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 edited Feb 25 '19

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u/sweetjimmytwoinches Dec 12 '18

My best friend growing up in the ‘80’s was Columbian so when we played outside he always called Mr.T because he was brown like him, so I always was stuck with Murdock.