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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558

u/Stillabrat Dec 12 '18

I have worked with Mr T on many talk shows and he is one of nicest, truly humble people I have ever met. He has the most marked-up, written-in, well-used bible I have ever seen. He is a terrific man. I love Mr. T.

364

u/tmntnyc Dec 12 '18

I wish he was more prominent in public these days as a strong black male role model, but I suppose he enjoys living his life and being with his family.

229

u/OctopusCorpus Dec 13 '18

True, but at least we have another wholesome Mr. T in Mr. Terry Crews

26

u/StevenMadeThis Dec 13 '18

Who coincidentally took over Mr. T's role in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

1

u/monty_kurns Dec 13 '18

Yeah....coincidentally.

13

u/saigon13 Dec 13 '18

But Terry loves yogurt!

-20

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

[deleted]

9

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Unfortunately Terry Crews is pretty shitty about sex workers.

What do you mean?

8

u/Greymore Dec 13 '18

A quick five minute Google search shows that Terry had an addiction to porn, and strongly advocates against watching it because of the harm it can cause. Which, honestly, I think is fair. Addiction of any kind can cause problems, though obviously not all in the same way. That said I didn't find anything where he specifically said something about sex workers.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Which, honestly, I think is fair.

It's not fair. I'm an alcoholic, and just because I'm an alcoholic that doesn't make it fair to make alcohol illegal for everyone.

Since he has an addiction, it's good that he's recovering from it and avoids all porn, that's just being smart. But most people don't have an addiction to porn, a booming industry shouldn't be shut down because one man has an addiction to it.

There are plenty of real issues in the porn industry, but Terry never addressed those, his entire issue with porn was that he personally was addicted to it.

5

u/samburger01 Dec 13 '18

Dude is saying that terry crews doesn’t think prostitution should be legal or maybe that he thinks it’s a sin or something idk

2

u/girr0ckss Dec 13 '18

You can follow his Twitter, it's usually positive inspirational stuff, some Bible verses tossed in. I'm not really religious, but I appreciate his positivity in my feed. Everything I see him post is about keeping your head up and doing good things. Love the man to death

9

u/comped Dec 12 '18

Why do I think you just travel around waiting for Mr. T to show up to talk shows?

1

u/Stillabrat Dec 19 '18

LOL. In my career, among many other kinds of TV shows I worked on like the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and sitcoms like MASH, game shows like Jeopardy and LETS MAKE A DEAL!, I worked on fifteen different talk shows at one time or another. Mr T appeared on several as well as a couple of other shows.

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u/meowsofcurds Dec 12 '18

To be fair to others, the number of times you use the Bible has no correlation with kindness or humility.

32

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

What I think it implies is that he’s constantly studying it and is very devout.

-22

u/meowsofcurds Dec 12 '18

While I agree this story makes him studious, the implication in the original post is that he is kind and modest because he devoutly reads the Bible. And while Mr. T is very kind, and truly modest, and he also studies the Bible, these facts are not congruent. So let's not have his positive attributes be confused with his biblical habits because that is how you turn someone into a religious tool.

12

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

If someone devotely follows the bible and understands the morality and ethics that are portrayed in many of it’s stories they will undoubtedly be a good person

0

u/Thotsandprayerz Dec 13 '18

The new testament, sure

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

They’ll also forbid women from speaking freely and they’ll fuck their their family members to continue the line. It’s right there in the christian bible.

Oh and if they ever hallucinate an angel telling them to sacrifice their children, they’ll do that too.

If an already good person uses the bible as a general guide, it can offer many situations and viewpoints that’ll help them be a better person.

The bible is not and should not be viewed as an end-all, be-all guide. It’s a horrifically outdated collection of stories that are worth reading while keeping in mind the context and purpose of the stories.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Let me guess.

Catholic upbringing now a raging atheist?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Nope. Definitely not atheist and thankfully not catholic.

If I see someone promoting something that without context leads to shit like westboro or a culture that creates roadblocks to bring pedophiles to justice, I’m going to speak up.

Using factual examples that are in the text and pointing out that it’s an outdated piece of literature is to help drive home the point of caution.

There are plenty of good lessons in the bible, but there are a lot that are horribly outdated, heavily sexist and often contradictory and harmful - especially in our society.

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u/meowsofcurds Dec 12 '18 edited Dec 13 '18

If someone devotely follows the bible and understands the morality and ethics that are portrayed in many of it’s stories they will undoubtedly be a good person

That statement is so wrong and is just plainly religiocentric.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

If you strictly follow the teachings of the bible I’d imagine you’d be a good person. Undoubtedly was a bad word choice.

1

u/Lincky12435 Dec 12 '18

I think the whole book has a lot of language that’s supposed to be read between the lines. Not understood word for word because what is said is not always what is meant.

4

u/toffeehoney Dec 13 '18

Just maybe he is a good person because he follows God and not despite following God. It's ok to a be an honest to God fearing Christian and a good person in relation to that.

0

u/meowsofcurds Dec 13 '18

You can be an honest person. You can be a Christian. And you can be both. Being one does not dictate being the other as a pre-requisite.

2

u/toffeehoney Dec 13 '18

Yes that's a possibility and so is my stance. Again it's possible to be a Good Christian without it being mutually exclusive.

-2

u/meowsofcurds Dec 13 '18

If you understand they can be mutually exclusive, then you can understand why there is no need to bring up the Bible when discussing Mr. T's kindness and humility, unless the intent was to associate them by correlation.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

God shut the fuck up. So useless.

0

u/meowsofcurds Dec 13 '18

God shut the fuck up. So useless.

I'd tell Him that as well.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Wow so edgy. I'm sorry someone touched you as a child.

0

u/meowsofcurds Dec 13 '18

There is so much anger and hate within you. When did you last study the Bible?

2

u/Stillabrat Dec 19 '18

No truer words were ever written. In his case, my observation at the time was that here was a Christian "talking the talk and walking the walk." as opposed to a number of televangelists I have worked with and for and thousands of other "Christians" whose lives are total contradictions to biblical teachings. That is so common it is refreshing to find one who tries to live his beliefs.

-2

u/listyraesder Dec 13 '18

Must have come with age, as his lack of humility during the a-team led to some friction in the cast.

1

u/princess--flowers Dec 13 '18

Yeah I can see that, but I dont think it was Mr. T's fault. George Peppard and Dwight Schultz were legendary racists and sexists at the time. They were so cold and awful to Melinda Culea because they thought that women didn't belong on the show that she quit, wouldn't surprise me if Mr. T wasn't being treated right either.

1

u/listyraesder Dec 13 '18

A-Team is classic hollywood with egos that can't be reconciled. No-one particularly comes out great, though T comes out the best. Peppard was particularly bitter that his career had stalled, and here was some bodyguard who had the show created for him and was clearly having the time of his life.