Marvel Comics’s Black Panther was originally conceived in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two Jewish New Yorkers, as a bid to offer black readers a character to identify with. The titular hero, whose real name is T’Challa, is heir apparent to the throne of Wakanda, a fictional African nation.
The Black Panther arrival on our screens coincides with a UCLA released a report on diversity in last year’s top-grossing films, uncovering that people of colour accounted for only 13.6 per cent of film leads, remaining under-represented by a factor of three to one.Yet that's only part of the problem. Western-centric views of Africa that stereotype and diminish its countries and cultures still abound. Black Panther, however, not only offers an Afrocentric perspective, but one that draws on the rich, layered concept of Afrofuturism, born out of black artists imagining the endless possibilities of new futures.NYT
UCLA released a report on diversity http://bunchecenter.pre.ss.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2017/04/2017-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2-21-17.pdf
