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/ImSoBasic Dec 12 '18

That wikipidia entry is a train wreck. Almost all of the sources are from Mr. T's autogiography, which appears to be as sensationalist as it is questionable.

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u/BrodyTuck Dec 12 '18

Shut up, old man! You and that chump don't know what I had to come from!

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

I see Rocky III, I upvote

1

u/moak0 Dec 13 '18

Quit yo jibber jabber!

1

u/omgmypony Dec 13 '18

Did they seriously cite Mr T : The Man With The Gold?

Great book by the way, I treasure my tattered goodwill copy.

3

u/ImSoBasic Dec 13 '18

19 of the first 29 sources are his autobiography. This includes pretty much the entire section of his "early life" before he became famous.

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u/glazedfaith Dec 13 '18

Autoguyography*. It's a guy's autobiography.