How Bruce Lee has influenced black culture
OPINION - The enduring interest in Lee as an icon underscores how pervasively his physicality and spirit have helped mold black popular culture...
In a certain sense, Lee’s personal struggles and professional development mirrored those of many black men who came of age in the latter half of the 20th century, with the searing struggle for Civil Rights still poignant in the minds of Americans.
At that particular juncture in Hollywood’s history, minorities of all races were persona non-grata on the Silver Screen. This appeared to fuel Lee’s determination even more, as popular appreciation for Kung-Fu movies steadily grew alongside the mushrooming of black-made films. At the same time most young American boys identified with rough-hewn icons like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, young blacks could take succor in the personification of machismo as embodied by Blaxploitation actors…and a decidedly cool, Karate-chopping Asian that eventually became synonymous with martial arts.
Another fascinating bit of Bruce Lee’s lore may help to explain the affinity blacks have for the Chinese immigrant. His first student in the martial arts was in fact a young black man named Jesse Glover, who passed away a few short weeks ago and long outlived his instructor. With his fluid style of fighting, Lee is credited as being the progenitor of mixed martial arts (MMA) – whose bloody, anything-goes form of combat features several dominant black fighters (who themselves would probably cite Lee as an influence).
To a certain extent, martial arts have over the years become a desideratum of black masculinity. In the post-Bruce Lee era, it became increasingly common for black action heroes like Michael Jai-White and Wesley Snipes to karate chop their way across the screen. Arguably, that factor can be traced back to the fact that martial arts and the growing Black Power movement of the 1970s – with all its militarism and “Don’t take mess from nobody” brio – began their cultural ascent at the same time. Although the two are not a perfect comparison, the philosophies Kung-Fu and Black Nationalism had, at their core, a strong sense of discipline and placed an emphasis on physical prowess.
To be sure, martial artists like Bruce Lee were serene unless provoked; meanwhile, the hair-trigger tempers of most ‘Black Power’ figures often led to violent confrontations with the establishment. Yet both movements, and the movie genres they spawned, had an ethos that disaffected young blacks found appealing: Kung-Fu and Black Nationalism offered the ability to intimidate and take control of potentially deadly circumstances.
The Bruce Lee brand commands an estimated $5-$10 million annually, relatively small change when compared to Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson, yet still prodigious for an actor who barely made it beyond 30 and whose global reach didn’t take hold until after he died. So did Bruce Lee, in his relatively short 32 years of life, change the world? A bit hyperbolic perhaps, but the martial arts master certainly had a powerful hand in shaping modern-day black culture. Ironically enough, one of black America’s brightest and most influential icons is a man of Chinese descent.
