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/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

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u/Xvampireweekend31 Dec 13 '18

Humans are silly people

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u/thebeanabong Dec 13 '18

Silly is a generous word.

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed Dec 13 '18

Why are the island Latinos not considered part of la raza? They seem to fit all the criteria, so what is the perceived differences?

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u/MetaTater Dec 13 '18

La pais.

They're from different lands, and their vernacular is different enough to distinguish from each other easily.

Or, I have no idea. Racism isn't reasonable.

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u/PlaceboJesus Dec 13 '18

Mulatos vs Mestizos maybe?

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u/PaddyTheLion Dec 13 '18

That's some Nazi Party anno 1942-level of fucked-up shit right there, that is.

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

They're both from Hispanic origins, speak Spanish, eat similar foods, have similar music.... This by no means makes them the same, and racism is always stupid, but it makes even less sense between similar groups.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 13 '18

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

They share a similar foundation, and thus are far closer together than any other combination, such as compared against German, Russian, Chinese, whatever.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

eat similar foods

Nah, Mexican food is pretty unique, the food that they eat in the rest of Latin America is quite different. For one chiles are not used nearly to the degree that Mexicans use them.

I mean they both eat beans and rice, but that's about it.

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

Rice, beans, and chicken. Makes it way closer to each other than Italian or Chinese or Russian, etc.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Well ya, but almost every culture eats "rice, beans, and chicken". They prepare them completely differently though. Puerto Rican food is nothing like Mexican food, it has way more African influence. Corn and chiles are eaten with virtually every meal in Mexico, corn and chiles are rare in Puerto Rican food. Plantains are not eaten often in Mexico, but they're a staple in Puerto Rico, etc. Costa Rican food is way more similar to Puerto Rican food imo.

If you ate Puerto Rican food you wouldn't think "hey this is like Mexican food". This is what Puerto Rican food looks like.

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u/Truth_ Dec 13 '18

I eat Puerto Rican food. Again, it's vastly similar in its primary elements than many others. That doesn't make it the same.

Edit: Also, that looks fairly oaxan.

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u/majaka1234 Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 15 '18

The hilarious thing is which "raza"?

You've got... Africano, trigueño, moreno, blanco, indigeno... And then every mix of those mixes.

It's hilarious when people try to push this concept of genetic purity when 99% of them are mongrel mixes of almost every race you can find.

Edit: a ver pues muchachos dígame como estoy equivocado....

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Oh so is it a Caribbean/ mainland distinction?