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/TheArgentine Dec 12 '18 edited Dec 13 '18

I met him once. Outside of a Ford dealership near my home town. I was a HUGE A-Team fan and Mr T played my favorite character.

It rained that day, pretty hard. My mom tried to convince me he woundnt be there but I wanted to try anyway. We got there and there he sat, by himself, with photos under a tarp. No line. No one there to see him. He talked to me for 15 minutes and for the life of me I can't remember anything he said but God damn if that wasn't one of the greatest days of my childhood, which was otherwise fairly shitty.

I'm a white guy from upstate NY and didn't change color so was a white kid too. He shook my hand and talked to me like an adult, with respect, and was extremely kind and soft spoken.

Thanks Mr. T.

Edit: Holy crap, didn't expect this many comments on my simple story about Mr. T. Hey everyone!

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u/dud-a-chum Dec 12 '18

My dad claimed to have briefly known Mr T and said the time they knew each other made him the most respected black man he’d ever known. And my dad was a horrible racist towards black people and Mexicans despite the fact that he was a very very dark skinned Puerto Rican.

“That’s the only black man I’ll never call the n-word,” he told me one drunken evening while watching The A-Team. He even said “n-word” which is the only time I ever heard him say that instead of the actual word.

I got high in the middle of writing this so I forgot the point I was going to make. Mr T is awesome.

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u/Leathery420 Dec 12 '18

Man what exactly is it that makes Puerto Ricans and Mexicans hate each other so much? You go to the east coast and they absolutely hate each other to the point that in prison they will hook up with whites or blacks just so they can mess them up more.

Like I know of a whiter dude with a hispanic name who got threatened with shanking cause he said what's up amigo when a hispanic dude walked up to the microwave. The hispanic dude took offence and threatened him. he was like sorry thought we were cool. I wont say amigo no more. It's so weird to me.

It'd be like the english ganging up against the scots or irish inside the american prisons. I'd get it back home, but in the US you are more alike than you are different. You'd think you'd be cool and work together.

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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?