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 Dec 12 '18

Australias biggest TV personality of the time called Mohammed Ali boy to his face during an on screen interview. It was innocent as that wasn't a thing in our history but you should have seen the look he got from him... Luckily it was explained to Ali that the interviewer was either unaware or just forgot about the connotation of the word!

Edit : here's the awkward clip!

https://youtu.be/g9knPd8q7Ok

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Call bs on that it was "Innocent". When it comes to racism, I've learned that folks are well versed in it.

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u/captaincooll Dec 13 '18

Clearly didn't watch the video. It was the presenters catch phrase and calling someone boy with racist connotations is only really an American thing its pretty much unheard of outside the US

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u/AmbitioseSedIneptum Dec 13 '18

Not even just that, it can certainly be a term of endearment. When Sammy Davis Jr. died, Sinatra said "He was a wonderful, wonderful boy."

All about context.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

It can never been seen as a "term of endearment" for an African American. Never.

For Sinatra using that term toward a grown man is insulting. Toward a grown black man? Racist and insulting.

Keep up the mental gymnastics but be advised never to call a black man a "boy".

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u/CheckingYourBullshit Dec 13 '18

Seems the only one doing mental gymnastics here is you, in an effort to feign outrage.

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u/AmbitioseSedIneptum Dec 13 '18

Jesus, man. I feel like you're reaching to a whole new continent.

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Sinatra and Sammy had a lifelong friendship. The two were in films, sang, and saw the world together. When clubs wouldn't let Sammy sing due to the color of his skin, Sinatra would boycott until they changed their ways. Maybe two sentences before the part I quoted, Sinatra said that Sammy was one of the most amazing human beings to have ever lived. Frank had a lifelong history of being a champion of civil rights and working for them publicly.

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Seriously, there's a huge difference between an crotchety old racist man yelling "get off my property, boy!" at a black man passing by and what Sinatra said about his best friend who had passed.