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    Black belt jonesing / The history of American martial arts culture is rooted in the black community -- and so, too, is its future
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    We were the early adopters of martial arts in this country ... That's why it was so irritating to me that a movie like 'The Forbidden Kingdom' was made, in which Jet Li and Jackie Chan teach their skills to a white kid from Boston. Full Article at San Francisco Chronicle
    We were the early adopters of martial arts in this country ... That's why it was so irritating to me that a movie like 'The Forbidden Kingdom' was made, in which Jet Li and Jackie Chan teach their skills to a white kid from Boston.
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
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Black belt jonesing / The history of American martial arts culture is rooted in the black community -- and so, too, is its future
  1. When you grow up in harsh surroundings, you look for ways to connect to something -- to anything -- so you can build armor around yourself ... For some people, it's gangbanging. The most violent gangmembers are actually the sensitive ones, the guys who turn displaced love into passion toward their stree...
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  2. I got the Tyson role based on my acting
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  3. As white people abandoned the cities, all these downtown theaters became spaces for people of color ... Theater owners started screening stuff that was less marketable, mostly cheap imports -- and that meant martial arts movies.
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  4. It's about taking on a mindset that allows you to survive ... The situation we lived in was highly stressed, not just because of physical encounters, but because of emotional pressure. Martial arts gave us a refuge, both through their meditative component and through the way they tied us to one another ...
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  5. People want to read African Americans and Asians as being in conflict rather than engaged in creative exchange. But black interest in Asian culture has a long history, and what you see is that by the '60s and '70s, a bunch of factors led to the consolidation of that interest.
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  6. A 10-year-old black kid as Karate Kid? What a joke. I hope this kid gets scarred for life for doing this movie.
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  7. You know that Showtime series 'Dexter,' about the serial killer who kills other serial killers? I was like freaking Dexter. I'd get high on knocking out guys who were thugs or bullies
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  8. Every remake these days, they change the main character to a black guy
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago
  9. The story of martial arts in black communities is part of a much bigger narrative of African American interest in Asian culture
    SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 1 month ago

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