Talk:Michael Jai White

Martial Arts
Has Michael ever competed in and/or won any championships in martial arts? It is hard to believe that he earned blackbelts in eight different styles without ever competing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.165.155.239 (talk) 05:42, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

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Birth place
He was born in Brooklyn or Bridgeport, Connecticut ? Okki (talk) 10:53, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

In an interview with Adam Carolla on Carolla's podcast on May 17, 2010, Michael Jai White said that he was born in Brooklyn, only later moving to Bridgeport, where he went to high school. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Achester99 (talk • contribs) 07:40, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

High school graduation
Just wanted to confirm the math -- according to the article, he was born in 67, but graduate high school in 88. He graduate at 21? Chantoke (talk) 01:21, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Given the Bridgeport School System, I wouldn't say it's impossible. ;-> Best, Markvs88 (talk) 02:15, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

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Birth year
According to the Associated Press, he turned 58 in November of last year. All the sites I've seen that have 1967 listed as his birth year are less trustworthy because they're either user generated(IE IMDB) or they've likely scraped it from other sites. Is there a truly reliable secondary source that supports the 1967 birth year?(IE a magazine such as Los Angeles Times or New York Times. And preferably multiple of these) reporting his exact DOB? Or a social media post from the subject himself where he confirms his birthday and preferably either his age or YOB in the same post as well. Failing either one of those, the 1964 birth year should be kept in the article for now since the AP is considered to be a reliable source. Kcj5062 (talk) 16:45, 19 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I found two secondary sources by searching pre-2000 in books.google.com. Both support the 1967 date:
 * B.E.T. Weekend Magazine - Page 6 (1999):
 * Today's Black Woman - Volume 4 - Page 95 (February 1998):
 * The Google Books scans unfortunately only say the year of publication for those magazines, but I found the cover for the latter which says February 1998 which allows for a late 1967 birth date if the article was written several months before printing (see Cover_date). Both articles rule out a 1964 year of birth. I think it's likely that the AP article has an error. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 23:28, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan I thought of the probability of the AP article being an error, but I looked at the ones from 2020 and 2021. And they both give his age of someone that was born in 1964. As well the birthday lists from Cleveland.com One could be a mistake, but at least four seems unlikely. Kcj5062 (talk) 00:36, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Those are all from the AP, including the cleveland.com ones. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 00:43, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan So what should we do since AP is considered to be a reliable source? Do we put down both years and say "sources differ"? I don't wanna outright say he's lying about his age, but it's not uncommon for an actor to do so. Even back in the days before the internet a magazine had an actor's age listed and then years later their true age ends up being revealed. Kcj5062 (talk) 00:51, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * It seems like it would be less likely that an actor would lie about their age when they're only 29 years old. He's listed as a graduate of the 1985 class for the high school he reportedly attended which would be consistent with being born in 1967, but anyone can add someone to these lists. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a copy of the 1985 yearbook online. I think we should consider using the 1967 date, but tag it as needing a more reliable source. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 03:58, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan Yeah sites like that seem to be user generated like Classmates. So they can't be trusted. For instance there's not one, not two, but three John Leguizamo accounts. The first one says class of 1994(which we know is definitely not correct). The second one says class of 1982. Which somebody most likely put because for the majority of his career, 1964 was listed as his birth year. The third one has class of 1979 which may correct since his true birth year(1960) was revealed over a year ago.
 * In regards to MJW, I did find this. It says he was born in 1967, however it also says he graduated from Central High School in 1982. So I'm not sure what to think here. Is White some sort of child prodigy that graduated at just 14 or did the writer of that article not take the time to proofread it before publishing it? Usually when a celeb graduates early, they have no problem saying so. Kcj5062 (talk) 05:17, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan
 * Actually celebs have lied about their age when they were in their late 20s. Gabrielle Carteris of Beverly Hills 90201 was 29 when the show premiered and told the producers she was 21. Singer Paloma Faith was in her late 20s when her first album was released and shaved off about 4-5 years. Just to name a couple of examples. Kcj5062 (talk) 19:46, 5 August 2023 (UTC)
 * I don't think we need to discuss this endlessly. In the absence of sufficient reliable sources, it might be best to add a caveat, mention both dates as possibilities, or simply omit his birth date. I'm hoping the request for a yearbook check will yield some results. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 21:05, 5 August 2023 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan
 * Update: I found an archived site of Central High School's distinguished alumni which came directly from the school's webpage. It has MJW listed as being from the class of 1982. Kcj5062 (talk) 16:37, 23 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I've found several stories that say he was born November 10, 1967 but they don't seem to meet the reliability standards for Wikipedia.
 * A People Magazine article dated August 3, 2021 lists his age at 53 as of that date which would make him born 1966-1967 and age 55-56 as of today. Could this be a reliable source?
 * https://people.com/tv/michael-jai-white-says-oldest-son-died-from-covid/ Ala Bahma (talk) 12:12, 15 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Michael Jai White also set the shot put record for Bridgeport Central High School in 1982 and he's also reported as competing and placing for the shot put in sectionals in 1982. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 01:28, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I found a copy of the 1983 Bridgeport Central yearbook and Mike White is in the track team picture on page 110 (you can access Ancestry via the Wikipedia Library). The 1984 yearbook doesn't have a picture of the whole track team and they don't have a 1982 or 1985 yearbook. Anyhow, it seems like 1982 high school graduation date may be wrong. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 18:36, 12 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan
 * I've looked through that yearbook before on Classmates. But I also some digging as well and that picture of the track team in the 1983 yearbook also has former teammates of MJW that are pictured as either Sophomores or Juniors in the 1980 yearbook. Meaning they would have graduated prior to 1983. Here's the pictures of those teammates in the 1980 book.
 * Mike Chasse - (page 108/E105)(Listed as a Sophomore so had to have graduated in 1982)
 * Eugene Meyers - (page 103/E117)(Listed as a Sophomore so had to have graduated in 1982)
 * Anthony/Tony Barnes - (page 111/F105)(Listed as a Junior so had to have graduated in 1981)
 * Anthony/Tony Lancia - (page 109/205)(Listed as a Sophomore so had to have graduated in 1982)
 * James Grantham - (page 109/205)(Listed as a Sophomore so had to have graduated in 1982)
 * I may be wrong, but that picture in the 1983 yearbook may be a picture that was taken a year or two prior that for whatever reason was put in that yearbook. Because I don't see any other reason for that yearbook to have a picture of students that would have graduated a year or two beforehand. Kcj5062 (talk) 23:35, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Birth date discussion redux
I was originally in favor of using a 1967 date based on the sources I provided (see the above discussion), but with the AP providing an earlier date and the documented 1982 high school graduation year, I don't think a 1967 date can be used in the article. However, because he provides a younger age in most if not all interviews given once he was cast for Tyson (1995 film), I also believe an earlier date cannot be used. I think the best course of action is to leave the date out of the article. The alternative is to use both the 1964 and 1967 date following the guidance in WP:DOB with the AP and ctpost as the respective sources. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 00:15, 19 January 2024 (UTC)


 * This was discussed at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard#Michael Jai White, as noted in the previous revert.
 * While the AP is considered to generally be reliable according to RS, the context matters; in the listed examples, they seem to be pulled from a birthday database, and more than likely have zero fact checking going on. No reliable sources have indicated a 1964 birthday, as stated on BLPN. Again, WP:CONTEXTMATTERS - The very same source may be reliable for one fact and not for another.. As such, the AP sources can and should be discarded since there seems to be no oversight regarding their accuracy.
 * Regarding the graduating year contributing to his birth date, according to WP:DOB, Original research must not be used to extrapolate the date of birth, which is WP:SYNTH
 * More up to date sources which, along with WP:CALC, confirm a 1967 birth date.
 * Black Belt Magazine (Feb 2002. page 52)
 * "Now 32, he continues to thirst for more martial arts knowledge."
 * [| Men's Journal], from Sep 26, 2023
 * "Men's Journal spoke with White about the new movie, balancing his filmmaking responsibilities with his fitness, casting UFC fighters, and how he's maintained his incredible high-flying physique at 55 years old."
 * [| Men's Health], published Sep 26, 23
 * The 55-year-old admitted that early in his training days, he spent more time than he should've focused on exercises like bench presses in an attempt to build an imposing, chest-forward physique.
 * Awshort (talk) 10:56, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I already read the BLPN discussion. You're also repeating what I stated above, that Michael Jai White is consistent about his age in interviews. The issue is that the calculated 1967 date based on interviews conflicts with the age provided by the AP. I previously wanted to use 1967 date, but I don't support using that date and that date alone at this point.
 * I'd like to see what consensus there is... or isn't, on this topic. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 11:59, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan I'm confused - you want to use sources with seemingly no fact checking shown (the AP sources) rather than going by what the actual subject of the article states in interviews? Respectfully, that makes no sense, since there doesn't seem to be any oversight with the former, and no reason not to trust the latter.
 * Regardless, I found a self published source from his verified Facebook account stating he was celebrating his 50th birthday in 2017. Since there is no reason to doubt it belonging to him since it's both verified, and pointed to directly from his own website, per [| this] previous discussion and consensus, it can reasonably be included for his date of birth as supporting WP:ABOUTSELF.
 * Awshort (talk) 12:24, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
 * WP:BLPSELFPUB has several criteria to exclude some self-published information including cases where the material is unduly self-serving, there is no reasonable doubt as to its authenticity, and the article is not based primarily on such sources.
 * The subject's high school states he graduated in 1982 and set the high school record (which still stands) for shot put in 1982.
 * Would it be self-serving for an actor to knock several years off of their age in 1995, claiming they are 28 rather than 31 when auditioning to play Mike Tyson between the ages of 19 and 28? Would it be unduly self-serving? I'm not sure, but it's not uncommon for actors and actresses to do this. For example, Joan Crawford maintained a doubtful date of birth until her death.
 * Given the conflict with the AP source and the above factors, especially the 1982 dates, it's reasonable to doubt the date provided by interviews and social media. Nobody is trying to extrapolate a date of birth based on WP:OR. The article doesn't even include a date of birth right now. Whether the AP can be considered reliable for dates is something we can certainly discuss, but if it's not, we're going to have to remove dates from a high number of BLP articles. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 01:56, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Just to be clear, I'm not serious about actually removing all of those dates. That would be a major discussion for WP:RS, WP:BLP, or both. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 02:08, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan Thank you for the reply. I'm currently at work and unfortunately don't have long to be online, but you bring up several things I'd like to discuss more in depth later. I just need to figure out how to word it lol. Take care!
 * Awshort (talk) 02:11, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I see WP:BLPSELFPUB as more or less usable for confirming a statement, or if no other reliable sources exist. In this case, the majority of sources repeat the same information (a birthday in 1967), and the self published source seems to confirm that.
 * Excluding the AP articles for a second for arguments sake, are there any sources that state a 1964 birthday in an interview or such? WP:CONTEXTMATTERS says that not all sources are reliable in all instances, and different sections of a source can be less reliable or have less fact checking than the rest. In this instance, I believe that means excluding the AP articles since there doesn't seem to be much if any fact checking, it isn't stated where the birthdates come from, and more importantly it isn't in an article that necessarily involves the subject and is more of a Today's News type of deal.
 * Regarding the school issue, most interviews with MJW state that he was on his own from 14 or 15 and teaching martial arts classes at a local school, so the 1982 graduation date is a possibility. I believe there was also a 1989 graduation in one article. Both of those would necessitate a note like was originally placed for his birthday, but regarding his graduation year having conflicting sources if we were to include the year he graduated, which we usually don't include a graduation year as far as I know.
 * For our purposes, unless it is explicitly stated 'Michael Jai White, born 1964... Graduated in 1982', the year he graduated can't be used to figure out his birthday per WP:SYNTH by combining two sources to reach a conclusion not stated by either source, but sources stating he is X years old on Y year can be used to determine a DOB according to WP:CALC. That was why I mentioned WP:OR; due to this quote from the research request For Michael Jai White, to confirm year of high school graduation and supporting evidence to determine whether 1964 or 1967 is correct year of birth.
 * Personally I feel like with every printed source and interview stating a 1967 birthday or being able to determine a 1967 birthday from that date with WP:CALC, him stating he turned 50 on his birthday weekend from a verified social media account which would confirm the year,[| this video at the 2:37 mark] stating he is a year younger than Mike Tyson who was born in 1966 as well as [| this] article stating a year age difference - albeit from a source WP considers a tabloid, [| this video starting out with the interviewer stating he is 55] and asking how he stays in shape at that age, I think it's reasonably safe to state he was born on November 10, 1967 due to the overwhelming sources which seem to confirm that, and the lack of sources which contradict his date of birth.
 * Awshort (talk) 20:52, 21 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Pinging you regarding your revert.
 * I had pointed to several points above and did not receive a response and after a week, added the date back since I figured you didn't have any objections to the statements I had mentioned above, and that it would be safe to add the edit. You reverted as there is also no consensus for this year of birth on the talk page, but I disagree. There is no consensus between you and I, but the original editor who had mentioned the issue with the 1964/1967 birthday [asked] for either multiple reliable secondary sources, and/or Or a social media post from the subject himself where he confirms his birthday and preferably either his age or YOB in the same post as well.. Both of these requests were met with the included sources. Not only that, the original research request member who replied to you agreed regarding the 1967 birthday, it seemed. While it isn't a consensus on here, I feel that is a rough consensus regarding the 1967 birthday.
 * The oldest AP mention of a birthday I could find is [here], which has the following on the bottom with The Associated Press and HistoryOrb.com. HistoryOrb later became OnThisDay.com, which lists MJW as having a 1967 birthday. I have no idea what their original info was regarding the birthday, since Archive.org doesn't have any archived birthday pages from that day. It does call into question the accuracy of Cleveland.com, would use conflicting dates.
 * My question to you regarding this from your revert Independent reliable sources state differing years of birth - 4 sources that cite the AP cannot be considered 'multiple', they are all considered one source per Multiple sources should not be asserted for any wire service article. Such sources are essentially a single source. from WP:NEWSORG. Do you consider the Associated Press reliable for his birthday? If so, why? They do not state where they get their birthdays, there have been instances where they have issued corrections when inaccurate items are pointed out to them (like Rebel Wilson, or Brett Young having a 2 month difference in his listed date and actual birthday)
 * While this discussion has been civil (which is very much always appreciated, and I thank you for!), I feel like we are at an impasse if you are unwilling to reconsider the Associated Press as unreliable in this context with the previously mentioned CONTEXTMATTERS guideline.
 * I see two options that I could suggest - Suggestion one is to try dispute resolution and get another opinion, which I tend to think is rather drastic for content disputes personally, or Suggestion two is to discuss the reliability of the birthday section on the reliable sources noticeboard if you still feel it is reliable in this context. If you could please ping me in your reply, it would be appreciated.
 * Awshort (talk) 07:40, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

I saw this discussion at the BLP Noticeboard. ...rather than going by what the actual subject of the article states in interviews As pointed out by at the Noticeboard, people can lie about their age, so just because the subject says or tweets that they're born in year 19XX doesn't mean the Wikipedia article has to follow what they say. If there's a dispute regarding White's birth year, it's better to leave the birth year off the article, or just format it the way the Joan Crawford article does e.g. by listing 196? with a footnote specifying the conflict between 1964 and 1967. Some1 (talk) 16:44, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, IMO replacing the year with a footnote explaining the conflicting dates is the best option (maybe it will prompt a journalist who's reading Wikipedia to look into the matter); just not indicating a birth year would be second-best (but would be indistinguishable from mere oversight, so new users would probably recurringly re-add whichever year they find in one place or another). It would also be good to contact the various sources' corrections departments and ask them to double-check what is correct (but they may not reply, if the articles with the possible errors are old and unimportant and the fact-checkers are underfunded). I've seen other cases where the AP or other media sources which are RS for most reporting nonetheless scrape clearly-bogus birthdates or birthplaces from Wikipedia(!) or from who-knows-where and print even obvious errors, like the source(s) that reported this woman was born 1981 and was age 17 in 2000. (Noticed this via the MOS:BIO discussion.) &#45;sche (talk) 17:51, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @-sche Coincidentally I had reached out to both APNews (through their FactCheck email address), as well as the individual from Cleveland.com regarding where they source their information from, and noting the discrepancies with this birthday in particular. I received the following this morning, from the Cleveland.com editor who does the Birthdays section thanks for reaching out. I tend to source birthdays from multiple sources including celebrities verified social media accounts, their own websites and stories about celebs from trusted major news outlets.
 * The list you are asking about near the bottom of my post comes from the Associated Press's weekly list of celebrity birthdays which I use to augment my own lists.
 * unfortunately, you're not the first reader to point out errors in their lists to me in the last 12 months and I too am growing concerned with their fact checking (or lack thereof) of late and have been considering discontinuing using them as a source.
 * here's a link to the APs list from last year which confirms it contained the same birth error you mentioned to me.
 * I'm going to investigate this further and speak with my editor to discuss future plans. - bold emphasis is mine. I appreciate the fact that he even wrote back since I honestly figured I would get brushed off.
 * I think the footnote is a solid compromise with regards to listing two dates, until such a time as the accuracy of AP News birthdays can be had on the Reliable Source Noticeboard. I will re-add the note in a second, but I am leaving out the 'he also graduated in 1982, implying a 1964 birthdate' bit from the previous note because if something needs implying in a reliable source or with regards to a source, it is WP:OR and will be WP:SYNTH.
 * Awshort (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Please propose any edits here first. Thanks. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 18:33, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Daniel Quinlan
 * As stated, I would like to add a footnote noting something along the lines of
 * If the RS discussion/RfC finds that the AP is not reliable for birthdays in the future, I don't think a foot note would be necessary any longer since the RS with dispute would no longer be an issue.
 * Awshort (talk) 18:50, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I think that's fine, though I would probably reduce "While White has maintained a 1967 birth date in interviews and print publications" to just "White stated that his birth year is 1967". Some1 (talk) 21:16, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Maybe use "has consistently stated"? Also, I don't think we really need three references for the 1967 birth date, we can just use two. I think we can also shorten the second sentence to with a link or two. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 18:43, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Editors have made fair points about the possibility of the AP/Cleveland scraping birth dates from other sites. But there have been instances where sites had one birth year listed for celebs and the AP/Cleveland had an age that matched up to another birth year and the latter ended up being the correct one. For example actress Judith Hoag. Since around the early to mid 00s many websites had 1968 listed as her YOB, however AP/Cleveland had her age listed that matched up to a 1963 YOB. The oldest Cleveland birthday list I can find that has her listed is one from 2016. The subject herself didn't actually confirm her real age until this video which was uploaded in 2022 and she revealed that she would be turning 60 in 2023. So Cleveland was actually correct about her being born in 1963 all along and it doesn't seem likely that they web scraped it from other sites since as already mentioned, 1968 was initially being reported as the year she was born. Kcj5062 (talk) 23:52, 11 February 2024 (UTC)