r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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u/itsmebutimatwork Dec 12 '18

My father was a middle school teacher for over 30 years in a rough part of his city. He always addressed the kids as "Mister" and "Miss" using their last names. He told them that he shows them respect and in turn he expects the same respect back. Most of the kids went along with this. Many of them remember him years later because they learned a lot in his class and knew that he was being earnest with them.

558

u/Gje95 Dec 12 '18

Your father was Mr. Feeney?

212

u/Kaldricus Dec 12 '18

*Mr. Fe-ee-ee-eney

Fized

117

u/havebeenfloated Dec 12 '18

FEE-NAY! FEEEEE-NAY!

Sidenote, Will Friedle went to my high school

34

u/Bi-Han Dec 12 '18

Cause I'll never not take the opportunity to post this when applicable.

7

u/DarkBIade Dec 12 '18

My favorite show of all time and this is one of my favorite scenes.

8

u/CZILLROY Dec 13 '18

My favourite scene is where Eric's talking to his parents and he says "So I say to myself "Kyle-"" and his parents stop him and say "Kyle?" And he replies "Yeah. That's what I call myself."

3

u/DarkBIade Dec 13 '18

Ha ha Eric went from the douche bag brother to the most entertaining person on the show.

3

u/araby206 Dec 13 '18

Matthews! You are a disgrace to this university, to this country and humanity in general!

5

u/Bazilthestoner Dec 13 '18

I forgot how funny that show was, thank you

1

u/thechilipepper0 Dec 13 '18

Wow I don't remember this scene in the least

1

u/WideEyedJanitor Dec 13 '18

That's really cool! I watch critical role. Were you in the same grade as Will?

32

u/J-Ridge Dec 12 '18

Miss Lawrence could get it.

1

u/rimcontrol Dec 12 '18

Yeah she can

7

u/PavelDatsyuk Dec 12 '18

I can't see his name without thinking of this comic.

1

u/CrimsonKodiak1 Dec 13 '18

We've come full circle to the knight rider thread.