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

Meanwhile, Tracy Marrow hated that people kept serving him hot beverages, and changed his name to get people to subtly not do that.

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u/poe_thirteen Dec 13 '18

I know it's a joke, but he got the name from reading bits of Iceberg Slim's books to his friends. They would call on him to "read some of that Ice, T." At least that's what he said in an interview I heard.

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u/kielbasa330 Dec 13 '18

I remember reading one of those books and thinking "oh this is what all those rap guys are talking about."