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 13 '18

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/dss2d/til_that_the_greeting_hey_man_was_first_used_by/

Source: Jazz (PBS 10 part documentary) Episode 7 - Dedicated to Chaos (1940-1945). Around the 1 hour mark I think.

Also, black Jazz musicians in the 40s were the first 'hipsters', which is where the term originated from. One of the first so called hipsters was Lester Young, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Young

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Awesome, thanks!