*Actor and martial artist Michael Jai White brought a pointed perspective to Joe Rogan’s podcast, raising concerns about the direction American culture is heading when it comes to raising boys. The wide-ranging discussion touched on global masculinity traditions, youth sports culture, and White’s personal evolution as a fighter.
“That’s another thing that’s sad about the United States: We’re not making men anymore,” White told Rogan, who responded that when strong men do emerge, “they stand out,” Fox News reports.
White also noted that Hollywood has increasingly turned to foreign actors to portray the “American alpha male” on screen, a pattern he described as surprising. He drew on his background in education to illustrate how he believes the problem took root. Teaching gave him a front-row seat to a youth culture that he felt was moving in the wrong direction.
“I was right on the forefront, seeing, like, everybody gets a trophy,” he said. White argued that removing adversity from childhood by eliminating competition left young people without the tools to handle setbacks, and suggested that inability to cope with failure contributes to extreme acts of violence.
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“”These kids, you know, they’re — it’s about their self-esteem, and you got to protect that. I’m like, ‘Come on.’ And, you know, taking away competition? I saw the beginning of that,” he said, noting that insecure, emotionally unstable young males “end up shooting a classroom.”
White was candid about the double-edged nature of being a naturally gifted athlete with black belts spanning several fighting styles. “Fighting was easy to me, but I learned that when I was the celebrated fighter that [I] was less of a good martial artist because then I kind of would kind of flake off other things. Like, I wasn’t, I didn’t try as hard as other people,” he explained.
Watch his conversation with Joe Rogan via the clip above.
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