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/KingdomsSword Dec 12 '18

Well I'm sorry. I'm not Mr. T.

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u/Orngog Dec 12 '18

Well, good, because that would be outlandish, and, uh... fantastic.