The Similarities between Black Panther and Ta-Nehisi Coates
1. The Similarities between Black
Panther and Ta-Nehisi Coates
By: Shawn Cecil
❖ Each slide shows a quote from
Between the World and Me and the
connection between the quote and
what happened in Black Panther.
2. “I began to see discord,
argument, chaos,
perhaps even fear, as a
kind of power.”
Zenzi is a supervillain with the power to enhance
other's emotions. Zenzi uses this ability to empower
Wakandan soldiers to fight against the monarchy or
more specifically T'Challa. Zenzi is the literal
embodiment of the quote. Even without Zenzi, the
power of chaos is used throughout Black Panther
multiple times with the bombing in the golden city and
the riot at the mines, all these instances of extreme
emotion have increased the power of Zenzi and Tetu’s
rebellion and I think that if you were to think about it
you could see T'Challa saying this quote after seeing
all the people in his nation being hurt due to all these
different emotions being enhanced.
3. “Some wisdom
beyond my mean
physical perception of
the world, something
beyond the body”
Shuri, The queen of Wakanda, died before this comic
series and was stuck in a realm between life and
death, the Djalia, and she gained a lot of knowledge
from her ancestors. In the quote, it mentions the
wisdom is beyond the physical body. Shuri only
obtained this wisdom after she died and went to the
Djalia. She gained the knowledge of her ancestors and
came back to the physical world stronger than before
with this knowledge. These powers she obtained
exceeded common understanding and thus ties back
into the quote about how some wisdom is beyond his
perception of the world. Coates's words about
wisdom being "beyond the body" is understandable in
this instance as the knowledge Shuri obtained was
given to her by the spirits of her ancestors whose
bodies have been long gone.
4. “A country lost in the
dream”
The people of Wakanda always believed themselves
to be exceptional. They are one of the most advanced
countries in the world but they also have faults just
like any other country so in this comic, there is a
revolutionary, Tetu, who believes T'Challa, (the king) is
not making the right choices for his people so he tries
to disrupt the nation and awaken the Wakandan
people from this "dream" that keeps them serving
under their king. But in reality, it is Zenzi, one of Tetu's
partners who is putting the Wakandan people in a
dream filled with their rage and hopes to encourage
them to fight against the monarchy but at all times
someone in the country is lost in a dream especially
T'Challa as he struggles with this "dream" to be a king
like all the previous ones before him.
5. “ “Good intention” is
a hall pass through
history”
In the Black Panther comic the acts of the king were
seen to the people seemed unfair as it looked to them
like their king abandoned them. Even though T’Challa
had good intentions when he left Wakanda he still left
and that’s why good intentions don't always ease the
offense just like a hall pass, it's only acceptable to a
few. The whole conflict in this book is due to this "hall
pass" being unacceptable to some people and those
people took action and started a rebellion against the
king, not excusing him from neglecting his people
because he had "good intentions" when he left and all
the conflicts before he caused as well in the name of
"good intentions" which didn't work out causing an
even greater conflict which threatened his whole way
of life.
6. “The destroyers will
rarely be held
accountable.”
T'Challa throughout the entire comic is attacked for
his inaction against the destruction and terror
imposed on Wakandan citizens. The destruction was
never specifically caused by T'Challa but like in the
quote "The destroyers will rarely be held accountable."
so in the end, T'Challa gets the blame because the
destroyers are gone so who else are the people going
to blame? Tetu sees the destroyers as nothing but
destroyers while he sees T'Challa as a king who
abandoned his country to play hero so he believes
T'Challa is the sign of the times for the monarchy to
end. But as T'Challa realizes later, the king is the one
the people look to for answers, that's why he is held
accountable, that is the responsibility of a king.
7. “ a conscious citizen
of this terrible and
beautiful world.”
To be a conscious citizen is to know what is
happening in your country whether good or bad and
why these events occur. One man in this comic is the
perfect example of this concept, Changamire, he is a
Wakandan philosopher who is opposed to the
monarchy and has preached radical ideals to no end
but he always has respect for his country just not the
way it is governed. he understands the world's beauty
but he also understands the "terrible" side that others
tend to ignore or solely focus on as he is conscious of
the world around him but even if one is conscious it
doesn't always mean they will do something and
Changamire rarely took action until the rebellion
started and lives were lost but as a conscious citizen
he knew what the people needed to hear to wake them
from their “dreams”.
8. “ the boot on your
neck is just as likely to
make you delusional
as it is to ennoble.”
Through the 12 issues of this series T’Challa has been
struggling with his ideals and what it means to be a
king and if he should even be one but this rebellion is
like the boot in the quote it caused T’Challa to really
question himself but in the end it only empowered
him, creating a better king and ultimately creating a
better Wakanda one that is ruled by the people and at
the end of the comics T’Challa says his role is to be “
One man who represents the nation, but not one who
rules the people” he has gained power just in a new
way and though that “boot” made him delusional at
first he regained his sense and stood up even stronger
than before.
9. “The young men
who’d transmuted
their fear into rage,
were the greatest
danger.”
As it said in the second slide Zenzi had the power to
enhance people emotions and she used this power to
bring forth all the rage in the Wakandan people and
the young men who are enraged are enraged due to
the fear of being attacked again like they were before
and like the quote says the young men who’s fear
turned to anger was one of the biggest threats to the
kingdom of Wakanda especially to T’Challa since he
technically fighting against the people who he serves
to protect as the king of Wakanda. The people of
Wakanda are exceptional and no matter what they
were going to prove it even if it was through rage-
induced violence.
10. “ He was a force of
nature, the helpless
agent of our
world’s physical
laws.”
Tetu the rebel is given the power to control nature. He
is the “force of nature” and during the comic he has a
whole monologue with the symbolism implying that
tetu is the embodiment of nature and it is time for
nature to tell people a lesson for rejecting the spirits
and nature itself after using nature to its advantage
and its destruction after all the wars Wakanda has
been through. The two sides in the monologue with
Tetu are the tree and flesh, nature representing the
tree as well as Tetu and flesh representing
Wakandans and at the end it says “ flesh thinks by…
metal teeth, I die...It is time that flesh bow down on his
knee again.”
