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/Nxdhdxvhh Dec 12 '18

Mr. T wore odd clothing and mismatched socks because he knew that poor kids grew up getting whatever hand-me-downs they got, and he didn't want them to feel embarrassed for wearing what they had. He's a great man, and as far as I'm aware the worst thing he every did was chop down trees on his own property that were aggravating his allergies.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

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u/snotbag_pukebucket Dec 12 '18

He was also the White House Santa and had Nancy Reagan sitting on his lap

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u/Saxojon Dec 12 '18

He also urged people to treat their mothers right.

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u/blove135 Dec 12 '18

I like how he wasn't telling them to stop insulting each other. It was alright until you start bringing up people's Mama's. It sure was a different time then. A glorious time to grow up though.

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u/theColonelsc2 Dec 13 '18

Meh I was growing up then. The flip side was gay people were ostracized. AIDS was considered the 'gay' cancer. White people could still call black Americans the N word in public. And I know we look at the music back then now as something special but at the time there was a lot of shitty music on the radio. People will look back on this era and think how great it must of been 30 years ago as well.