Actor Michael Jai White warns America that it’s not making men anymore on the Joe Rogan Podcast
Actor and martial artist Michael Jai White believes that American boys are too soft these days.
“That’s another sad thing about the United States: We don’t make men,” White told Joe Rogan on Rogan’s podcast Wednesday while discussing the “norms” of men in countries like Australia and New Zealand.
“Not many of them,” Rogan admitted. “When they are there, they stand out.”
White said non-Americans are often cast in movies now to play “the American alpha male. … It’s rare to be an American. Such a journey, man.”
Rogan admitted that “in the last few decades,” American masculinity has been “demonized.”
White said he saw the “beginnings” of that trend when he was a teacher.
“I was in the lead, I see, like everyone gets a trophy,” the 58-year-old said of the participation awards. “These kids, you know, it’s about their confidence, and you have to protect that. I’m like, ‘Come on.’ And, you know, to eliminate competition? I saw the beginning of that.”
He said that as a result, children no longer know how to deal with loss, “and end up shooting up the class.”
Rogan admitted that “loss is the best medicine.”
“The Dark Knight” actor, who holds black belts in many different disciplines, told Rogan that he became an athlete on his high school team in a “fluke” race when he beat one of the school’s fastest runners.
His experience in the track later taught him to improve his martial arts, “because nowhere is it more profitable than cutting off fractions of seconds on a track-like move.”
“Regarding the efficiency of the movement, all the things I associated with the track, I started to apply for the fight,” he explained. “And it’s that kind of giving me cheat codes for things where it helps to be more efficient.”
White also said that he feels that his natural athleticism sometimes hinders his growth in fighting because it makes it easy to not try like other guys who have succeeded with hard work and dedication.
“Fighting was easy for me, but I learned that when I was a famous player [I] I didn’t have a good martial artist because at that time I wanted to chase other things. Since I wasn’t like that, I didn’t try like other people,” he explained.
He gave the example of a striker who is thought to tire after 100 kicks where White might tire after 1,000 kicks.
And you push to 120, I push to 1,001. Who is the best martial artist? [out of] his comfort zone,” White said.
He said because of that, he no longer compares himself to other players when he trains, but works “according to my ability.”
“That taught me something like, again, why I go through these things and the benefits of really loving what martial arts teaches,” he said. “And the fact that, yes, I had these gifts, but if I use those gifts as a defense, I’m limiting what I can be.”
