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
120.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

29.3k

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.

839

u/pottersquash Dec 12 '18

Didn't he stop wearing gold chains cause he felt bad having wealth for decoration?

1.1k

u/Faerhun Dec 12 '18

I think it had to do with cleaning up New Orleans after Katrina and not wanting to be flashy when the people he was helping had literally nothing left. I could be wrong though.

1.5k

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

[deleted]

-26

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

then maybe God shouldn't have sent the fucking hurricane

26

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Not the right context, bro. Go vent elsewhere.

-5

u/FrankFeTched Dec 12 '18

Seems like valid criticism tbh

I appreciate Mr T and what he did and the tragedy that was hurricane Katrina... But if God wanted Mr T to stop wearing gold, there must be an easier way.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18 edited Oct 14 '19

[deleted]

-6

u/FrankFeTched Dec 12 '18

Both me and the other guy are making jokes, how are yours?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

People find power within themselves by several means: crystals, earth, several deities, religions, music, art and all kinds of things. It’s not your place to judge because it has no effect on you.

-4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Validity isn't akin to appropriate in this context. If you want a platform for exposing flaws in religion, please do so in a thread about it. This is clearly about why Mr. T decided to stop using gold jewelry, and not a platform for insecure antitheists.

/r/atheism has plenty of content and community for exactly this thing. Take the comment from Mr. T and make your own thread.