Brent Staples, an editor of The New York Times Book Review, talks about the “afrofuturism” of the movie Black Panther. Afrofuturism, a term coined by cultural critic Mark Deray, is claimed to be the new frontier of African American portrayal in cinema. Staples has made some interesting points about how African Americans are portrayed in the media these days. Representation is heavy in art and cinema that revolves around the history of black suffering, such as movies predominantly about slavery. However, we don’t see as much representation in regular films that don’t deal with such a huge aspect of black identity. Staples says that Black Panther has paved the way for more films that include afrofuturist arts and ideals. For some context, Black Panther is part of the Marvel franchise and depicts the protagonist, T’Challa, as his fictional home of Wakanda is threatened by the villain, Killmonger,  who is seeking his throne. The movie was wildly successful and continues to pull in big numbers at the box office. Afrofuturism, Staples says, has been around for about 25 years but the term was made known by Black Panther. Afrofuturism is used to “describe the work of artists who used the tools of science fiction to imagine possible futures.” He says that when Black Panther, written by Christopher Priest, first made an appearance in the Fantastic Four comic book, it was seen in a negative light. It was around the mid-60s when it first appeared, which was the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. It was associated with “black radicalism” and also with the Black Panther Party, as they shared the same name. In terms of the article itself, the author proves his point through the establishment of mostly ethos, of himself and other significant figures. For example, Staples takes the term “afrofuturism” from Mark Dery, and gives him credit while also expanding on the point itself. This shows that he gives credit where it’s due and further proves his point by quoting well-known cultural critic Mark Dery. Staples also further establishes his ethos by proving that he is well-versed in writing about black culture. When navigating his page on the site, the reader can see several articles on issues of white supremacy, Colin Kaepernick, Barack Obama and slavery. He also has several articles on other films such as Wonder Woman and George Romero’s zombie flicks. This shows that Staples knows a lot about film and the cinematic industry, and is therefore a credible source to go to when wanting to read articles about the latest movies.