.A. biopic received only one nomination, a screenwriting nod (for its white screenwriters), though many believe it should have received a best picture nomination. A strong case can be made that Jason Mitchell deserved a best supporting actor nod for his portrayal of Eazy-E. 

N.W.A. rapper and actor Ice Cube commented on what the crew could have done to get the movie a best picture nomination. 

“Maybe we should’ve put a slave in ‘Straight Outta Compton,” he said. “Just one random slave for the academy members to recognize us as a real, black movie.” 

Another black actor that was famously snubbed this year is Idris Elba, star of the Netflix orginial film “Beasts of No Nation.” There is some debate whether the Academy snubbed the Netflix film because they didn’t want to promote movies outside of their control of distribution, which itself would be a shame. However, two Netflix documentaries, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” were nominated for best documentary film this year. 

Some critics felt that Elba’s portrayal of a rebel military commander leading a group of child soldiers warranted his first Oscar nomination. Many felt he was looked over two years ago for a nomination for his role as Nelson Mandela in the biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” 

Since the 2006 78th Academy Awards, out of the 200 nominations for best actor or actress in a lead or supporting role, only 17 have been black. Only two were Hispanic. One went to an Asian actress. 

Actress Viola Davis, a two-time Academy Award nominee and the first black actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award for a leading role in a drama, points to the problem with diversity at the Academy Awards as having more to do with a lack of black movies being produced. 

“How many black films are being produced every year? How are they being distributed? The films that are being made, are the big time producers thinking outside of the box in terms of how to cast the role?” Davis said. “You can change the academy, but if there are no black films being produced, what is there to vote for?” 

Davis’ charge brings to light a good point about the people behind the camera – the directors, producers and screenwriters. In the ten Academy Awards since 2005, only two black men have been nominated for best director: Steve McQueen in 2014 for “12 Years a Slave” and Lee Daniels in 2010 for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” 

In that same time span, only three other men of color were nominated for best director: Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who is up for the award again this year for “The Revenant.” Perhaps most egregiously, Kathryn Bigelow was the only woman nominated for best director in that timespan for “The Hurt Locker” in 2009. 

To the academy’s credit, they took a historic step to ensure growing diversity in their voting members on Thursday night. By a unanimous vote, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved substantive measures that will double the number of women and diverse members by 2020. 

In 2013, 93 percent of the academy’s members were white. In addition, three new governor seats will be generated, with the heavy implication they will be filled by ethnically diverse members and women. 

For all of the blow-back that has come as a response to the outrage over the lack of diversity at this year’s Oscars and the proposed boycotts (lowlighted by best actress nominee Charlotte Rampling’s “racism against whites” comments), it is hard, if not impossible, to imagine these steps would have been taken without the public outcry and social movement. To everyone who harped on about cry-baby culture and “reverse racism” this week, look at what has been achieved here. 

There is only so much the academy can do itself, though. Until Hollywood and the film industry prioritize the production of ethnic films with minority and female directors, producers and screenwriters for American audiences, we will continue to see the same whitewashed award shows for years to come.