This year’s selection of nominees for the Oscars wrongfully lacks actors and actresses of color, and neglects some of the wonderful talent working in Hollywood.

The nominations consist entirely of white actors. The idea of someone’s name having value comes into play when choosing the nominations, especially with famous white actors. These actors with big names, such as Matt Damon, receive recognition all the time. However, this fame puts these white actors on many top 100 lists. This blurs their image because their past performances create an expectation of greatness.

Damon’s performance in “The Martian” shows through so well because of all the excellent work he created in the past. However, Donald Glover, the African-American who plays the astrophysicist who comes up with the plan to return the stranded astronaut home safely, also played a large role in the movie. Glover’s performance showed prominently, even compared to Damon’s. However, Glover received no recognition from the academy for his acting.

Samuel L. Jackson performed exquisitely as Major Marquis Warren in “Hateful 8.” Compared to the work of Leonardo DiCaprio, this begs the question of why DiCaprio was nominated, instead of Jackson when he outperformed DiCaprio on all levels?

The cast of “Straight Outta Compton” consists almost entirely of black actors. Specifically, O’Shea Jackson Jr., who played his father, Ice Cube, perfectly. Yet, not one member of the cast received a nomination for an Oscar.

In its earliest years, Hollywood allowed no actors of color to participate in most of its productions. It still exists in a similar mental era where white faces receive more praise, even if their performances lack appeal. According to The Atlantic Magazine, the Oscar Academy consists of 94 percent white people, primarily men, and the average age of all voters sits at 67 years.

The performances this year by all the talented actors of color received no recognition to any extent from the academy because the idea of a racial hierarchy remains. This serious issue comes from a source of racist ideals about who the face of true talent should be instead of measuring talent without a racial bias.