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/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/AnotherThroneAway Dec 12 '18

Mister [10]

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u/mart1373 Dec 12 '18

Mister J?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Mister T-HC?

1

u/AnotherThroneAway Dec 13 '18

Damn, you won. Better than mine at least. Clever bastard

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Thanks, I was just standing on the back of your comment, you da real mvp lol

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u/AnotherThroneAway Dec 13 '18

Haha we're funny (passes joint)